Bristow Group, Inc.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to Bristow Group Report's first quarter 2024 investor call. Today's call is being recorded. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during that time, simply press star followed by the number five on your telephone keypad. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Red Tillohan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations and Financial Reporting.

Thank you, Christine. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Bristow Group's first quarter of 2024 investor call. I'm joined on the call today with our President and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Bradshaw, and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Jennifer Whalen. Before we begin, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that during the course of this call, management may make forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that are described in more detail on slides than we have our investor presentations. you may access our investor presentation on our website. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as EBITDA and free cash flow. A reconciliation of such measures to GAAP is included in the earnings release and our investor presentation. I'll now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Chris. Thanks, Rhett. And thank you all for joining our Q1 investor call, which will have a different format and content than our typical quarterly earnings calls. Today, in addition to reviewing strong Q1 results and affirming our full year 2024 guidance, we'll provide an update on the state of Bristow's business, talk about market conditions and trends in both offshore energy services, or OES, and government services, provide a current overview of the global offshore helicopter fleet, and review financial guidance for 2025 and targets for 2026. While this is the typical time of year that we would issue guidance for the following year, namely 2025, we are taking the additional step of issuing financial targets for 26 as well. This advanced outlook is not something that we would necessarily expect to repeat in future years, but we think it is appropriate given the ongoing transformational developments in our business as we commence the transition of the Irish Coast Guard contracts and benefit from the ongoing activity ramp in our offshore energy services business, all of which becomes more evident in 2026. So with that objective in mind, today's call will be more akin to a mini analyst day or an investor conference presentation with more of a conversational tone. First, though, we'll begin with a brief review of our Q1 financial results, and I'll turn it over to Jennifer for that.

Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to kick off with the sequential quarter comparison of Bristow's financial results. EBITDA adjusted to exclude special items, asset dispositions, and foreign exchange was $47.5 million for the first quarter of 2024, compared to $46 million in the fourth quarter, or a $1.5 million increase. Operating revenues were lower by $200,000, primarily due to lower seasonal activity in our fixed-wing business, partially offset by increases in offshore energy services and government services. Operating expenses were 2.2 million lower in the current quarter, primarily due to lower fuel and repairs and maintenance costs. General and administrative expenses were 800,000 lower, primarily due to lower professional service fees and lower insurance costs, partially offset by higher personnel costs. Interest income was lower due to lower investment balances. As noted in our previous earnings calls, The other income line item is primarily comprised of non-cash foreign currency gains and losses, which we've excluded from our adjusted EBITDA calculation. Moreover, Bristow continues to benefit from a strong balance sheet and liquidity position. As of March 31st, our available liquidity was $223 million, and our adjusted free cash flow was $22 million for the quarter. As we've stated before and will demonstrate in the presentation to follow this discussion, We believe that this business model will continue to generate strong cash flows. At this time, I return the call back to Chris to continue the rest of the presentation. Chris.