Cargojet Inc.

The CargoJet Canada Limited Conference Call, which was held on Monday, August 14, 2023, at 7.30 a.m. Eastern Time, hosted by Ms. Pauline Dillon. You may press 2 at any time during this conference for a detailed out menu. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the CargoJet Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Pauline Dillon. Please go ahead, Pauline.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on this call today. With me on the call today are A.J. Vermani, President and Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Porteus, Chief Strategy Officer, Scott Calvert, Chief Financial Officer, Sanjeev Mani, Vice President, Finance. After opening remarks about the quarter, we will open the call for questions. I would like to point out that certain statements made on this call, such as those relating to our forecasted revenues, costs, and strategic plans are forward-looking within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This call also includes references to non-GAAP measures like adjusted EBITDA, adjusted earning per share, and return on invested capital. Please refer to our most recent press release and MD&A for important assumptions and cautionary statements related to forward-looking information and for reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to GAAP income. I will now turn the call over to Ajit Ramani, CEO of CargoJet.

Ajit Ramani Good morning, everybody. Thank you, Pauline. And thank you, everybody, for joining the second quarter CargoJet earnings call. As we entered 2023, it was very clear to us that the transportation industry was entering a slower economic cycle. In my 40 years in the industry, I know for sure that booms follow busts and busts follow booms. The airline industry is highly capitalized and very capital-intensive industry. We have always seen stronger players with lower debts fare better through these economic cycles. But what sets CargoJet apart is our ability to react and adapt rapidly to the changing environment. Right from the start of the year, we have been focused on preserving cash curtailing capex, managing costs, and sustaining profitability. It is worth noting that well before the current cycle of high interest rates kicked in, we solidified our balance sheet, reduced debt, and drove all-time low average ratio. We have dramatically cut our growth capex plans and right-sized the network. and focus on driving our costs down in every area to ride out the current economic cycle. Following my remarks, Scott will share more details about our cost management program. With a new mindset of operational efficiency and discipline, we expect to emerge even stronger on the other side of the economic cycle. Our strong financial position allows us the advantage of being able to maintain a slightly larger fleet than the current network requirements. This makes us a unique player that can take advantage of not only the opportunist charter market, but ready to grab new growth opportunities as the market turns. We believe this will create the right conditions for CargoJet to further strengthen its leadership position. Our long-term customer relationships along with minimum volume guarantees provide us a unique opportunity to maintain a strong network as well. With the addition of new customers over the past few years, our run rate revenues and EBITDA are twice the size what we had before the start of the pandemic. On the macro front, consumer spending on goods is down. There's no doubt that consumers are prioritizing travel, entertainment, or buying goods over the past year or so. But we expect this imbalance to return back to normal by the end of the year. Inflation seems to be trending downwards, and employment remains all-time high. The market is increasingly talking about a soft landing. It was great to see one of our customers and one of the biggest e-tailers, Amazon, reported positive growth in Core 2. We remain confident in our business model and its resilience. In the meantime, we are squarely focused on serving our customers while driving efficiencies. One way to ensure success is to look after our customers through these tough times. I want to thank my entire team for rising to the occasion and addressing costs, just as the rules to manage the rapid growth we saw during 21 and 22. I also want to thank the team, Cargojet, for a record on-time performance of 99.6% for quarter two. That concludes my personal comments, and I will turn it over to Scott Calvert for an update on the business.