AerSale Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Leasing Revenue Surges Amid MRO Expansion Startup Costs

Ian, Conference Operator: Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Ian, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the AerSale, Inc. Q1 2026 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. If you’d like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I would like to now turn the call over to Christine Padron, Vice President, Global Trade and Compliance. Christine, please go ahead.

Christine Padron, Vice President, Global Trade and Compliance, AerSale, Inc.: Good afternoon. I’d like to welcome everyone to AerSale’s 1st quarter 2026 earnings call. Conducting the call today are Nick Finazzo, Chief Executive Officer, and Martin Garmendia, Chief Financial Officer. Before we discuss this quarter’s results, we want to remind you that all statements made on this call that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities laws, including statements regarding our current expectations for the business and our financial performance. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements are discussed in the Risk Factors section of the company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2025, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, on March 10th, 2026, and its other filings with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements on this call. We’ll also refer to non-GAAP measures that we view as important in assessing the performance of our business. A reconciliation of those non-GAAP metrics to the nearest GAAP metric can be found in the earnings presentation materials made available in the Investors section of AerSale’s website at ir.aersale.com. After prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions.

With that, I’ll turn the call over to Nick Finazzo.

Nick Finazzo, Chief Executive Officer, AerSale, Inc.: Thank you, Christine, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I’ll begin with an overview of our first quarter performance and key operational developments. Then discuss how we’re progressing against our strategic priorities for 2026. I’ll then turn the call over to Martin to walk through the financials in more detail. This quarter, our team stayed focused on executing our strategy across Asset Management and TechOps, prioritizing, one, disciplined acquisition and monetization of flight equipment and used serviceable material, you’ll hear me say USM. Two, expanding and optimizing our MRO capabilities. Three, building a recurring and more predictable revenue base through MRO services and leasing while maintaining our high standards for safety, quality, and on-time performance. First quarter revenue was $70.6 million, an increase of 7.4% from the prior year period.

Adjusted EBITDA also increased by $4.2 million or 131.9% to $7.4 million from the prior year period. Excluding flight equipment sales, which tend to be volatile quarter-to-quarter, revenue increased 2.2% year-over-year, reflecting growth in leasing and increased demand across our MRO facilities. This is supported by healthy activity across our core aviation end markets. Customer demand remains supported by high utilization levels and the ongoing need for reliable parts availability and turnaround performance. Leasing demand remained a key driver of performance during the quarter, growing 4,757.9% compared to the prior year period. We placed an additional Boeing 757 freighter aircraft into service, ending the quarter with 3 aircraft on lease and 1 additional aircraft under a letter of intent for lease.

We continue to engage in discussions with potential customers as increased demand for cargo continues to make us bullish on deploying the remaining 4 757 freighters we converted in 2026. We also expanded our engine lease portfolio, ending the quarter with 18 engines on lease compared to 16 engines in the prior year period. Higher average lease rates and improved utilization contributed to stronger asset yields across both aircraft and engines and reflect our continued progress towards building a larger and more consistent recurring revenue base. Partially offsetting the increased leasing revenue was a decrease in USM sales resulting from the internal consumption of engine material for our own engine builds.

At present, we have multiple engines in work where most of the material required has come from our own inventory. Our decision to utilize this USM results from our determination that we will achieve a higher value and total $ margin consuming this material rather than selling as USM piece parts to third parties. Across our TechOps platform, we continue to make progress on several strategic growth initiatives. At our on-airport MRO facility in Millington, Tennessee, we commenced work under a recently awarded long-term multi-line aircraft maintenance agreement for a fleet of CRJ700 and CRJ900 regional jets. In addition, operations began at our expanded aerostructures facility located in Hialeah Gardens, Florida. Both initiatives contributed to higher TechOps revenue in the quarter.

As expected, when ramping up operations at new facilities, we incurred incremental training costs and early-stage operating inefficiencies that created margin pressure during the quarter. We view these impacts as temporary and expect margins and throughput to improve as volumes continue to increase and operations stabilize. TechOps was also impacted by lower MRO part sales in the quarter. Lastly, our Roswell facility experienced revenue and gross profit declines due to fewer aircraft in storage during the quarter. Related to our engineered solutions products, AerSafe continues to remain strong in advance of a Federal Aviation Administration November 2026 compliance deadline for the Fuel Quantity Indicating System Airworthiness Directive related to fuel tank safety systems. We closed the quarter with a backlog of $15.3 million, of which the majority will close in 2026.

In addition, we continue to market our revolutionary enhanced flight vision system, AerAware, to select interested customers. We’re also continuing our efforts to educate our U.S. regulators and the agencies responsible for the safety of our air transportation system on how the unique features of AerAware can improve safety and provide economic efficiency to the industry. During the quarter, we deployed $25.1 million in feedstock acquisitions to support future leasing and monetization opportunities. We remain disciplined in our acquisition approach and continue to focus on assets where we see strong long-term demand and attractive risk-adjusted returns.

Our win rate in the quarter was 6.3% compared to 10.4% in the first quarter of 2025, which shows our commitment to discipline on pricing and as we continue to evaluate opportunities to redeploy and monetize inventory in ways that improve velocity and cash conversion without compromising value. Looking ahead, our priorities for the remainder of 2026 remain consistent with those we have previously outlined. These include increasing the number of assets deployed in our lease pool, including the placement of the remaining 4 757 freighters during this year, continuing to monetize our inventory through USM sales, filling available capacity across our MRO network, and improving overall operational profitability as recent expansion initiatives continue to gain scale.

Despite the expected startup costs incurred in the first quarter, we remain confident in our ability to deliver improved financial performance as we progress throughout the year. With a strong inventory position, an active leasing pipeline, and expanded operational capabilities, we believe AerSale is well-positioned to deliver more consistent and growing earnings. With that, I’ll turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Martin Garmendia.

Martin Garmendia, Chief Financial Officer, AerSale, Inc.: Thanks, Nick. Good afternoon, everyone. I’ll walk through additional details on our first quarter financial performance, then touch on cash flow, liquidity, and our outlook for the remainder of 2026. Revenue for the first quarter of 2026 was $70.6 million, compared to $65.8 million in the prior year period. Flight equipment sales totaled $5.2 million and consisted of one engine sale, compared to $1.8 million from one engine sold in the first quarter of 2025. Excluding flight equipment sales, revenue increased 2.2% year-over-year, driven by growth in leasing activity, partially offset by lower USM and MRO part sales. As we note each quarter, flight equipment sales can vary meaningfully from period to period.

As a result, we believe performance is best assessed over time with a focus on feedstock acquisition, monetization of those investments, and profitability trends. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $7.4 million or 10.4% of revenue, compared to $3.2 million or 4.8% of revenue in the prior-year period. The EBITDA dollar and margin increase was primarily driven by higher leasing revenue and flight equipment sales during the quarter. Asset Management Solutions revenue increased 10% year-over-year to $43.1 million in the first quarter. Excluding flight equipment sales, revenue grew modestly, supported by an expanded lease pool and favorable engine mix, but partially offset by lower USM volumes.

We ended the quarter with 18 engines and 3 Boeing 757 freighters on lease, compared to 16 engines and 1 freighter on lease in the prior year period. Technical Operations revenue increased 3.4% year-over-year to $27.5 million, driven primarily by higher on-airport MRO activity. Growth was led by increased activity at our Goodyear and Millington facilities, including the initial ramp-up of CRJ work at Millington. These gains were partially offset by lower MRO parts sales during the quarter. Gross margin for the quarter was 26.7% compared to 27.3% in the same period last year.

The modest and temporary decline reflects startup and training costs related to the CRJ lines in Millington and the Aerostructures expansion, as well as higher labor costs at Goodyear as we maintained elevated staffing levels in anticipation of increased demand expected later in the year. We expect these margins to normalize and begin to improve as we increase labor and facility utilization. Selling general administrative expenses were $22.2 million in the first quarter, down from $24.6 million in the prior year period. The decrease reflects the benefits of our ongoing efficiency initiatives and the absence of one-time severance costs incurred last year. Current year expenses included $1.8 million of share-based compensation expense compared to $1.2 million in the prior year.

Net loss for the first quarter was $3.5 million compared to a net loss of $5.3 million in the prior year period. Adjusted net income was approximately breakeven compared to an adjusted net loss of $2.7 million last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $7.4 million compared to $3.2 million in the prior year period, which benefited from a higher margin product mix and lower expenses. Year-to-date cash used in operating activities was $26.7 million, primarily related to feedstock acquisitions of $25.1 million as we continue to make disciplined investments to grow the Asset Management segment. We ended the quarter with inventory of $369.5 million and aircraft and engines held for lease of $121.5 million.

Available liquidity at the end of the quarter was $41.8 million, which included $2.1 million in cash and $39.7 million of availability in our $180 million asset-backed revolver, which can be expanded to $200 million. This available liquidity, growing performance, and our strong inventory position provides us with the tools needed to continue to grow our business through the remainder of 2026 and beyond. In conclusion, we remain focused on monetizing the investments that we have made. In a competitive market, we have built a strong inventory position that will allow us to continue to grow our leasing and USM activities.

The commencement of a multi-line maintenance program at our Millington facility and new work commencing at our expanded Aerostructures facility put us on a positive trajectory to exceed the incremental $50 million revenue expectations for our expansion initiatives. With the expectations that margins will improve as we increase utilization of our additional capacity and start-up initiatives mature. All of this will allow us to continue to grow both our revenue and profitability in a more predictable and recurring revenue quarter-over-quarter. With that, operator, we are ready to take questions.

Ian, Conference Operator: Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind everybody that in order to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. We’ll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Ken Herbert with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is opened.

Ken Herbert, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Hey, good afternoon, Nick and Martin. Thanks for taking the question. Could you guys maybe talk about what you guys are currently hearing from customers in light of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East as it relates to your business, whether that’s in USM, spare parts, or lease rates?

Nick Finazzo, Chief Executive Officer, AerSale, Inc.: Hi, Ken. Thanks for the question. We’re not really hearing much from our customers at this point because that’s a question that internally we ask, which is, "Hey, how is this gonna affect us in the short run?" We’re not seeing it yet. What do we expect? We expect that if this continues for a prolonged period of time and we see airlines will park more and more aircraft, the result of that will be more aircraft will be in storage, which we’ll benefit from. And there may be eventually a downturn in the demand for U.S.-used serviceable material parts. However, as I’ve said, you know, every quarter this question gets asked, is there enough USM out there to support demand?

The answer is the for the proper amount of USM, I don’t mean every part from every engine, but the parts that sell from an airframer engine, there is continues to be excess demand than there is available inventory. Until that, it that may eventually equalize if a number of airplanes. Certainly, during the COVID environment, there were enough airplanes on the ground that there was no requirement or very little requirement for USM because aircraft were on the ground. Aircraft could be cannibalized for parts. Engines were not going into the shop because engines on wing were being cannibalized to keep other aircraft flying.

Over time, if this prolongs, if the fuel costs stay high and that results in a substantial grounding of the fleet, then we expect that that will have an impact. But I don’t know when that would be. I believe that that impact would still be years off unless you had a COVID type event where a substantial amount of the fleet is grounded. That’s a long answer to your question, but the answer is we’re not seeing an effect at this point, and based on the type of USM that we sell, we don’t expect there to be an effect in the short Certainly not in the short run.

Ken Herbert, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Okay. Got it. Thank you. That’s helpful. Maybe on a separate note, can you guys give us an update on your current capacity additions in MRO and maybe talk about the potential impact to revenues in your business, both this year as well as in 2027?

Martin Garmendia, Chief Financial Officer, AerSale, Inc.: Sure. As we stated in the prepared remarks, Millington has come online, and we have started a CRJ line there. We have kind of gone through some startup costs and learning curve, but right now that is potentially going to expand to 3 aircraft that will be at full capacity at the Millington location in a very profitable contract with a very good customer that we can provide multiple services to. At our Goodyear facility, we continue to ramp up with work, especially from the lows that we incurred last year after a long-term contract had finalized, we continue to be bullish there. We continue to serve multiple operators, including Spirit, we are seeing a ramp up of return to service works with some of those overall aircraft.

Based on the recent news, we expect that to accelerate during the remainder of the year. At our Roswell facility, we did note, we primarily do storage work there. We have seen a decline in aircraft being stored. As you noted, if for some reason this the war in the Middle East continues and there is an overall reduction in aircraft operating, we could potentially see aircraft being returned into that overall location from a storage perspective. On our component MRO side, we noted that our aerostructures facility came online during the first quarter. We are ramping up there. That’s a 90,000 sq ft facility, so we have a lot of capacity to fill.

We’ve made a lot of inroads with customers, getting that process finalized, so we expect to quickly start ramping up our demand there. Our landing gear shop has also been doing extremely well. We are starting 2 agreements, one with an OEM and one with an international carrier, that are expected to significantly increase our volume at that facility as we progress through the overall quarter. In our component shop also, we’ve seen some increased overall demand, and we continue to do additional initiatives to fill that capacity because we also have a good amount of available capacity there. As the market continues and there is overall demand, we are definitely poised to grow and to fulfill some of those needs.

Ken Herbert, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Got it. I guess just one last follow-up. As you guys are selling this capacity today, can you guys maybe give us more color on what kind of margins you guys are getting on this new capacity and how we should be thinking about the potential EBITDA contribution from this?

Martin Garmendia, Chief Financial Officer, AerSale, Inc.: I would say from at least what we’re seeing on the on-airport MRO side, there is still a need and there’s still a limited supply of available slots. We have been seeing margin improvements in that area. Overall, as I mentioned, in the quarter, we were temporarily impacted by the Millington overall issue. Again, as Millington comes back on, we expect margins that will definitely, at least from a gross profit perspective, be in excess of 20%. Our Goodyear facility, as we start doing return to service work, depending on the type of work that we’re doing, we definitely expect margins to be better than they have been historically.

Ken Herbert, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Great. I’ll leave it there. Thank you.

Ian, Conference Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Nick Finazzo, Chief Executive Officer, for closing remarks.

Nick Finazzo, Chief Executive Officer, AerSale, Inc.: Okay, thanks. Despite non-recurring startup costs from our facilities expansion projects in the first quarter, our operating business has continued to improve. These results validate our unique, multidimensional, and fully integrated business model. As these units continue to develop and mature, will put us in an excellent position to achieve substantial growth in the years ahead. I want to thank Ken Herbert for his insightful questions today, which I think provides a good insight into our business model and will help our investors better understand how we are performing. To all the rest of you, I very much appreciate your interest in listening to our call today and look forward to bringing you up to date during our next earnings call. I wish you all have a good evening and thank you.