“Executive Aviation delivered 27 jets in Q2, compared to 30 aircraft in the same quarter of 2023,” said Antonio Carlos Garcia, the company’s chief financial officer during the earnings call.

Despite the revenue dip, the division’s profitability improved. Gross profit margin increased to 20% from 19.8% in the previous quarter, although gross profit itself fell by 10% sequentially.

More impressively, operating income (EBIT) surged 14% compared to the first quarter, driven by a wider EBIT margin of 11.3%.

“In executive aviation, we continue to capitalise on the good sales momentum in both fleet and retail markets, with solid demand across our product portfolio,” added Francisco Gomes Neto, Embraer chief executive officer. “In executive aviation, we recorded the strongest first semester in terms of revenues and deliveries for the division over the past 10 and 8 years, with $575m and 45 aircraft.”

Aircraft deliveries were up from the first quarter but below the same period in 2023. The company delivered 27 executive jets, comprising 20 light jets and seven mid-size jets. While this represents an increase from the previous quarter, it falls short of the 30 jets delivered in the second quarter of 2023.

The light jet category saw growth, with deliveries of the Phenom 300 up 80% compared to the first quarter. However, deliveries of the Phenom 100 were significantly lower.

In the mid-size segment, deliveries of the three Praetor 500 and four Praetor 600 remained flat compared to the previous quarter but declined from the same period last year.

Overall, the company maintained its 2024 outlook of 125-135 executive jet deliveries.

Embraer order backlog remained unchanged at $4.6bn compared to the first quarter.

Overall, the company’s total backlog for executive, commercial and services segments hit a seven-year high of $21.1bn, up 20% year-over-year.

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The private aviation company saw an 8% increase in flight service revenue to $163.6m, offset by declines in other areas such as membership and aircraft management.

“Since the strategic investment, we have made strong progress on a number of key fronts. Revenues have stabilised after a long period of time as we continue to make changes across the board,” said George Mattson, the company’s CEO while talking to Corporate Jet Investor.

CEO George Mattson emphasised the company’s focus on rebuilding sales and improving overall performance.

“We made significant progress over the past quarter to improve our business for a sustainable future,” said Todd Smith, Wheels Up CFO.

“We are continuing to optimise our cost structure and fleet to focus on profitability. With improving liquidity in the fourth quarter and our partnership with Delta, we believe we are well positioned to continue to invest in our business for the long term.”

Operational losses narrowed from $82.6m in Q1 to $79m in Q2, driven by belt tightening in the form of reduced general and administrative expenses. The company’s contribution margin also improved significantly, reaching 7.8% compared to 1% in the previous quarter.

Wheels Up’s cash burn decreased substantially to $27m in Q2 from $73.8m in Q1, with cash reserves standing at $141m as of June 30.

The company expressed confidence in its ability to invest in future growth, supported by improved liquidity and its partnership with Delta.

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“This was a strong quarter overall, as reflected by solid growth in all key measures from a year ago. Our businesses continue to focus on disciplined execution of their programs, cost and schedule,” said Phebe N. Novakovic, chairman and chief executive officer.

“In the Aerospace segment, we are continuing to ramp up the pace of our G700 deliveries and our defense businesses continued to grow, reflecting increased demand in response to the threat environment.”

Despite sharp revenue growth, the aerospace segment’s operating margins slipped to 10.9% of the revenue from 12.1% in the preceding quarter of last year.

In absolute terms, the second quarter operating margin of the segment rose 35.2% YoY to $319m from $236m last year.

While the company secured $2.7bn in new orders during the quarter, its overall order backlog slightly dipped from $20.5bn in the first quarter of 2024 to $20bn during the period under review, resulting in a book-to-bill ratio of 0.9x.

Aircraft deliveries also increased, with 31 large-cabin and six mid-cabin aircraft delivered, compared to 18 and six respectively in the previous year.

On a cumulative basis, the company’s aerospace segment revenues during the six months ended June 30 grew by 30.7% YoY to $5bn from $3.8bn in the same period last year.

This translated in operating margin growth of 23.4%YoY in absolute terms to $574m from $465m last year while operating margin as a percentage of revenue declined 70 basis points to 11.4% of the revenue.

General Dynamics manufactures business jets through its subsidiary Gulfstream Aerospace.

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Revenue breakdown showed the manufacturing segment contributed $1.7bn (up $448m YoY) to the total revenue, while the remainder $507m (up $79m YoY) came from services segment.

The company delivered 20 medium and 19 large business aircraft during the 2Q 2024, up from 15 and 14 respectively in the second quarter of 2023. Overall, during the six months, the company has so far delivered 59 business jets (32 medium and 27 large) against a target of 150-155 announced at the start of 2024.

However, despite higher sales and deliveries, at the end of second quarter, the company’s backlog stayed flat at $14.9bn on unit book-to-bill ratio of 1.0x relative to first quarter.

“Revenue and deliveries for the second quarter saw impressive growth. We’re up for more than 30% year-over-year in both of those columns,” said Matti Lehmus, CEO, Bombardier. “We are very clearly outperforming our peers when it comes to consistency and predictability on aircraft deliveries.”

However, Lehmus warned that the ‘supply chain is still a headwind.’ But he said the company is working closely with engine makers to ensure production timelines still are within the targets.

“We’ve delivered impressive double-digit growth in deliveries, revenues, services, and profitability. We’re on track to meeting our full year guidance, and we have strong momentum as we enter the second half of the year,” added Bart Demosky, Bombardier’s chief financial officer.

“Our business is continuing to grow rapidly with Q2 revenues increasing by almost a third versus 2023. Our services revenues crossed above the $500m mark for the first time, and that’s a milestone that we’ve been talking about for the past three years, putting us in the right place to reach our 2025 services revenue objective of $2bn, but doing it one year early.”

Despite better prices and higher sales supporting topline growth, the company’s gross margin shrunk by 190 basis points to 20.2% during the second quarter. In addition, the company’s EBIT margin also declined 590bps to 8.7%.

On the liquidity front, the company has no long-term debt maturing until 2026. However, it does have a large debt repayment of $983m due in 2027.

However, the company said that its current liquidity of $1.3bn is adequate in the short-term. But it added that it will “continue to opportunistically refinance or deploy excess liquidity towards debt pay down.”

Bombardier is targeting 150-155 business jet deliveries while growing revenue by $400-600m to $8.6bn from 2023’s $8bn in 2024.

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“In the [second] quarter, our team delivered higher revenue, earnings per share, and cash flow,” said Scott C. Donnell, chairman and CEO, Textron. “At Aviation and Bell, we continued to execute on key programs, including the Citation Ascend and FLRAA.”

The YoY $113m increase in revenue came from higher pricing of $57m and higher volume and mix of $56m.

Textron Aviation delivered 42 jets in the quarter, down from 44 in the second quarter of 2023, and 44 commercial turboprops, up from 37 in last year’s second quarter.

On the bottom line, the aviation segment’s profits increased to $195m, up $24m from same quarter last year.

Meanwhile, the company’s backlog at the end of the second quarter was $7.5bn slightly higher than $7.3bn at the end of first quarter 2024.

Overall, Textron’s second quarter revenue increased by 3%YoY to $3.5bn attributable to growth in Aviation, Bell and Systems segments which offset the decline in revenues from Industrial and eAviation segments.

Despite higher topline, the company’s net income declined during the quarter under review to $259m from $263m from last year. The company booked special charges of $13m, which it said was due to “headcount reductions in the Industrial, Textron Systems and Bell segments.”

This translated in to earnings of $1.35 per share, as compared to $1.30 in the second quarter of 2023.

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The stock rose from $78.96 at the close on Tuesday to $90.62 by end of trading day on Wednesday – intraday gain of 14.7%.

“Bombardier (BBD.A:CA) has navigated its way through a turbulent turn-around,” according to BofA analyst Ronald Epstein. “Following the peak of post-covid BizJet demand, BizJet aviation activity remains above 2019 levels, which we see as supporting Bombardier’s near-term strategy.”

BofA analysts believe the Canadian aircraft manufacturer is well-positioned for growth due to sustained demand for business jets.

Bombardier’s focus on its existing customer base, aftermarket parts and maintenance sales, and disciplined use of capital creates potential upside for investors, according to Bank of America.

The bank significantly increased its price target on Bombardier to C$120 per share, a substantial jump from their prior target of C$52 per share.

The company also announced that it has priced its offering of $750m aggregate principal amount of new senior notes due June 1, 2032. The notes will carry a coupon of 7.000% per annum and will be sold at par.

The company added, the issuance of the new notes is expected to close on or about June 5.

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The company’s Software App and Cirrus Aviation Charter revenue, which includes bookings made through their CharterGPT app and Cirrus Aviation, jumped to $2.4m, a significant increase from $1.0m in Q1 2023. This increase reflects a more than 200% rise in bookings through CharterGPT and increased utilisation of their Citation CJ4 managed aircraft.

Moreover, management and other services revenue, including income from managing and chartering customer aircraft, also saw a substantial rise, reaching $800,000 compared to $334,000 in the same period last year.

Jet Card and Fractional Programs revenue grew slightly to $677,000 from $548,000 year-over-year.

On the other hand, Jet.AI’s cost of revenue doubled to $4m from $2m in Q1 2023. This rise is primarily due to increased fleet utilisation, use of third-party charters, and fees associated with charter flights.

On the bottom line, the company posted a net loss of $3.2m translating into diluted earnings per share of -$0.28.

However, the company’s cash and cash equivalents during the first quarter decreased by $1.5m of $0.6m compared to end of 2023.

During the quarter under review, the company released the National Jet Card Program using third party aircraft and announced partnership with FL3XX to integrate its DynoFlight carbon removal platform.

In addition, the company also raised a $16.5m convertible preferred from Ionic Ventures LLC.

“Last quarter we doubled sales year over year and substantially improved bottom line margin, up 17% points adjusted for option expense. In addition, we closed on the $16.5m sale of convertible preferred shares to Ionic Ventures LLC, with the goal of positioning the company well financially for the foreseeable future,” said Mike Winston, executive chairman and founder, Jet.AI.

“On the software side, we launched Reroute AI for operators and did a key integration deal for DynoFlight with a major software provider to the private jet industry (FL3XX). Challenger 3500 fleet financing conversations remain ongoing.

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The company did not book any revenue from aircraft sales owing to push back in delivery dates by OEMs due to supply chain challenges.

However, the company saw strong growth of 72% year-over-year in aircraft usage revenue reaching $11.5m from $6.7m in the corresponding period last year. This was due to 39% growth in flight hours and 7%YoY increase in blended yield. In addition, the company achieved demand mix of 50% owner and 50% program & ad hoc in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, revenue from the managed aircraft segment nearly halved to $1.7m from $3.3m a year ago.

Overall, the company’s first quarter revenue stood at $13.2m, down 16%YoY from $15.7m.

“While OEM aircraft delivery delays put pressure on our revenue in the first quarter, we achieved strong year-over-year growth across our key metrics as we executed on our strategy to drive more favorable demand mix and higher yield per flight hour,” said Matt Liotta, co-founder and CEO, Volato.

In terms of expenses, the company’s cost of services remained relatively stable at $17.5m from a year ago while the first quarter SG&A expenses witnessed a sharp uptick of 89%YoY to $11.7m from $6.2m in Q1 23.  

Volato ended the quarter with $6.4m of cash, and cash equivalents.

The company said it is optimistic on deliveries in the second quarter. “Given the well-known OEM supply chain challenges which have pushed back delivery dates, we continue to expect the delivery of 8 to 10 HondaJets but now expect delivery of two Gulfstream G280s in 2024 [instead of four announced earlier]. These deliveries, including 2-3 HondaJets which we are scheduled to receive in the second quarter, will provide us with an immediate cash benefit as we execute on our backlog of fractional sales,” said CEO Liotta.

Subsequent to quarter end, Volato also signed a term sheet for $14.5m in financing, including a $13.0m financing to unlock deposits for its Gulfstream G280 orders and a $1.5m equity commitment.

“Our aircraft deliveries in 2024 will provide additional cash as well as more capacity to grow our network and better leverage our cost base. With an expected revenue of over $120m this year from fractional sales alone, continued revenue growth from aircraft usage and our cost-savings measures, we expect that we can achieve positive gross margin and EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2024,” said the company’s CFO Mark Heinen.

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The decrease in revenue was primarily driven by the exit from the aircraft management and aircraft sales businesses, as well as reduced membership and flight revenue.

Active Members decreased by 25%YoY to 9,155, a result of the regionalisation of member programs and a focus on profitable flying.

This member decline also led to a decrease in active users to 10,218, a 23%YoY drop from 13,336 users in the same period last year.

Live flight legs and total private jet flight transaction value decreased 24% and 26%, respectively to 11,754 and $191,763.

However, the total private jet flight transaction value per live flight leg remained relatively stable, decreasing only 3% year-over-year to $16,315 compared to $16,772 in the same period last year.

At the bottom line, Wheels Up’s net loss improved slightly year-over-year to $97.4m translating into loss per share of $0.14.

Despite the decline in revenue, Wheels Up highlighted strong operational performance, exceeding internal goals with a 98% completion rate and 87% on-time performance (D-60) for flights. The company also announced its plans to open a new flagship maintenance facility at Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) and the appointment of David Harvey as chief commercial officer.

“Wheels Up has made great strides to improve our operations and consistently deliver exceptional service and an experience worth repeating for our customers,” said George Mattson, Chief Executive Officer.

“Our strong operational performance provides the foundation for driving to profitable growth. I am pleased with the market interest in the accessibility and flexibility of our offerings, and we are seeing accelerating commercial momentum through our strategic partnership with Delta Air Lines.”

“Despite slower demand in January and February, we saw sequential improvement in March that is following through into the second quarter,” said Todd Smith, Chief Financial Officer.

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Service revenue hit a record high of $81.7m, reflecting a 4% growth. Equipment sales also rose 13% to $22.6m.

“Our first quarter performance was fuelled by advanced equipment revenue, which experienced a rebound from Q4 2023 and record service revenue, driven by a modest price increase and record advanced upgrades,” said Oakleigh Thorne, CEO and board chairman, Gogo Aviation in the earnings call.

Gogo is expanding its reach, with shipments of their AVANCE equipment up 16% year-over-year to 258 units. The total number of ATG aircraft online also grew slightly, reaching 7,136. Engagement with these connected aircraft remained strong, with average monthly revenue per aircraft (ARPU) rising 2% to $3,458.

Impressive financial performance wasn’t limited to the top line. Gogo’s net income surged 49% year-over-year to $30.5m, translating to diluted earnings per share of $0.23.

This strong bottom line led to a healthy cash flow position. Gogo boasted record free cash flow of $32.1m in Q1, a significant jump from the prior year’s $20.0m. The company ended the quarter with a solid cash and cash equivalents position of $152.8m.

Gearing up for their highly anticipated Gogo Galileo launch later this year, the company said it secured a key regulatory win in April 2024. The FCC granted approval for the Gogo Galileo HDX and FDX antenna terminals designed for business aircraft.

Additionally, the company said its Atlas Air Service AG is underway developing the first European Supplemental Type Certification (STC) for the Galileo HDX antenna for the Cessna CJ Series of light jet aircraft and another STC for the Embraer Phenom 300.

“We’re excited about the upcoming launches of Gogo Galileo and Gogo 5G, which will substantially increase our global addressable market and provide our customers with a step-change improvement in speed and performance,” added Thorne. “Additionally, our accelerating conversion of customers from our old Classic products to the AVANCE platform will allow customers to benefit from better LTE performance and provides a simple and cost-effective upgrade path to Galileo and 5G.”

The company also updated on its progress regarding the ongoing share repurchase. In Q1 of 2024, it repurchased 1.1m shares for $10.1m. This buyback activity adds to the over 1.6m shares repurchased in the past two quarters, totalling $15m.

In April 2024, they continued this trend with an additional 1.1m share buyback for $9.3m.

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