Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks, thanks for coming to the afternoon's, one of the afternoon sessions with Air Canada. We have their Chief Financial Officer, John Di Bert, with us, and I think John is going to start off with a brief presentation here.
Okay, fantastic. Well, thanks, and great to see you, Andrew, and good to see all of you as well. So maybe what I thought I'd do is, I'll just really glide through very quickly on a couple of just background charts so that you guys can get familiar. I'm sure many of you are following the story, but nonetheless, get you up to speed, and then pleasure to take some questions.
Great.
So, coming out of the box here, just the first quarter. So you can see we, we had a, I think, a good start in terms of just building up the capacity. We've been looking to, to grow, year-over-year. CAD 5.2 billion of revenue, and I would say that, you know, across the board, a pretty solid performance from, from the business in terms of, bringing that capacity on. And really within the expectations we had for, for the first quarter, we talked a little bit more about it on the call. Earnings at CAD 453.
I think, you know, we had in there a CAD 20 million charge that we took for some restructuring of some agreements we had in the cargo business, and really, that's a kind of a one-time charge. So, from an ongoing perspective, really more like a CAD 475 million plan target to, or I should say, a delivery from Q1. And we feel pretty good about, you know, the way we kicked off the year overall, so not really widely off any internal expectations we had. From a cost point of view, 14.76, so that's up 1.6% year-over-year.
I think what you see in there is, on the one hand, you see some productivity gains, some efficiency from the capacity growth, and then you see some of the cost pressure from just, you know, wages. We had some cost increases for maintenance, getting ready for the summer season. We're also making big investments in IT as we modernize the airline, and that also goes through our CASM. But overall, we felt pretty good about the 1.6 year-over-year, and we'll talk about the guidance, but kind of supporting the full year. Solid quarter on cash. So we're still building advance ticket sale cash flow, which is very positive on working capital.
I would say that, you know, as we go through the year here, it's gonna be nice to carry coming that CAD 1 billion of free cash flow generation in Q1. Really, the big CapEx year is coming in 2025, 2026, 2027. So feel pretty good about the full year in terms of just cash flow generation, and obviously off to a good start here. Talking about cash and cash flow, I think in a nutshell, easy way to look at this, we added about CAD 4.5 billion or so of net debt through the pandemic into the balance sheet. We started off just below 1x leverage, so very well-capitalized balance sheet and was in good shape pre-pandemic.
Ramped up in order to have liquidity, in order to be able to navigate through. That was complete and done well, and as we started to see the recovery manifest itself largely to end of 2022, but mostly through 2023, we've been deploying a lot of cash as we're earning and generating it. So all the cash flow we generated, by and large, dollar for dollar, has gone to drive down debt, and we've done so both at the aircraft financing level, but also on the corporate debt. And we just did something over the last quarter, which was reprice our Term Loan B and also take down half the outstanding debt. So feeling good about where we are today, CAD 3.8 billion of net debt and sitting just under 1x leverage.
We recently also were upgraded across the board from our rating agencies, and so stand at a double B rating across the three agencies. Just to close off on that, I mean, right now, as we speak, all things considered, end of the quarter, CAD 10 billion of liquidity. We have a CAD 1.3 billion revolver, so the rest of that is real cash on hand. We, I just mentioned, we paid down CAD 1.1 billion in March. That felt good. It also... We took down the cost of that capital by about 100 basis points.
And then, on a net debt basis, under four, which is really off the last 12 months or four quarters of earnings, less than 1x, and better than our pre-pandemic or just around our pre-pandemic 0.8. I won't spend too much time here, but just very simply, strategically, kind of big picture Air Canada, it's really about funding the future, but it's also about growth. We have tremendous opportunities. We believe that the airline can continue to access markets and grow the overall traffic well into the 2030s. At the same time, we want to have a great product, and so we're investing in technology, in Aeroplan, in branded offerings, in the cabins of our aircraft, and making it a great experience.
And then finally, really through our whole network and, our employees and also our own role in kind of the Canadian community, we think, you know, we're a great partner for the corporations we serve, the communities we bring together through our regions and our network, and frankly, the opportunities we create for our employees. To fund our future component of it, again, not to get too philosophical here, but really fundamentally behind, you know, that statement is the fact that we will be prudent, and we will manage with discipline when it comes to the financials of the company. Always keeping an eye on cost, making sure we have the right balance sheet, and we manage risk very well.
We believe in innovation, and we need to execute for that growth, and so we will continue to innovate in how we, we operate the airline, the technology we bring in, and how we grow the fleet and look for commercial opportunities and revenue manage. And then finally, just making sure that we deploy capital well, and deploying capital to, one, the fleet to grow and to modernize it, and to create returns for investors, and then to be able to allocate capital to investors. 2024 guidance. So this is, this is what we set out when we launched the, the plan for 2024, and we talked about this at our Q4 call.
6%-8% in terms of the overall fleet capacity and, you know, we feel good that we're continuing and able to deliver on that. We had a good start. The next couple of quarters, we'll add not at the same rate that we did in Q1, probably mid-single digits. Then, you know, move through the end of the year here and hit that 6%-8% capacity uptick. That'll lead into more growth into 2025 as we come back to 2019 levels.
On the cost side, 2.5%-4.5%, we talked about on our Q4 call, the fact that we had some natural tailwinds from productivity, from efficiency, from just getting the airline back to those, you know, more efficient operating capabilities that we had pre-pandemic. Investments in technology are helping, but at the same time, we do have some headwinds, and those headwinds come in the form of a labor agreement that we're updating, obviously, with our pilots, and the fact that, you know, we have some airport infrastructure, and we believe, you know, some APPR passenger rights costs that probably are some headwinds through the system. Through all of that, we have the normal assumption for inflation, whatever that might be, 3% or so.
And then, of course, on the earnings, that's the dropout of those assumptions. Probably a flattish yield environment is our going-in assumption. Maybe a little bit of pressure there, but, you know, by and large, holding. And then the ability to generate the capacity and hold costs will get us 37-42 on the full year. So we'll... I'm sure we'll have questions, and we'll be able to dive into this further, but I think what I'll say here, and suffice to say, is I think that there's some very unique structural opportunities for Air Canada in terms of growth. And, in a nutshell, you have GDP growth, which is true for every airline, so call it, you know, 2%-3%, your normal macroeconomic driver.
But on top of that, what is, I'd say, dislocated a little bit from just the normal GDP and macroeconomic backdrop that an airline will face in any jurisdiction or any region, we also have some things that are unique to Air Canada and to Canada. Number one is that we have about 500,000 new Canadian entrants per year on a 40 million citizen country. That's not an immaterial number. And the large part of that immigration is coming from India, China, North Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia, and that fits perfectly into our network. And really, we have a fantastic global network that accesses all of those regions, and that is just a demographic driver that is generational.
So at 500,000 per year, and it's been going on for many years, and potentially for several more, that creates a generational structural opportunity for delivering travel to those to those new entrants for business, for pleasure, for going back home, visiting family and friends, and then, you know, just a higher propensity from from those new entrants to travel in the first place. Number two, we have a a fantastic Sixth Freedom franchise, and really, there's an opportunity for us to continue to to take international U.S. traffic into both transatlantic and transpacific. Geographically, where Canada is, we've got three major hubs. One is Montreal, the other is Vancouver, and of course, the global mega hub is Toronto.
Shortest routes across either ocean, and most often times, you know, if you're gonna make a connection, the fastest route is gonna be a connection into Montreal, into Europe, or a connection into Vancouver, into Asia Pacific, and Toronto can service from both sides, frankly. And, and there's a great opportunity for us to continue to grow that franchise. When you think about 40 million Canadians, and you think about 400 million Americans, the largest, most affluent travel market, 1% of that traffic is equal to 10% addressable market growth for, for us. And so just continuing to power those flows and how our fleet is being built and our connections and the way we actually transit passengers from a U.S. transborder into a Canadian hub and out is seamless. You don't pick up bags. You don't...
You go through customs. You're in the same terminal. So it's actually a great experience and often the best option, and we can talk about more about that. As far as recovery, I alluded to it before, but you know, getting back to 2019 levels, so in many cases, airlines are kind of at 110% of 2019 traffic. We're still, at the end of 2023, we're about 90%, 99 billion ASMs on 112 that we produced in 2019 versus 2023. And I think that, you know, we'll make up some of that gap in 2024, and then probably by 2025, either at 2019 levels or better, hopefully.
So there's one thing that is, you know, true today that probably has never been true, is the strength of all of the assets we have and the platforms and, the brands, and, you know, we can talk about the global hubs. I can touch on that later. The way we've built them out, the, the Sixth Freedom franchise, I think, you know, a little bit more about that, probably as we speak. Air Canada Vacations is a fantastic brand. Aeroplan is probably the single, you know, most powerful, transformation and tool that we've put into the, into the asset, mix over the last few years. In 2019, we, reacquired it, and it's doubled in size.
Today, there's some 8 million members for Aeroplan, and it's a, for me, a staggering statistic anyway, that about 10% of all consumer transactions flow through an Aeroplan member participation, so whether that's credit card or it's consumer products with brand associations we have. So a very powerful set of platforms. The cargo business is a fantastic way to leverage our belly freight network, and we've introduced a handful of cargo jets to be able to drive freighter traffic directly into that network, routes that we would not normally fly for passengers. We load up with freight and bring them through what is our best and biggest asset, the network. So here it is. This is Aeroplan. Like I said, you know, 2x the size that it was when we first took it over.
Tremendous partnerships, major credit card holders. You know, an interesting statistic is we have about 1 million members that are U.S.-based, members, so that also speaks to the Sixth Freedom traffic. It also speaks to the appeal, that we have outside of Canada with the program. And then finally, you know, what I would say is that, we've made a lot of investments and efforts in technology and customer experience, and we continue to do that, between, lounges, between the technology, between the, the capability to, to interact with us, through your mobile device. And frankly, you know, just focused on, on customer service, experience, and, and we track many different projects and programs to, to enable it.
One of the things that we are doing is actually empowering our frontline to make more decisions and be more empowered to solve customer challenges and issues on the spot. One chart here that's interesting. I know for many of you, you see a bit of a peakiness on CapEx. So we have, we have an important CapEx program over the next three years, for sure. And what is really strategically important about that CapEx program is that you're bringing in A220s, which are a fantastic transborder machine. Can talk more about that. Super efficient, 135, 140 passengers, same seat cost as a, as a narrow body 737 or a 320. On top of that, 321 XLRs, so these are great machines to, for us to go long range.
In Montreal, you can fly deep into Europe, similarly, Toronto, given the, the distance, and so that can allow you to expand the network, to fly, all year round in rights, routes that you would otherwise put a wide body, not be able to fill the full capacity in low season. A321 XLR can fly the same distances but take, you know, a much better load factor. And they're also, the, the, the 787-10s is the other major investment we're, we're, we're committed to, and that is squarely to grow the international network footprint, particularly to service some of those, longer-range routes, into, into the Middle East and into, India and, and abroad. Finally, obviously, our people. We have...
You know, I think we've done a very good job of ramping down the airline but also ramping it back up, and we created an incredible work environment for all of our members, and ultimately, you know, that's recognized through many different awards that we receive in Canada. So it's an important part of us being able to ramp up that airline, continue to train people, continue to deliver that customer experience, and have the available staffing across all of the different disciplines. I'll leave you on this, and then we'll turn it over for 15-20 minutes of questions, but I would say we got off to a good start in Q1. Continue to see, you know, a pretty good 2024 intact.
We're expecting to generate cash in the year, which is important to the overall, I think, the financial strategy of the company. Never had a stronger set of assets between hubs, Aeroplan, the fleet, the fleet plan to grow, and I think we've built a balance sheet to be able to navigate through a lot of growth, but a lot of opportunity as well, and still be resilient to risk, which I think is always important. And Air Canada has shown an ability to execute over, you know, the last two decades as we rebuilt the airline into what is a world-class global carrier from Canada. So with that, maybe I'll take a seat and get some questions.
Great, John. Thank you for that.
Yeah, thank you.
Appreciate it.
Yep.
Certainly, a few things to maybe unpack from the presentation.
Yeah.
Maybe touch upon... Yeah, maybe start with, I guess, maybe your 2024 guidance.
Yeah.
You mentioned, you know, in terms of the, with your capacity, flattish type yield assumptions for this year is within your guide. Can you maybe walk us around the globe and kind of what you're seeing in each of the regions, just in terms of maybe pressure points and kind of tailwinds in terms of revenue right now?
Absolutely. So I would say that, you know, I'll start with the market that has kind of seen the biggest growth and has, you know, I think, still strong potential. Back end of last year, we made a decision to pivot a lot of our growth towards or to have the highest rate of growth in Asia Pacific, and you see from our Q1 numbers, we had, you know, over 30, I think it was 37%, year-over-year growth in capacity. Yields have held up nicely there as well. Last year, we were running load factors sometimes in the 90s, and we knew we needed to add.
There's still a bit of a deficit in capacity in that segment, and so it's done very well for us, and we continue to see that as being a solid performer all year. When you look at the system level, right, we talked 6%-8% system-level capacity growth. I would say that Asia Pacific probably grows at 2x the rate of the entire system. When it comes to, I would say, the transatlantic franchise last year, I would say, is, you know, it was an optimal set of circumstances, and obviously, we and many other airlines were able to do well through that.
We, we like what we see in Transatlantic this year in 2024, but I think we, we had a good sense that it was going to be hard to replicate year-over-year that kind of performance. And so, we're seeing, we're seeing good growth. I would say, if you take that 6%-8%, probably, you know, the upper end or maybe slightly higher than the top end of that range is the Transatlantic capacity we've put out there. I think that, you know, yields flattish, maybe a bit of pressure in on the full year. We'll see how the summer kind of evolves here, but I feel generally, you know, very good about the franchise, and it's still a great, great piece of our business, frankly. Domestic, you know, if you're gonna...
You know, kind of a bit of the inverse is true as well on the domestic side, where 2023 was not the greatest domestic year, and probably because a lot of Canadians were getting out to travel after being in Canada for a long time. And so, 2024, we're actually seeing that get better, and so we're seeing some good good traffic growth and decent yields in in domestic traffic. So, you know, again, nothing that we didn't expect or plan for, but it's, it's kind of holding up very nicely, which is, which is nice. And then transborder is, it's a very important market for us. I think, you know, the Sixth Freedom franchise continues to grow quarter-over-quarter. Transborder is an important part of it, but also Canadians love to go to the U.S.
And so that traffic continues to stay fairly healthy. And I would say also, we do get a little bit of... There are some downsides. We get a bit of a benefit from the FX on the transborder traffic, particularly coming up.
Got it. You mentioned in your presentation the sixth freedom side of everything. Last night, when we were at dinner, you seemed pretty optimistic with regards to that demand channel. Maybe, you know, help us understand the, you know, what percentage of that market you are, where you think it can go, and what the true, you know, opportunity for that demand channel is.
Yeah, I would say that, you kind of, you have to take a step back for a second. So I mentioned just a little bit of just the basics, right? So you've got 400 million Americans, 40 million Canadians. Just think about, you know, 1% of that market, 4 million, you know, representative travelers, passengers, against a 40 million domestic sized addressable market. So every point is like a 10% addressable market expansion, which is very powerful for us. The geography of it is apt to it, but we've done more, and we've done that over the last decade, right?
So this is not an overnight thing, where we've streamlined the hub experience, so you come in from, you know, whatever, Austin, Texas, to Toronto, and you go to Athens, or you come in from Minneapolis and go to Rome through Toronto or St. Louis, Montreal, and into Barcelona. Those kind of, those kind of opportunities, we've made that experience very seamless-
Yeah.
... over time, and it's been a lot of work to make sure that you don't have to check bags. There's no customs checks. You're basically in the same terminal, and if you're, you know, lounge access, it's a very nice... And we synchronize the whole schedule so that the transborder schedule is synchronized to the international schedule.
Mm-hmm.
The same would be true for Vancouver, Asia Pacific, right? So that's the backdrop, and so the opportunity now is, when you look at our fleet, the additions are, we're gonna go from 33 220s to 60 220s, 27 additional 220s. It's a perfect machine to bring that traffic up very efficiently and also be able to access, the most US cities in, from Canada, for any airline, frankly, and, and to drive those hubs, and the traffic through it. So the 321 XLR is another great example.
You can create all year-round routes that fly 220 passengers, where you had to kind of sustain a plane that had 350, 360 passengers on a wide body that may be too much capacity to carry, but now you can fly it outside of peak season. So the reliability of those routes to that sixth freedom franchise is also gonna be enhanced. And so when all those pieces come together, plus an Aeroplan program, plus penetration in U.S. travelers using the Aeroplan program, I think, you know, that addressable market expansion is kind of like it's a really big accelerant for the business, and I think we're naturally built to acquire it. And really, the competition is against the other international carriers. It's not the Big Three.
The Big Three, that's their traffic-
Yeah.
... and they'll have a rightful ownership of it. It's going and challenging those international carriers that are, you know, taking traffic through Europe or Asia on their carriers, and it's much better to make that connection here and then go direct.
Mm-hmm.
And we have a lot of direct. I think Montreal might be the number three or the number four transatlantic hub in on the continent. So think about that. I mean, it punches above its weight for direct connections to to Europe, as an example. And similarly, we just had a flight from Vancouver to Singapore. It's the longest flight we carry, whatever it was, 14... I think it was 16 hours, and so we opened up a route to Bangkok. I think we have the only direct access from North America to Bangkok. So there's a lot of great opportunities that we create for those US travelers that come through.
I would think it's not only U.S., right? I would think at some point, Sixth Freedom could be also taking someone from São Paulo wanting to go to Japan and transfer, you know, go through Vancouver. So when I think about the U.S. as a percentage of your Sixth Freedom traffic, is it some, like, 90%-plus number, or is it, you know, is U.S. 60, 70% of that business?
Yeah, it's a good question. I won't volunteer a number here-
Okay.
But it is also the inverse. Traffic is also true.
Right.
Europeans and Asians coming into the U.S. will often also take that same set of connections and routes.
Yeah.
So to your point, you know, it's probably, you know, some distribution.
Okay.
Those are the flows that are the most meaningful ones.
Fair enough. Maybe, moving on to the domestic market. Last week, you know, Transat, a pure leisure, leisure carrier, you know, spoke a little bit about some softer unit revenues that they were seeing, lowered margin guidance for the year. Did that surprise you? Kind of maybe talk a little bit about what you're, you're seeing domestically, and how maybe your model is a little bit different than, than Transat.
Yeah, I mean, I won't comment much on Transat. I think, you know, in the end, everybody makes their plan based on their view of what's coming. I think, you know, for us, we've seen a solid domestic market. We've not seen... You know, I think we had some challenges last year with the regional network in terms of just pilots and availability of pilots, and we kind of worked through that, so that got our regional Jazz network up and running. We planned for aircraft availability and capacity and tried to be, you know, I think, as realistic as we could be. I think if you would've asked me on capacity and traffic at the end of last year, I probably would've volunteered a number higher than the sixth to eighth.
Okay.
But we've kind of managed that, so maybe these are factors that either they looked at differently or, or made different calls on. I would say that by and large, you know, the Air Canada Vacations had a solid quarter in the first quarter, but a lot of that traffic points south, so any excess capacity would've been pointed that way. And as we go into the summer season, I think transatlantic is important for all of the Canadian carriers that you know, so Transat being one of them. And so, I mean, we'll see how that all develops, and maybe they had different yield assumptions, I'm not sure.
Fair enough. I guess when I speak to investors on Air Canada, probably one of the bigger hold ups is just concerns around the Canadian consumer.
Yeah.
Right? You obviously have a lot of card data.
Yeah.
You see a lot of spend. What's your take on the health of the Canadian consumer right now?
I think, you know, I mean, it is one of the factors that, you know, when investors look at airlines, you know, and sometimes you know, maybe a view that the Canadian economy is under more pressures or under more strain than the U.S. economy. And we have a mortgage cycle that kind of... It's about, you know, you can have a max five-year mortgage, and so those mortgages will, in, you know, 2023, 2024, 2025, kind of come due, so preferential rates will be reset. But I think when we look at the business, I mean, there's a few things.
Number one is, I think, and I'm not making a call on it, that's a far more deep and complex discussion, but there's an understanding that, you know, there's. I would say, banks and mortgage holders have known these facts to be true for a while now, and so I think that there's a lot of proactive work that's being done in order to manage that cycle, and that's usually what people are most concerned about, is how is that going to affect the consumer number? And so they know that, and they've been managing through that, and I think there's. It's also not on one day, right? It's over a period of a number of years. That hasn't shown up in our travel, in what we see as traffic and capacity and willingness to travel.
Aeroplan probably plays a role in this as well, that it's also enabled people to go into the premium cabin and kind of have more flexibility with the way they travel, so maybe that's a tool that's supported the Canadian consumer. When we look at credit card data, that continues to remain very strong as a total participation of the consumer. There are other factors. You know, we appeal to a whole host of different clients as well, and so perhaps if you're retired and you have fixed income coming in, and you're invested, the higher, and you have no mortgage, the higher rates are actually helpful, and you'll find a lot of those passengers in the front of the cabin traveling more often.
Yeah.
Right? So I would say that, we remain vigilant. We have a strong balance sheet for those reasons. We watch, you know, the behavior of traffic and bookings, and by and large, I think that there are some puts and takes to all of this. There isn't the level of unemployment you would see necessarily coming with a downturn that is, you know, precedes. So people tend to, in this environment, and we've seen them continue to use discretionary income to travel, and that has remained at least probably in the hierarchy of ways that they've utilized this available income as a higher decision than they may have made in the past.
We'll keep watching it, but overall, I think we feel confident that we see, you know, a still well-developing 2024. Yeah.
Got it. I guess when I'm having those investor conversations, and then you talk about the consumer concerns, then kind of quickly pivots to your balance sheet, and you had, like, some pretty good stats in your, your presentation earlier. But I guess the, the biggest question that I get asked by investors is, "When can you start returning capital to shareholders?" And I know you're not gonna sit here today and-
Yeah.
Tell us, you know, when and how much.
Yeah.
Maybe if you can talk about kind of your philosophy-
Yeah.
around the balance sheet. And, look, you have a CapEx program ahead of you.
Yeah.
You have new pilot economics, right? So, like, how do you try to balance what you see, you know, over the next few years with where your balance sheet sits today?
Yeah. I would say that, you know, I feel good about our ability to work concurrently to take advantage of the growth opportunity we have by investing in the fleet, by making the kind of capital allocation decisions we've been making, and at the same time, generate cash flow on a consistent basis through a cycle, which would give us the flexibility and the ability to actually continue to launch shareholder participation opportunities, and I do believe that those can be concurrent. So in my view, you know, the steps on this are, number one, manage the balance sheet back to the leverage levels that we'd like. We have a 1x leverage or less now. I think 1.5 still remains a good guidepost. So there's some flexibility there.
We've done that, so we had some capacity to go into the CapEx cycle with some dry powder to be able to do that. We've taken care of what we believe is a higher-cost debt. We'll be opportunistic if there's other debt to take out that, that's high cost, if the opportunity arises. But ultimately now we're moving into a, an acquisition cycle, and through that acquisition cycle, we will look to generate cash flows like we will in 2024 and throughout, so that we can have, a balanced and concurrent, capital allocation plan.
Why is 1.5 times the right... you know, like, kind of the-
Yeah.
... the right level? You are obviously below there in 2019, and-
Yeah.
I guess just generally when I speak to investors, they would like... But obviously this is cyclical, you know, risky business, and they want to see kind of as much of the financials de-risked as possible. So bringing leverage down below where it was kind of pre-pandemic seems to be a general thought that I kind of get out there. So kind of why 1.5 times is the right level?
I think that we demonstrated that we had the right balance sheet going in-
Mm-hmm
...and that we actually came out, and, you know, look, I mean, it's fairly early on into this recovery, and we're-
Sure..
... back to one, right? I think that we're going through a growth cycle now, so we're allowing for a little bit more flexibility. But, you know, what I would say is a couple of facts, right? That are a little bit deeper than just the one, 1.5 is, number one, we have a deep pool of unencumbered assets. So while it's, you know, a 1.5, maybe not a one-
Mm-hmm.
... it's the right number because liquidity solid, so access to immediate cash. We just increased our revolver to CAD 1.3 billion, although we have no intent of using it, there's available liquidity there. We have a deep pool of unencumbered assets. We own over 80% of the fleet, and today have less than 20% on lease, and that means that we've seen through the pandemic, you know, if ever you needed to borrow, aircraft is an efficient and rapid way to do so. So hold the right liquidity, have cash flow generation, and then hold a significant pool of unencumbered assets. Be able to withstand movements in the cycle while still staying true to the long-term strategy of serving the new markets or the growth markets we think we have.
I think that is the right balance, and you know, the generation of cash flow on an annual basis gives us the confidence to then be able to participate with investors.
Got it. We have a little bit under a minute left.
Yeah.
I think it was at this conference last year, you were brand new to Air Canada.
Yes.
You know, you didn't have an airline. You had-
Yeah.
... you had an A&D background, OEM background, not an airline background. You know, past year, you know, as you've dug into the industry, what is, what has been the biggest surprise to you?
Yeah, no, no big surprises, but I think that, you know, a couple of things I'll say very quickly, and none of this will come to any surprise. I think you're at the front end of the cycle here all the time, right? So you feel everything that's happening in the economy. You don't have... You know, you trade in development risk, and execution, and R&D, and product definition, you trade that risk in for making capital allocation decisions about aircraft that are gonna come out five, six years from now, right?
Yeah.
I think the capital intensity of both is high. The capital allocation strategy is important in both. Being able to be agile in this business in the very short term is important, and so I see that flexibility, but it's important to preserve that flexibility.
Mm-hmm.
The strength of the balance sheet is equally important in the short term because you have less time to sort it out if you don't get it right. And at the same time, I think that, you know, the ability to execute is true in both, you know, and you have to execute very well in A&D, and I think we have to execute very well in an airline as well. So we could probably talk for, you know, a lot longer on some other things, but the fact of the matter is that I think, you know, it is an aerospace community at large, and the interesting thing is I see some of the same things. I used to live on the other side, so at least there's a lot of familiarity w hen you come to hardware, aircraft, engines, and all the challenges that it takes to maintain them. So, at least from that point of view, I feel at home.
Great.
Yeah.
Well, John-
Thank you.
... with that, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for all your work-
Thanks.
... at the conference.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks so much.