Public. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Ms. Andréan Gagné, Senior Director, Communications and Public Affairs. Madam Gagné, à vous la parole. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Frank. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Transat conference call for the presentation of the financial results of the first quarter ended January 31st, 2023. I'm here this morning with Annick Guérard, President and CEO, and Patrick Bui, Chief Financial Officer. Annick will provide comments and observations on the current situation and on the operational and commercial plans for the future. Patrick will after review the financial results in more detail. We will answer questions from financial analysts. Questions from journalists will be handled offline. The conference call will be held in English, questions may be asked in French or English. As usual, our investors' presentation has been updated and is posted on our website in the Investors section. Patrick may refer to it as he presents the results. Today's call contains forward-looking statements.
There are risks that actual results will differ materially from those contemplated by those forward-looking statements. For additional information on such risks, we invite you to consult our filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators and on SEDAR and are incorporated through this statement. Forward-looking statements represent Transat's expectation as at March 9th, 2023, and accordingly are subject to change after such date. However, we disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. Finally, we may refer to IFRS and non-IFRS financial measures. In addition to IFRS financial measures, we're using non-IFRS measures to assess the corporation's operational performance.
It is likely that the non-IFRS financial measures used by the corporation will not be comparable to similar measures reported by other issuers or those used by financial analysts as their measures may have different definitions. The measures used by the corporation are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for IFRS financial performance measures. Additional information on non-IFRS financial measures, such as their definition and their reconciliation with the more comparable IFRS measures, are available in our quarterly reports and our investors' presentation. Let me turn the call over to Annick for opening remarks.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning. Some of you have already attended Transat's Annual General Meeting of shareholders that took place just prior to this call. You have already heard some comments about the first quarter of 2023. We were pleased to share these Q1 results with our shareholders, which were achieved in a challenging but nonetheless favorable context for the continued travel recovery and the relaunch of Transat. We saw that the momentum that took shape in the second half of 2022 is being maintained. Our financial targets are being achieved and the outlook for 2023 is positive. On this call, we will go into more detail on our first quarter results and comment on trends for 2023. Patrick Bui and I will then answer your questions.
In 2022, travel resumed. In 2023, Transat is moving towards a gradual return to profitability. During the first quarter, revenues reached CAD 667.5 million, more than triple the first quarter of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA was CAD 3.3 million, a year-over-year improvement of CAD 39.7 million. The operating loss was at CAD 38.1 million compared to CAD 73.8 million in 2022. The company's financial position is strengthening. Considering that the first quarter is historically the lowest of the year, these positive results reinforce our confidence for the future. During the first quarter, Transat deployed capacity similar to 2019. Our load factor was slightly lower than in 2019, but yields were more than 20% higher.
Since the middle of 2022, customers are back and eager to travel. This strong demand keeps prices high enough to evolve in a volatile environment that puts pressure on costs. This was illustrated in the first quarter when fuel prices surged 46% over the same period last year. The combination of resilient demand and high prices will allow us to continue to make progress in 2023, even though we remain in a high-cost environment. The first quarter also demonstrates the quality of our execution. Throughout this period, we have acted with prudence and rigor in order to seize market opportunities while limiting the risk associated with our operations. Transat was able to maneuver well through the delays and setbacks that disrupted North American airports in late December and early January.
The circumstances at the beginning of this fiscal year contribute to repositioning Transat as a carrier that offers and prioritizes quality service to travelers. Strong demand, higher prices, quality of execution, and good solid brand image are for us the assets of our recovery. Our path to profitability is progressive and prudent considering the economic context. The aviation and travel sectors have not fully recovered. Among other things, the industry supply chain is experiencing sporadic difficulties. For example, some of our aircraft are delivered late, requiring the implementation of short-term aircraft leases. Transat, like other carriers, deals with the unexpected. In this demanding environment, we are improving our execution, optimizing every aspect of our operations while maintaining extreme vigilance in managing our costs. As a result, we are strengthening our position quarter-after-quarter.
The modernization and simplification of our fleet to two aircraft models combined with the deployment of a more robust network that capitalizes on our historical strengths, allow us to significantly increase the utilization of our assets. As an example, this winter we are operating 34 aircraft compared to 55 in 2019, which represents a reduction in physical capacity of 27%, while we managed to deploy 97% of the pre-pandemic capacity, thanks to an increase of 21% in aircraft utilization. We also continue to develop commercial agreements as part of our code sharing partnership strategy. These partnerships are key to our transformation. They allow us to increase our attractiveness and customer offering, expand our network and connectivity opportunities, again, optimize the use of our fleet.
On the revenue side, we have implemented a dynamic management and pricing optimization system, allowing us to improve our revenues per passenger. Through enhanced revenue management during the quarter, we were also able to increase our ancillary revenue per passenger by 55% compared to the same quarter in 2019. On the cost side, as we continue to strengthen the controls in place, we have just launched a complete airline operational transformation plan, which aims at increasing overall productivity and efficiency within the operation. Among other initiatives, we announced in January the closure of our Vancouver base, allowing for a better allocation of crews and a permanent reduction in operational costs. In summary, the financial situation is in a much better position today than it was a year ago. The year is off to a good start. We are looking ahead.
The outlook for 2023 is encouraging. Demand is supporting prices that reflect cost reality. Our 2022-2026 strategic plan continues to guide our evolution. We are confident that we have the plan and the teams to succeed. Transat is advancing in the right way and in the right direction. Thank you. I will now turn it over to Patrick Bui.
Thank you, Annick. Greetings, everyone. The first quarter ended on January 31st represented another important step forward as Transat is engaged in a sustainable trajectory towards profitability. We opened 2023 with an adjusted EBITDA of CAD 3.3 million, the first positive quarter since Q2 of 2020. First quarter is typically the weakest of the year given the seasonality in our business. As mentioned by Annick, the strong yield environment will help us offset the strong inflationary pressures on costs and the volatility in fuel prices, which remain amongst our greatest challenges of 2023. To these unforeseen events, such as delays in aircraft delivery, may also negatively impact our costs. Our strong cost containment initiatives, the implementation of our strategic plan, and our fuel and currency hedging program will help us contain these cost pressures.
As always, we remain vigilant on the economic situation and the potential impact on demand, but at the current time, we do not see a negative impact on our booking trends. The ongoing pent-up demand seems to provide for an atypical resilience, but we remain highly vigilant. Of note this quarter, we generated over CAD 145 million in cash flows, driven by major improvements in our working capital, notably with our credit card processor partners and also driven by our strong bookings. As we started fiscal 2023, our focus went from cash preservation, which is consistent with a crisis mode mindset, to a focus on cash generation and profitability, which attests to a return to normalcy. We previously communicated that we were aiming to be cash flow positive by 2024. We are now aiming to be cash flow positive this fiscal year.
We closed the first quarter of 2023 with a strong cash position of CAD 468 million. On our capital structure, 2023 will be an important year as we target to reduce the burden of debt. Now with respect to our Q1 results, revenue stood at CAD 667 million, up from CAD 202 million in 2022, driven by the resumption of operations with a capacity matching 2019 levels. Adjusted EBITDA was CAD +3.3 million for the quarter compared with CAD - 36 million in 2022, which represents a significant improvement on the adjusted EBITDA loss. Compared to Q1 of 2022, there was a 46% increase in fuel prices. Adjusted net loss was CAD 62 million, compared with CAD 95 million last year.
As per our financial statements, net loss was CAD 57 million compared to CAD 114 million last year, a CAD 58 million improvement. With respect to the balance sheet, as at January 31st, the corporation's cash and equivalents amounted to CAD 468 million, with undrawn facilities of CAD 100 million, for a total unrestricted liquidity of CAD 568 million. Cash and trusts or otherwise reserved totaled CAD 555 million. If we add this amount to the cash and cash equivalents, the corporation closed a quarter with over CAD 1 billion in cash. Deposits for future travel stood at CAD 898 million, a new record surpassing the previous peak in January 2020 by 11%, reflecting the recovery in demand and higher average selling prices.
We also generated free cash flows of CAD 145 million for the quarter, driven by significant improvements in our working capital. Of note, approximately CAD 75 million was released from our credit card processor receivables and the transition of our European volumes to our new partner, Nuvei. With respect to our indebtedness, there were no further drawings on our credit facilities during the quarter. We remained at CAD 863 million. lease liabilities slightly decreased from CAD 1.088 b illion to CAD 1.025 billion during the quarter. Off-balance sheet agreements, excluding agreements with suppliers, stood at CAD 1 billion, this is an undiscounted figure, mainly related to seven A321LRs and three A321 XLRs yet to be delivered as of January 31st.
To date, for the second quarter of 2023, although load factors are 3 percentage points lower than in 2019, yields are more than 25% higher. While it is too early to have a complete picture for the summer, the winter trends seem to be continuing into the summer of 2023. As previously stated, for the full fiscal year 2023, the corporation expects to deploy capacity equivalent to 90% of 2019 levels. Bearing in mind the indicators to date, the corporation reaffirms its target of an adjusted EBITDA margin of 4%-6% for fiscal 2023. Thank you. We are now ready to take questions.
Thank you. If you are an analyst and would like to register a question, please press the one followed by the four on your telephone. One moment please for the first question. Our first question comes from Kevin Chiang with CIBC World Markets. Please proceed.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question here. Maybe Patrick, you know, I guess congrats on obviously an acceleration on the cash flow target here to this fiscal year versus previously targeting fiscal 2024. Just wondering how that changes how you plan on tackling your capital structure and maybe how the timeline might shift here as you look to deleverage the balance sheet.
Yeah. It's a good point, both our ability to generate cash and our ability to deleverage go hand in hand. The fact that we are now seeing a positive free cash flow in this fiscal year is indicating to us that we wanna start deleveraging in 2023 as well. For sure, when you look at our debt stack, you know, there's a tranche of senior debt, about CAD 200 million, that is a variable rate piece of debt. Obviously with the increases in rates, you know, the rates have gone up. It has a maturity in April 2024.
It is a focus where, you know, we look at a combination of, you know, pushing that maturity, but also potentially partially repaying that piece of senior debt.
That's, that's helpful. Then, you mentioned in the prepared remarks ancillary revenue up 55% versus the same quarter in 2019. I mean, I guess this is all happening, you know, without a loyalty program really. I'm just wondering as you guys have indicated, you're moving from crisis mode to obviously one where there's a little bit more visibility on your long-term plans here, just how a loyalty program might play into that recovery as you look out the next few years here.
Yeah. That's also a good question. Look, we can't hear you very well, Kevin, but I think the gist of it is, how does a loyalty program fit into our ongoing strategy?
That's right.
You know, you know, our strategic priority, you know, and you see it in the investor slides, you know, we always look to enhance customer engagement and loyalty. We constantly analyze, you know, customer database and review our practices. Frankly, you know, it may in the future, may or may not lead to the full deployment of a loyalty program. It's a little early to say today, I think right now our focus is to make it easier for clients and our prospects to interact with us on the customer journey. You know, we've revamped our mobile app, improvements at our call center, chatbots and so on and so forth. We're very focused on the customer engagement side.
Again, as we look into the future, it may or may not include the full deployment of a loyalty program.
Okay. Maybe just last one for me. Obviously, a lot of and hopefully you can hear me better here, but obviously a lot of headlines around the issues Sunwing had during the December travel season. Just wondering, are you seeing any positive impact from that as customers look to plan their March and summer vacation travel plans? Does it feel like you're gaining market share against some of your peers here?
I would say that it's a little bit difficult to say right now. We continue to see strong booking momentum for winter and summer. We didn't see. At the beginning of January, we saw potentially an effect because bookings went up suddenly. You know, the booking momentum has been strong since last fall. That's nothing specifically linked to Sunwing.
That's it, that's it for me. Thank you very much for taking my questions.
Our next question comes from Konark Gupta with Scotiabank. Please proceed.
Hi. Thanks, operator. Good morning, everyone. Hopefully you can hear me okay.
Yes.
Yeah.
Perfect. Thanks. Morning. Just wanted to follow up on Kevin's question on cash flow. Just to clarify, you guys expect the cash flows to be positive this year instead of 2024? I guess you got the CAD 70 million from credit card processors in Q1. That cash flow guidance you are laying out includes the CAD 70 million?
Yeah, that's correct, Konark.
Okay. Thanks, Patrick. And what if you strip it out, how does the cash flow look without that payment?
I mean, frankly, hard to say. I mean, that CAD 70 million is an important part of the improvement in cash flows. You know, when we say, you know, we'll be cash flow positive for the year, you know, we're not saying that we're gonna be, you know, CAD 70 million or more positive cash flow. It's gonna be positive, but, you know, close to breakeven. That CAD 70 million is important. Just to cover the other factors that give us comfort why we say we're gonna be cash flow positive this year is, it's not only that CAD 70 million-CAD 75 million, it has to do with our strategy, our credit card processor strategy.
You will see on a balance sheet that we still have, call it about, you know, CAD 150 million of cash with our credit card processors. Hopefully our strategy works out well and as the year continues, we'll be able to free that cash that is currently with the credit card processors. Then I'd say the other factor that gives us confidence that we should be positive this year as well, is frankly the, you know, the very good booking trends, the good volumes, good pricing, so on and so forth, that should bring us cash flow positive.
Okay. You are not modeling in or expecting incremental freeing up of cash from credit card processors, right, in this fiscal year?
Yes. you know, the free cash flow positive this, you know, again, has to do with working capital. it's, we don't expect, a one-time release necessarily. We're looking at gradual improvements of the working capital cycle. We're looking working capital to be a little bit more consistent with prior trends.
Okay. That makes sense. Thank you so much for that. On the net debt, the Q1, I think was the first, you know, material sequential improvement in net debt, since the pandemic had started. I'm just thinking with the free cash you are expecting this year, what's the best bogey for net debt to end up this year?
That's a good. What's the best bogey? We a few things. Our net debt went down, you know, because we have higher cash, right? When you net out the cash, we get to a lower net debt. Obviously, when you look at historical trends at Transat, our cash is high, but it's also normal at this time of the year. We do expect, despite being cash flow positive, during the year, we do expect later in the year, perhaps Q3, but more Q4, to have some consumption of cash towards the end of the year.
So for assessment, when we get closer to the end of the year, and again, it's still far away, but if we have an assessment that we do have excess cash on the balance sheet, and a little bit to Kevin's question, we may elect to use some of that cash to delever the balance sheet.
Very good. Thanks for that. Then maybe the question for Annick. In terms of, you know, the fundamentals, clearly the macro, and the consumer's ability to pay for a lot of things with inflation, all that is a key kind of concern for a lot of investors. Just wondering if you look from your standpoint, the way it sounds like, you have some acceleration in yield happening in Q2 from Q1, but the load factor seems to be tracking slightly down from Q1 at this point. In the summer, looks like your capacity is recovering to something like mid 80% versus, you know, high 90s in the winter.
Any perspective you can provide in terms of how, you know, you see the demand and capacity shaping up as the year progresses. Are you expecting or building in some softness because of macro?
Overall, we're still seeing a strong momentum in sales, both for the rest of the winter and for summer as well. When we look at load factors and we compare as well to the yield, it's mainly a function of revenue management practices. Given the strong demand, we saw an opportunity to increase yield significantly in a way which allowed us to maximize overall revenues. Revenue management optimization looks at, you know, reaching the best balance between load factor and revenue per passenger. If we're looking at Q1, for instance, 85% of load factor with the quality of yields obtained is very satisfying overall. The same goes for Q2, where we are reaching at this point more than 25% yield higher than what we saw back in 2019.
Yes, the overall load factor is a little bit lower, but we're very confident that the overall revenue for our flights are gonna be solid. Same goes when we look at summer right now. Even though there's some economic instability, we don't see a decrease in demand. We still see strong bookings coming in and again, strong increase in yields compared to 2019 and 2022 as well. The mix is going very well between the load factor and the yield, and we are very confident on the revenue side.
That's very clear, Annick. Thank you so much. The last one for me before I turn it over. Just on the fuel side of things, you know, I see you guys have not changed or, you know, made any changes to your assumed fuel price for the 4%-6% EBITDA margin guidance. Where the fuel prices are standing right now, are you seeing any potential for easing in fuel prices? Any color you can share in terms of your exposure to the East Coast refineries, where the fuel prices seem to be pretty high.
Yeah, look, the situation is very volatile, right? Like the fuel price, if you go back a few weeks, spiked. The refineries on East Coast were very high, historically high. We're as a Eastern-focused airline, we were highly exposed. Fast-forward a month later and things have eased as well. You know, the only thing we could take away there is that, you know, there's a high volatility looking forward. If you look at the forward curves, there seems to be a potential to a decrease in pricing, reducing the cost.
Then again, we're highly vigilant and, you know, for this reason, we do have, as you know, a hedging program, a hedging book in place because we do expect going forward there will be good volatility. In many respects, you know, we hope the forward curve to be correct and appropriate. If that's the case, we do see some upside. Again, you know, it's a very volatile market. Let's see what the next few months will look like.
Okay. No, that's great color . Again, I see you don't disclose the hedging numbers here, but assuming there's some hedging there.
Yes, correct. I, you know, in prior calls, we mentioned that in this context of high volatility, we do wanna cap our downside if the price of fuel, I'll also add in there the U.S. dollar, if they were to spike materially, we wanna be covered for that downside. At the same way, if fuel goes down or the U.S. dollar depreciates, we will also benefit in that in that potential. Yes, it is our, it is our philosophy right now to protect a significant portion of our fuel and U.S. dollar exposure.
Okay, that's great. Thanks for the color. I appreciate it, guys. Thank you.
Thanks, Konark.
Our next question comes from Cameron Doerksen with National Bank Financial. Please proceed.
Yeah, thanks. Good morning. I just wanna go back to the, I guess, the balance sheet question that Kevin had earlier. You know, you did mention that you may have some excess cash to pay down some debt at the end of the year, and obviously you're focusing on pushing some of the maturities on some of this or refinancing some of this higher interest debt that matures in 2024. When it comes to sort of the optimization of the balance sheet, I'm wondering if you can maybe update on your progress there or what your strategy is going to be.
Just 'cause if I look at, you know, sort of expectations for 2024 and getting back to kind of a more normalized EBITDA margin for the business. You know, your leverage ratio is still gonna be, you know, significantly higher than what we would normally see with an airline business. Maybe just give us an update on, you know, what your, what your sort of plans are or how you're thinking about optimizing the balance sheet?
Yeah. Look, I think in if you go back in time, the markets were more conducive to a refinancing with where rates are and with the general state of markets is. You know, we think a one wholesome refinancing will be, is not in the cards as we speak. However, we're thinking about it from a from an incremental mindset. If you look again, if you go back to our capital stack, the senior debt is really our focus and priority right now. Again, both because it's a variable rate and the interest rates are high, and also because it has a maturity in April of 2024. How do we repay that?
Yes, it may come from some excess cash, but as we've consistently mentioned, you know, we're looking to divest some assets, the notable one being the land in Mexico. We have tested the market, and we believe there's appetite for that asset. Might update in due course, but that's a source of capital. We will look at all other alternatives. If you asked about strategy, our near-term strategy is really to focus on that senior tranche, which totals about, you know, 20% of our debt stack.
Okay. Okay, that's fair enough. Just as far as like the bank facilities, you've got covenant relief that runs out to, I guess, end of October this year. I mean, are you fairly confident you're gonna be, I guess, on side with the, with the covenants once that relief ends?
Yes. You're right. We do have covenants, by the end of the tail end of this year, and we're confident to meet those thresholds.
Okay. Okay, that's good. Maybe just a question on the sort of the competitive environment. I mean, obviously yields here are very strong. I assume that's probably the case for really the all the industry players here. I'm just wondering if you can maybe talk a little bit about what you're seeing on the competitive environment and particularly what you're seeing, I guess, looking ahead for the summer. You know, how's the competitive capacity in your markets looking? Just any thoughts around on what your expectations are for for competition in the summer period.
When we're looking at summer right now, capacity is not fully back to our pre-pandemic levels. We are deploying on our side a strong program going back on all the routes that were profitable before the pandemic. As for the competition, we've seen WestJet that is pulling out of the European market out of Eastern Canada. This is a positive for us. We see as well opportunities for us to increase frequencies on routes that are key for us on the European market. As for the south market, we intend to increase our capacity, especially during spring and at the end of the season as well to be able to increase our overall aircraft utilization. Our program is very solid.
We understand as well that there are opportunities for us to increase our competitiveness. Most of the competition right now is around the domestic and the U.S. market with Flair and Lynx and Swoop of these worlds. We feel that we have a good playing ground, I would say, to be able to meet our plan for this summer.
Okay, very good. Thanks very much for your, for your answers.
Our next question comes from, Benoit Poirier with Desjardins Securities. Please proceed.
Yes. Good morning, everyone. With respect to the collection from credit card processor, you mentioned great color about the CAD 70 million impact, but just wondering whether the new partnership with Nuvei helps with this collection. Could we expect further benefits going through fiscal year 2024?
Part of our strategy, integrating Nuvei, into our sales in Europe is key to our strategy. You know, every credit card processor has their own risk assessment and guidelines there. Some may want to hold back cash a little longer than others. That criteria was part of our selection of Nuvei, where we think there was an opportunity to collect cash more quickly, and so would favor our working capital dynamics.
Again, when we go to why we said we think we would be cash flow positive is as we migrate volumes to other credit card processors like Nuvei, we think that, you know, cash will be remitted to us more quickly, and just, you know, frankly, returning to more normal working capital dynamics.
Okay, perfect. It's mostly a fiscal year 2023 story, Patrick, right?
Well, it's all, you know, it's all over the year, first of all, so it's a gradual thing. You know, the CAD 70 million, CAD 75 million was a one-time thing. We expect, like I previously mentioned, there's still about CAD 150 million with our credit card processors. We think that's gonna improve throughout the year. We think we will also see benefits as we enter into next fiscal year as well, Benoit.
Okay. That's great color. Are you seeing any early success from the new promotional campaign that was introduced in January? Could you maybe give us an update on the traffic generated from the Porter and WestJet, the codeshare agreement?
Regarding the promotion that we launched, it was very well received in the market. We saw an urge in the bookings. The trend was continuing, but we saw an urge the moment we launched the campaign, so that was very good for us for both sales for the winter season and the summer season as well. As for the agreements that we share with Porter and WestJet, we're at the beginning of these partnership at this point, but we are pretty satisfied with the results so far. We can say that at this point, they represent between 1%-2%, 2 points of percentage of our load factors, but this will increase over next summer and eventually will continue to increase in 2024.
Okay. Okay, that's great. With respect to the Mexico asset, you mentioned that you got some appetite. Any color about the timing, whether it could be done in fiscal year 2023?
Yeah. We'd like to, our objective is to provide better color by this summer. Obviously, like in all transactions, there's a potentially a timing gap between announcement and closing. Our objective is by the summer to be able to provide more color on that process.
Okay. That's perfect. When we look at the pilot shortage, we've seen many more articles about pilot shortage in Canada, also some supply chain headwinds with Airbus. Does it impact your ability to take delivery of planes or to train people, or you've been able to manage those concerns?
We've been able to manage. Of course, the labor market is tight right now, so far, we've been able to attract and retain all the people we need. So we do not see any issues with hiring at the current time. We are recruiting on average about 120 flight attendants per month and 20 pilots per month. So far, it's going well.
That's perfect. Last question, just in terms of booking post-pandemic, have you seen a shift in timing for booking with more last-minute booking or less, last-minute booking, any?
We used to see this, you know, be in 2000 when we did the resumption of our operation back in 2020 and then 2021. People were booking much last minute. The trend is back to normal right now. We're seeing similar trends as we saw back pre-pandemic. People are booking more in advance, which is good for us because we are able to plan a little bit more in advance in terms of load and of course, in terms of revenues.
That's great color . Thank you very much.
Yeah.
Our next question comes from Tim James with TD Securities. Please proceed.
Thanks very much. Thank you for the time today. I'm just wondering if you could comment on the three ACMI aircraft that are showing in the fleet schedule in the PowerPoint and what those are and just talk about the timing and use of those.
First of all, we have three A321LRs that will be delivered late. In addition to that, we have one A321LR that is out of operation because is where it was damaged on the ground in Vancouver. We don't have access to that aircraft right now. We had to contract three ACMI for this winter with SmartLynx Airlines. We are operating A321ceos and Boeing 737. For next summer, we will be operating four ACMI, two A330s plus two 737 MAX. These contracts allows us to maintain the flight programs that we have announced, we don't see necessarily additional costs.
We want to make sure that we keep the program we have because we have already bookings, of course, that are coming in on those routes. We started the ACMIs mid-December, and it's gonna last until the end of next summer.
Okay. Thank you. Just to confirm, so you're using three under ACMI through the end of the winter, and then you're going to four for the summer of fiscal 2023. Do I have that correct?
Yeah. Yep, exactly.
Okay.
Which are aligned with—
And then if—
Yeah, go. Go ahead.
I guess that just builds and leads into my next question. Just wondering if you could talk more generally then about your expected timing of your A321 LRs that you have on order. I realize it's further out, but also the A321XLR deliveries and just kind of how you see those playing out over the next several years.
The three Airbus A321LR that are due, that were due for this spring will come at the end of the summer. They will be delivered at the end of the summer. That's gonna be up to 15. We have the remaining LRs that will come in 2024. We'll have the first Airbus A321XLR that will be delivered in 2025, two in 2026, and we have an option in 2027.
Okay. I guess my last question, just looking at the slide seven. You know, the clear trend here is pricing is moving higher. You know, traffic levels, passenger levels relative to 2019, since the start of the year have actually started moderating. I don't know if you can answer this question, but do you think that's a function of, you know, the higher pricing just kind of moving some passengers to the sidelines? Or do you get a sense that sort of economic conditions may be just sort of causing, you know, what was very rapid growth in passenger numbers to moderate or pause here?
I think, like I said, early, when we look at revenue overall, you know, it would be easy for us to increase the load factor. What we see right now is really an opportunity to maximize overall revenues by increasing revenue by passenger. Given the strong demand, we saw this opportunity to increase the yield significantly to be able to maximize it. It's really a question of revenue management optimization. We keep looking, you know, always at the best balance between the load factor and the revenue per passenger. We're satisfied with what we see right now.
We think right now that it's better to push on the yield and maybe cut a little bit more on the load factor, depending on the flights, of course, because not all flights react in the same way. Right now, you know, we have implemented a tool that helps us maximize as well in when we look at the algorithm that PROS, the tool that we're using. With that tool, with the experience that we have right now, we really believe that we are maximizing revenues on all our flights, I would say.
Great. Thank you very much.
There are no further questions at this time.
Very well. Thank you everyone. Let me remind you that our second quarter results will be released on June 8th, 2023. Thank you, and have a nice day.
That does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your line.