Grupo Aeromexico, S.A.B. de C.V. (AERO) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning and welcome to AeroMexico 4th Quarter 2025 Financial Results. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. There will be a question and answer session at the end with instructions given at that time. For the webcast participants, you may submit questions at any time during the call using the Ask a Question section on the webcast. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Lucero Medina, Head of Investor Relations. Ms. Medina, you may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, and thanks for joining us. Welcome to Grupo Aeromexico's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today to discuss our results are Andres Corneta, Chief Executive Officer, Aaron Murray, Chief Commercial Officer, and Ricardo Sánchez-Baker, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that during the course of this call, we will present results that are based on our unaudited consolidated financials, which remain subject to revision upon completion of our annual audit process and other developments arising between now and the time our 2025 year-end audit is finalized. Accordingly, the financial results discussed today are based on information available to us as of the date of this call and are not a comprehensive final statement of our financial results for any period presented. In addition, we may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act regarding future events and our company's future performance. Such statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. We caution you that a number of important factors could come from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates, and intentions expressed in this call. Any forward-looking statements that we make today are based on assumptions as of today on our management's good faith beliefs with respect to the future events, but there can be no assurance given regarding our actual future results. Furthermore, we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of more information or future events. We also caution you to consider the risk factors that could cause actual results, including those disclosed in our financial prospectus data as of November 5, 2025, relating to our initial public offering and other documents filed with or furnished to the SEC from time to time by fair materially from those in the forward-looking statements that may be made during this call. For more information, please see the risks described in our published fourth quarter 2025 earnings release, the final prospectus for our IPO dated November 5th, 2025 with the SEC, and other documents that we may file with or furnish before the SEC from time to time. During this call, we will present both IFRS and non-IFRS financial measures on an audited basis. We have included a reconciliation and explanation of adjustments and other considerations of non-IFRS measures to the most comparable IFRS measures in our fourth quarter and full year 2025 unaudited earnings release. Our call is being webcasted and available at ir.airomexico.com. The earnings release is also available on the website. It is now my great pleasure to turn the call over to Andres Conet.

Thank you Lucero and good morning everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. We are pleased to present our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. These results reflect a strong year-end performance and underscore the consistent discipline execution of our team amid a challenging operating environment in 2025. The fourth quarter also confirmed the recovery momentum established in the prior quarter. I would like to thank and recognize all AeroMexico employees for the dedication and commitment. We truly have the best people in the industry and their professionalism, teamwork, and unwavering focus on safety and service. We're essentially navigating a dynamic operating environment and achieving the results we present today. Financially, the strength of our operations translated into record results, highlighting the scalability and resilience of our operating model. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 31%, the highest on record, while operating margin was 17%, representing the second strongest annual performance in the company's history. After a softer first half, demand strengthened meaningfully in the second half, particularly in the last quarter, supported by improving traffic trends across both domestic and international markets. This improvement translated into higher load factors and stronger unit revenues. These results were delivered despite ongoing regulatory constraints affecting our U.S. operations, underscoring the effectiveness of our network discipline revenue management actions and continued focus on profitability equally important we continue to progress on our capital allocation priorities during the year we invested in fleet modernization to improve efficiency and reliability while also making targeted investments to enhance our customer experience we fully deployed our new app in the last quarter of 2025 with enhancements for easier and faster check-in and trip management. In the coming months, we expect to complete several passenger experience enhancements, including the rollout of new check-in models and reopening of our redesigned VIP lounges at Mexico City International Airport. Operationally, Aeromexico maintain industry-leading reliability and customer experience. For the second consecutive year, Serium recognized us as the world's most on-time airline. We were in Mexico number one globally for 2025. At the same time, our commitment to service quality continued to be recognized by both customers and the industry. Last year, for the seventh consecutive year, we received the Apex Five Star Global Airline Award, and for the first time, we were also named APEX North America's Best Global Airline. Our team consistently upheld high service quality while safely transporting approximately 25 million passengers during the year, supported by a fleet of 165 operating aircraft at year-end, an increase of 17 aircraft compared to the prior year. Aeromexico was also recognized by the IATA through its Safety Management System assessments. This distinction represents the highest level of recognition in operational safety and reflects the maturity and robustness of our safety and risk management framework. Aeromexico is the first airline in Latin America and only the second airline in the Western Hemisphere to achieve this milestone. Overall, we reinforce our commitment to offering a consistently superior travel experience and to remaining the only true premium product in Mexico while continuing to increase long-term value for our shareholders. Aeromexico's proven ability to adapt, execute, and perform across a wide range of operating conditions gives us confidence as we enter 2026. Looking to the year ahead, we expect to build on the momentum generated in the second half of 2025. We plan to grow capacity around 4% with a disciplined approach to deployment, focusing on our most important resilient markets and prioritizing profitability. We maintain significant flexibility to respond to evolving demand conditions, including potential changes in operations at Mexico City Airport and possible industry consolidation in Mexico, which could result in the rationalization of unprofitable flying. In this dynamic environment, we remain confident in our capacity to generate strong and consistent results. From a commercial standpoint, demand trends remain encouraging. Corporate and high-income leisure segments continue to perform strongly, with premium revenue now representing approximately 42% of total revenues, nearly 17 points above pre-pandemic levels. Building on this momentum, we are selectively expanding our long-haul network this year with the launch of Mexico City Barcelona and Monterrey Paris, further strengthening our premium-led network and connectivity to Europe. In closing, Aeromexico enters 2026 from a position of strength, supported by the best team in the industry and a clear long-term vision. we are all well positioned to navigate change, capture opportunities, and create sustainable value for our customers, employees, and shareholders. Before I conclude, I want to wish all the best to Glenn Haustein, who has been part of our board of directors since 2022 and is retiring this month.

A trajectory such as Glenn's is remarkable in every respect. thank you Glenn for all the contributions you have made to our company with that I will turn it over to Aaron to discuss our commercial performance in more detail thank you very much thank you Andres and good morning everyone I want to thank the entire Aeromexico team for their outstanding work during a challenging year their commitment to our customers is a true differentiator for full year 2025, passenger revenue declined 4.4% year-over-year, and passenger unit revenue declined 4.9% year-over-year, reflecting the impact of currency, economic, and geopolitical headwinds earlier in the year. These headwinds were most pronounced in domestic border cities and the U.S. market, which prompted us to act early and right-size capacity to align with weaker demand in these geographies. As we discussed last quarter, these actions, along with recovering demand, enabled sequential quarter-over-quarter improvement through the balance of 2025, resulting in performance towards the upper end of our fourth quarter revenue guidance. We delivered record-breaking performance in the fourth quarter, both in terms of passenger revenue and passenger unit revenue, which were up 4.3 percent and 6.2 percent year-over-year, respectively this strength was experienced across domestic and all international regions worth noting our European performance was particularly strong in the fourth quarter as we continue to experience a stretching of demand into traditionally weaker periods additionally the USA portfolio continued to see improvement with passenger unit revenue up five percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter the third quarter in a row we experienced sequential improvement in unit revenue performance turning to premium while both cabins delivered solid profit margins premium continues to lead revenue performance reflecting our customers appetite for differentiated products and services in the fourth quarter premium unit revenue growth was six points above the main cabin on a year-over-year basis driven by improvements in both paid load factor and yields this performance is a direct result of the investments we've made in the premium experience and our continued progress in how we sell our premium products. On the loyalty front, we saw further growth in the percentage of our customers that participate in our loyalty program. In the fourth quarter, we reached a new record of 37%, up seven points year over year, and a 13-point improvement since the program's reacquisition and rebranding in 2023. Supported by ongoing investments in the loyalty experience, we continue to leverage our rewards program to deepen relationships while delivering value to our customers. Regarding our co-brand partnerships, we are excited to be launching our new credit card program within Bursa, effective June 1, 2026. Along with American Express, these partnerships are designed to deepen customer engagement, expand loyalty participation, and support long-term value creation across the Aeromexico Rewards ecosystem. Turning to Outlook, Ricardo will walk through the details of our guidance, but we are seeing encouraging demand trends early in 2026. To highlight this strength, the week ending January 25th delivered the highest weekly revenue sales performance within the first quarter in the company's history. In addition to core demand, we continue to see benefits from our revenue initiatives, including our next evolution of branded fares launched in the first quarter, enhancements to our retailing and merchandising capabilities, and a successful rollout of our new app. In closing, Aeromexico's performance in 2025 reflects our ability to execute effectively and adapt as conditions evolve. The momentum we built through the year positions us well to carry that profitable and sustainable growth into 2026. I'll now turn the call over to Ricardo.

Thank you, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. To begin, I want to echo Andres and Aaron in thanking the whole Aeromexico team for their outstanding dedication. Thanks to their hard work, we have achieved impressive results across finance, operations, and service. The team's pursuit of excellence continues to drive our success and our strong fourth quarter and full year performance. Our 2025 financial results demonstrate the strength of our business model. We achieved industry-leading performance, including a record-high quarterly EBITDA in the fourth quarter. For the full year, operating income reached the second-highest annual result in the company's history. As noted in previous quarterly reports, market conditions improved throughout the year, leading to higher traffic levels and enhanced unit revenues by year-end. In this context, Aeromexico reported total revenue of $5.4 billion in 2025, representing a 2% increase over 2024 when excluding extraordinary non-recurring items. The 2024 non-recurring items comprised one-time benefits from compensation received from Boeing due to the grounding of the 737 MAX, as well as revenue from expired tickets associated with prior commercial flexibility initiatives. Total revenue during the fourth quarter reached $1.4 billion, representing a 3% increase compared to last year, when extraordinary non-recording items are excluded. From a cost perspective, full year 2025 performance benefited from disciplined execution, continued efficiency initiatives, and improved fuel consumption per ASM. These positive factors were counterbalanced by increased labor costs due to collective bargaining and renegotiations, higher depreciation associated with fleet growth, IPO-related expenses, and the appreciation of the Mexican peso during the second half of the year, which raised peso-denominated costs. As a result, calcium excluding fuel rose by a moderate 1.8 percent year-over-year. During the fourth quarter, we recorded extraordinary income generated from the sale of TechOps, a maintenance joint venture equally owned by Aeromexico and Delta. Both companies made these investments to capitalize on market opportunities. Importantly, this transaction does not change how we maintain our aircraft or operate our We continue to rely on long-term maintenance agreements that support the reliability, efficiency, and safety of our operations. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year reached $1.7 billion with a 31% margin, the highest margin in the company's history. For the fourth quarter, adjusted EBITDA reached $502 million with a margin of 35%, the highest quarterly EBITDA on record. Excluding the take-off transaction and IPO-related expenses, adjusted EBITDA for the full year reached $1.6 billion with a 30% margin, and adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $435 million with a 30% margin. Full-year operating income was $928 million with a 17% margin, the second-best annual performance in the company's history. Four-quarter operating income totaled $303 million with a margin of 21%, representing a record four-quarter performance. Excluding the tech ops transaction and IPO-related expenses, operating income for the full year reached 861 million with a 16 percent margin and for the fourth quarter it totaled 236 million with a 16 percent margin in 2025 we maintain a robust cash flow cash flow generation delivering full year operating cash flow of 913 million this level of cash generation reflects the strength of our underlying operations app provided the financial flexibility to continue executing both our the leveraging strategy and our investment programs. Financial debt was reduced by $633 million during the fourth quarter and by $156 million over the full year, ending the year with an adjusted net debt-to-evitat ratio of 1.8 times. Our investment continues to focus on enhancing customer experience and optimizing operational efficiencies, supported by strategic investments in technology and infrastructure. Our fleet was strengthened with the addition of 17 MAX aircraft, while capacity was managed with discipline. The incorporation of these aircraft allows us to benefit in the future from greater operating leverage as we steadily increase aircraft utilization to match increased market demand. We return over $200 million to shareholders through capital disbursements in 2025, bringing total distributions since December 2023 to approximately $1.3 billion. These reimbursements demonstrate the company's commitment to deliver shareholder value while maintaining balance sheet strength. As of December 31st, cash and cash equivalents totaled $1 billion. If we include our undrawn revolving facility of $200 million, total liquidity stood at approximately $1.2 billion, representing 23% of last 12-month revenues. Looking ahead, the Mexican economy is expected to grow between 1.2% and 1.5% in 2026, according to consensus estimates from various financial institutions. In this environment, we intend to increase ASM capacity by 3% to 5% over the full year. This growth will begin to take shape from the CEPCOM quarter onward, since the first quarter still reflects a high baseline for 2025. We are confident 2026 will be another strong year. We expect revenue to grow in the range of 7.5% to 9.5%, while adjusted EBITDA margins are expected to range between 28.5% and 30.5%, and operating income margins are expected to range between 15% and 17% respect. Turning to the first quarter of 2026, we expect total revenue to grow in the range of 10% to 12% year-over-year, supported by continuous strength in demand and effective commercial execution. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the first quarter of 2026 is expected to range between 26 and 28 percent, while operating income margin is expected to range between 11 and 13 percent, reflecting continued focus on profitability and disciplined execution. In closing, our latest results demonstrate strong execution, disciplined financial management, and the ability to deliver outstanding performance even in a complex operating environment. We entered 2026 with a solid balance sheet, strong liquidity, and a dedicated commitment to profitable and sustainable growth, giving us confidence in our positive outlook for the year. Thank you very much. We are now ready to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you. To ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. On the webcast, type in through the ask a question section. And one moment, please, for our first question. The first question comes from Dwayne Finneganworth with Evercore. Your line is now open.

Thank you. Good morning. It's nice to be on the call with you. Just a couple questions. First on the demand impacts related to FX. Can you speak to purchasing power dynamic in Mexico? Obviously, the comps are very easy in front of us, so it may be tough to measure. But are you seeing a pickup in demand from a stronger peso? And maybe highlight what you've seen in prior periods, maybe how much of a lag there is between when the currency moves and maybe when you see that knock-on effect to improving demand.

Hi, Dwayne. Nice to see you. Nice to hear you. Let me make a brief comment and then, as we've stressed in the past, we have a natural hedge. We have a match between our revenue and our expenses in dollars. But, you know, there is a second-order effect that with a stronger peso, we see a pickup in demand for travel, as well as the case in the previous stage of strong peso appreciation. So, that effect, with the very strong pesos we're seeing today, can be relevant and shifts demand to the right, and that at the end translates into, and that's probably stressing what we are seeing for the first Q, as it was explained on the guidance, revenues will grow 10 to 12. EBIT is going to grow more or less the same, around 10%. So margins do, probably you can see some negative impact on margins with a strong peso because of a higher revenue based in dollar. EBITDA and EBIT are growing significantly as well, positive cash flow generation, for example. So with that, let me turn to Aaron or Ricardo if they want to complement.

Yeah, just in terms of what we're seeing in terms of demand, there's no doubt a stronger peso drives demand for us. And in terms of the timing of seeing that historically, it's actually rather quickly. I mean, our booking curve is a little condensed here, and so we do see a strong short order. When I look at it the first quarter, which we have a really good view on, though, our unit revenue growth isn't just because of current demand. And even when you kind of trip out from an FX perspective, we're growing, you know, the business on an FX neutral basis as well. So definitely stronger pesos leading the demand and driving our strong first quarter guidance.

Thanks for that. And then just for my follow up, can you speak to opportunities to deleverage the business? What will be your priorities for debt pay down over the balance of 2026? And thanks for taking the questions.

Hi, Dwayne. This is Ricardo. I mean, in terms of the leveraging, as you know, in terms of financial debt, we basically only have the senior secured notes that were issued in November of 2024. We don't think right now it would be a good opportunity to do something there. We have some small debt associated to financial leases for aircraft fleet that will mature in the next few months. So that is going to finish. But really for us, in terms of deliberating, the big opportunity comes on the present value of the leases. As we have mentioned before, last year we received 17 aircraft already included in both our P&L and in the balance sheet in terms of the present value of the leases. But we are not really going to grow in the next couple of years in terms of aircraft. So basically, the amortizations that are going to be paid or associated to the present value of the leases are going to be reflected in lower leverage. So that's where we see also a big opportunity as we put these assets into more use, given that we already have the ownership cost in our P&L and that we have the liabilities in our balance sheet. As we produce more revenue with this aircraft, definitely we will see lower leverage through higher EBITDA and also through more amortization of this debt.

And also higher liquidity at the end because of the same reason. So it's a combination of all the factors.

Thank you.

Thank you. And our next question will come from Michael Lindenberg with Deutsche Bank. Your line's open.

Good morning, team. I have two questions here. Just one with respect to the sale of your MROJV. Who is that sold to? And does Delta still own the other 50%? And as I recall, I believe it was actually a bit of a profit center, or maybe it wasn't. How does that change the P&L, whether you no longer get the pickup in the JV or maybe your maintenance expenses now go up?

Yes, thank you, Michael. I mean, yeah, the MRO facility, as you might remember, around 10 years ago, both Delta and Aeromexico decided to establish a joint venture to provide maintenance services in Querétaro to Delta, Aeromexico, and third parties. After several years of operation, and particularly after the COVID crisis, in 2022, we decided to transfer all operations, management, and employees, and also all permits and licenses to a third party that was actually operating the business. And the revenue that both Delta and Aeromexico received was only associated to the lease of the facilities, the lease of the hangar. That's why now we saw a good opportunity last year, and actually in negotiations led by Delta, we decided to divest and sell our business. So both Delta and Aeromexico, we both sold, and that resulted in this profit of 71 million in the P&L. I mean, what we will be losing, you know, going forward is just basically the least amount that we were obtaining from this, which is really not material. And important to mention that in terms of maintenance, since we transferred these operations to these third parties since 2022, we have been operating with a commercial agreement, you know, that gives us very competitive maintenance rates. We service there our E190s and our 737-NGs, and we do in-house the 737 MAX and the 787. So also, as we have grown more in the MAX circle, we rely less and less on Querétaro. So that's why we thought it was a good opportunity to sell.

Oh, that's great. That makes sense. And then, very helpful. Then just my second question is that we're now at a point where your antitrust immunized joint venture with Delta, it's business as usual, given the ruling by U.S. courts, but can you just update us on where things stand with respect to the restrictions from the two Mexico cities to the U.S.? it seems like that those flights are still being restricted, but that the restriction that was contemplated about cargo has actually not been put into effect. Can you just update us on what's going on there? Thanks for taking my question.

Hi, Michael. Good to hear from you. The U.S. courts, we were allowed to keep this ATI with Delta. As you know, and we've explained before, this has to do not with Iron Mexico or with Delta, but on, you know, the argument by the U.S. government that the Mexican government is not complying with the Open Skies Agreement. And it's mainly due to cargo, as, you know, the cargo-based companies were moved from AICM to IFA. What I know from, you know, talking to our government is that talks have been going very well between the two. So we expect, you know, decision to be behind us you know relatively soon as part of that also and this is you know public information see these cargo companies were offered the possibility to do some flying from AICM and most of them if not all decided to stay in IFA because you know for cargo related operations probably IFA is a better airport than the AICM and maybe you know just a few cargo operations will move so again once that issue is solved because the other two that were in the table that had to do with the slots being returned to a couple of U.S. operators and how the slot management is done in Mexico City, that already has been resolved. So it was only this third issue. We are okay because we deployed all of our U.S. routes from the metropolitan area in Mexico City before. So this year, we're okay. We hope this issue will be solved. Obviously, if this you know extends beyond 26 we would have an issue right because it would not allow us to grow from from exocity but we we think that it's very very unlikely okay great thanks for everything thank you and our next question will come from gilaher mendez with jp morgan your lines open yes thank you good morning everybody and it is aaron ricardo lucero thanks so much for taking my question and the results.

I had two follow-ups. The first one is on the guidance. Can you share the assumptions using for effects and jet tube prices, please? And the second point, back to Ricardo's point, that you guys don't need extra planes to keep growing, that you used to have tomato capacity there.

How should you think about how much you can grow and for how long without getting additional planes uh in in the coming years thank you yes uh thank you and in terms of of the assumption that we have from the guidance uh what we are including in terms of fx is an average for the year of around 18.3 pesos per per dollar so that that's our assumption and in terms of fuel is is basically a rent of around 69 dollars per barrel so so those are basically our assumptions with a crack spread that is roughly around $25 per barrel. So as mentioned before, what we estimate is that the economy is going to grow between 1.2% to 1.5%. And given the income elasticity that we have seen in the past where GDP growth, that's why we think we can grow on a healthy basis between 3% to 5%. And that's what we have included in our plan to make sure that we can grow, but grow profitable.

Hi, Gilern. Good to hear from you as well. Based growth going forward, for this year, we are expecting to receive three maxes and a couple of 787s. So we will end up the year roughly with 170 planes. That, you know, behind the growth in the midpoint of the range of 4%, will allow us in 2026 to continue with this type of growth, say in a neighborhood of 5%, for the next couple of years beyond 26. So we wouldn't need any additional planes to have an accumulated growth for the next three years of, say, 15 to 20 percent, 26, 27, and 28. Beyond that, we would need to get additional capacity to continue this growth trend.

Very clear. Thank you both.

Thank you. The next question will come from Yen Speaks with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Hi, everybody.

Yes.

So I have two follow-up questions.

One to the question that Michael did on the regulatory situation in Mexico. Just to be clear, at the moment, you're still not able to add new routes to the U.S. from the Mexico City airport. Basically, what needs to happen needs the government to lift that restriction. And at the end of the day, trying to understand, is it really a negative or net positive for you guys? Because I guess it's a negative in the sense that it hinders a bit your capacity deployment in the future. But on the other hand, it also creates this scarcity, which you are probably the best position to capitalize on. So just trying to pick your brain on how you're viewing this whole situation. And my second question is a follow-up to Guilherme's question on the assumptions. I'm just trying to understand what is your load factor and RASM assumption embedded in your guidance? Because it seems that you're increasing capacity by around 4% while revenues are growing by around 8%.

I guess part of it is back but I don't know it seems that that that you're probably also assuming an increase in prices so just trying to understand get more granularity on the guidance thank you yeah I'll take the DOT one yeah thanks for the question so yes I mean we would need the the government the US DOT to lift that restriction to grow so you're correct and that right now we are in a situation where we cannot add new routes from mexico city metropolitan area is that a net negative i'd say in the short term and i'll go back to what andres talked about when we've grown a ton to the us from mexico city uh since we moved back into cat one so i'd say roughly a 30 to 35 capacity growth so on the positive end we have invested a ton of capacity into the trans border market over the last couple years. So I think that's worth noting. In terms of restrictions going forward, is it limiting? You saw that we were excited about adding Mexico City to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We had to cancel that close in. Of course, that's not a positive. We would love to enter that market. But when you look out at 2026 growth in our plans, I would call it a slight negative to neutral, given how much we've grown in the trans-border market over the last couple of years. That's how I'd answer that piece. And then as far as the guidance, Ricard, I'll go ahead and take that. In terms of what our expectations are for full year 26 at a global level, it's really going to be driven in the form of yields. Our plan, in particular, as we move through the balance of the year is that is a yield yield driven growth at the end of the year load factor expected to be you know in the in the flattish range and are in the middle of our guidance that's not true for the first quarter as we laugh some of the challenges that we faced last year but given the the larger capacity growth you know at the tail end of the year the net result will be you call it neutral on load factor, and the majority, the vast majority of our revenue growth will be in the form of yields.

And just as Aaron mentioned, we expect, I mean, yields to grow even effects adjusted, no, given that we are seeing a strong recovery in some of the segments that were weaker last year and others remained, other segments remained strong. And there's also some effects factor, as you mentioned. The average foreign exchange of last year was around 19.3 per dollar, and we are including in our guidance 18.3, so there's an appreciation that, of course, also has some impact on the revenue rate.

All right. Appreciate it, guys.

Thank you. And the next question is going to go to Felipe Nelson with Citi. Your line is now open. Felipe, your line is now open.

Hey, thanks for the space to ask questions. Good morning, everyone. So I have two questions, two follow-ups on my side. One is related to the guidance. Yeah, still. So looking at costs and looking especially at XU costs now, How should we think about the different lines evolving throughout the year? You are guided for quite strong top-line growth. On the margin side, we see kind of a stable environment for the year. How should we see that developing in terms of the impact of effects in wages or maintenance or how should you think about that evolving on the XFU guidance? And my second one is related to premium. So you presented a significant growth of premium share in your revenue. Just wondering how should we expect, like, further increases?

Where should this improve, stabilize? do you have any any sense on the share going forward thanks hi thank you I will start with the cost part and then now if are on the floor to discuss on the premium revenue so on the cost side as you mentioned there are several factors know that embedded in our guidance also so one is a gen 20 20 26 and we saw already in 2025. We saw the full impact, for example, of our labor negotiations that took place in 2024. That was already reflected in 2025. So for 2026, on the labor side, it basically increases in line with inflation. However, since these are peso-denominated costs, there is an impact on the cost side of the stronger peso that also brings up our cost. The other variable similar to what we saw last year is the annualization of these ownership costs that we have given the 17 MAX aircraft that have been incorporated to our fleet. So that's also putting some pressure on our cost side. So that's why overall, as you mentioned, we have top revenue growth, but we have some impact on the cost side and margins are relatively stable. Important to mention that there's also a mathematical impact that Andres described on the margins. As we have the exchange rate appreciation, our revenue base goes up. And just even though our EBITDA on absolute levels are protected because we have this natural hedge between our revenue and costs, given that the revenue base is higher, margins are exchange appreciation. So that's also part of the math that is behind the guidance.

And before allowing Aaron to take the second question, the other fairly important aspect, as we mentioned, is this operational leverage. Today we have the capacity to fly significantly more than what we have, as I mentioned before, for the next couple of years. So taking, you know, taking aside any impact, you know, of the strong peso as we produce more ASKs, we see there is an opportunity in the next two to three years to, you know, to see, you know, good numbers on the cask ex-fuel because of this operational leverage as well.

Yeah, and on the premium side, I think it's important to start out, actually, that while we're seeing what everybody's seeing in the industry coming out of the pandemic really is just an appetite for better experiences, premium products and services. It's worth pointing out when you look at cabins, the margins aren't that different between our main cabin and our premium cabin. Premium cabin is a little bit higher, but no, we don't have a situation where we're breaking even or losing money in the main cabin and making all our money in the premium cabins. That's a little bit different than maybe some of the industry. With that being said, there's no doubt the last four years our premium cabins continue to grow. In fact, the stat we track internally that's very interesting that Andres highlighted is the percent of our passenger revenue that comes in the forms of premium products, products above our main cabin. So that would even include some flexibility. And that hit 42% this year. Pre-pandemic, that number was in the mid-20s, so roughly 17-point growth there. So you can see us, you know, monetizing that. So no doubt consumer behavior trends have adjusted, but also at the same time, our ability to retail and to sell premium products and services, whether that be directly through, you know, our own app and website or, you know, the types of programs we have with our third-party distributors, you know, those things have been focused on premium and we're getting, you know, much better at selling premium products. So, you know, what does the future hold? You know, our plan and what we expect to see is, you know, a continued appetite for premium products and services. And I think our ability to get, you know, better at selling those and presenting those right to consumers will allow premium revenue to probably grow at a slightly faster clip than main cabin.

Great. This is all super good. Thank you.

Thank you. as a reminder to ask a question please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced our next question will come from Pablo Montevay with Barclays your line is open all right good morning for taking my question but my first question is in terms of the v-vambular is merger and as you mentioned in your remarks that you're expecting some rationalization of the capacity so it is fair for us to uh think that if this deal is approved we should start to see uh a more supportive uh yield environment for 2027 uh going forward for the domestic market that's my first question and my second question is in terms of the utilization hours uh average utilization for your uh aircraft that started operations last year do we have some room of opportunity there to increase that utilization and have that incremental operating leverage. Thank you.

Thank you, Pablo. Good to talk to you. On the first question, as you know, this was announced at the end of last year. I believe they formally submitted the request. So we're just in the first stages of learning of what's the view of the authorities for this potential transaction so let's uh you know let let's wait and see you know what uh what what will happen again you know that this type of transactions as it was the case for example in our case when we did the jb with delta it was subject to remedies so we need to wait and see what will be you know the remedies imposed on these transactions so once we have that we can probably get back and tell you with more detail what our view and what will be the impact on us going forward. But what we will do is, and that's regardless of what happens with this potential merge, is to continue investing in our product. As we have been very insistent in the past, this very strong cash flow generation continued to invest around $500 million of capex to enhance the product we are in the process of again of investing heavily in our white bodies in the for the model is successful and you know if we continue to do it not regardless of what happens on the on the other side you know i also mean you know i want to stress that they have a different business model than the one that not that we have there is a slight overlap but you know we are a full service carrier and it's you know way different so we will be successful again regardless of what's the outcome on the other transaction. And on the utilization, just let me give you some, you know, 36,000 feet view. The white bodies are, you know, working as intensively as you can. They have a very high utilization rate, but also the completion factor on the 787s and on the rest of the fleet is amazing. We have the best completion factor in the world in 2025. There is room to improve the utilization, particularly on the narrow-body fleet, both on the 190s and on the 737s. Again, because demand was not there. No, we have the aircraft. Obviously, we also do not have all the crews to produce if they are utilized more efficiently. So as we deploy this 4% expansion and the next year and so, So we will gradually be used to, again, use more intensively than our own bodies. That's roughly where we are.

Yes. Thank you, Pablo. Just to complement Andres, I mean, we see definitely opportunities to have more utilization, but important to highlight that we don't want to stress the operation, but just basically take the level of utilization back to what we had in 2024 when we were the most punctual airline in the world. We were, again, the most punctured airline in 2025, but we do see opportunities. In terms of the narrow-body fleet, as Andres mentioned, right now, our average utilization is around nine hours, and we think we can get closer to 2024 levels that were closer to 10 hours. So that's why just by doing that, we have the opportunities to grow significantly in the next two to three years. and is that already embedded in in the guidance or or it's just on the upper range i mean it's part partially there because i mean growth is between three to five percent but that that growth is not enough to take full advantage of this opportunity no that that's why uh as andres mentioned this opportunity will still uh bring benefits in 27 and 28. unless we see more growth opportunities then then then this will take longer to to reflect on the pnl and balance okay just let

me just complement i think this is a very relevant point and as you know i mean we continue and it's on top of the agenda you know our our offering from mexico city is the most important no aspect of our product on aicm and we've grown through up gauging there may be the case that we have you know more more slots there you know more operations per hour and we have a fair share of those slots, but we also are seeing other opportunities outside Mexico City. We are analyzing a few of them, so again, we're not ready to launch any additional service outside Mexico City, but we feel there are a significant number of ones in the medium term, and later in the year, we may be ready to do it, so as part of this expansion of the company going forward, that's another big area that we're exploring.

Perfect. Thank you very much.

Thank you, and I am showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Andres Canosa, CEO, for closing remarks.

Well, thank you for joining the call. Let us know if you have additional questions here. Lucero, Alejandro, and all the team, and Aaron, Ricardo, and myself are ready not to handle any additional questions you may have. Thank you, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in the next quarter.

Goodbye. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.