Cargojet Q3 2025 Earnings Report

Cargojet EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.32
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Cargojet Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $219.90 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Cargojet Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2025
• Date: 11/5/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 8:30AM ET

Cargojet (TSE:CJT) Inc operates a domestic air cargo co-load network between sixteen major Canadian cities. The company provides dedicated aircraft to customers on an Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance basis, operating between points in Canada, USA, Mexico and Europe. The company also operates scheduled international routes for multiple cargo customers between the USA and Bermuda, between Canada, UK and Germany; and between Canada and Mexico.

Cargojet Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Cargojet confirmed Pauline Dillon as CEO effective January 1, 2026, with co‑founder Jamie Porteous stepping back but remaining a strategic advisor and AJ staying engaged, signaling leadership continuity and an internal succession plan.
• Negative Sentiment: Management flagged near‑term macro uncertainty — persistent tariffs and the removal of the U.S. de minimis have disrupted Trans‑Pacific e‑commerce and led to lower ACMI and charter activity and reduced block hours year‑over‑year.
• Positive Sentiment: The domestic network stayed resilient (domestic revenue ~CAD 100M, up ~6% YoY) and cost discipline helped maintain an adjusted EBITDA margin of roughly 32%, consistent with historical low‑30% levels.
• Positive Sentiment: Capital and balance‑sheet moves — redeemed 5.25% debentures with lower‑rate 4.599% notes, expect net leverage to fall below 2.5x in early 2026, and plan minimal growth CapEx — which should lower interest costs and preserve financial flexibility.
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic growth actions include a return to scheduled transatlantic service to Liège, renewal of large customer agreements, and continued pursuit of long‑term charter opportunities, creating pathways for revenue recovery when trade normalizes.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day and welcome to the Cargojet conference call. Today's conference is being recorded and at this time I would like to turn the conference call over to Mr. David Tomljenovic, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[David Tomljenovic, VP of Investor Relations at Cargojet]

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us on this call. With me on the call today are Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman, Pauline Dhillon, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Porteous, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Aaron McKay, Chief Financial Officer, Sanjeev Maini, VP Finance, Rémi Tremblay, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. After opening remarks about the quarter, we will open the call for questions. I would like to point out that certain statements made on this call, such as those relating to our forecasted revenues, costs and strategic plans, are forward-looking within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This call also includes references to non-GAAP measures like adjusted EBITDA, adjusted earnings per share and return on invested capital.

[David Tomljenovic, VP of Investor Relations at Cargojet]

Please refer to our most recent press release and MD&A for important assumptions and cautionary statements relating to forward-looking information and reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to GAAP income. I will now turn the call over to Ajay.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today. In November 2023 we announced the first phase of our leadership transition with my move into the Executive Chair role and the appointment of Jamie Porteous and Pauline Dillon as co-CEOs. Today, as we move into the next phase of that transition, I want to take a moment to recognize the outstanding contributions of Jamie Porteous and to officially welcome Pauline as Cargojet's next CEO. Both Jamie and Pauline were founding partners of Cargojet 24 years ago. From day one. They have developed and built this company from ground up. They were guided by a shared commitment of reliability, customer service and excellence in everything we do. Jamie has played an instrumental role in transforming Cargojet from a small Canadian startup into a global air cargo leader.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

His strategic vision, discipline and customer first mindset have been central to our success. On behalf of the Board, our employees and our shareholders, I want to sincerely thank Jamie for his incredible leadership and his 24 years of dedicated service. While Jamie will be stepping back from daily operations to spend more time with his family in the new year, I am pleased to share that he will remain available to provide strategic advice, support and ongoing guidance for this transition and ongoing business. His insight will continue to be a great asset to the organization and we are thankful to Jamie for continuing on his role as a strategic advisor. As Executive Chair, I will also remain deeply engaged with the process, mentoring Pauline, working closely with the Board and the team to ensure a smooth and deliberate and thoughtful transition.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

The Board is proud to confirm Pauline Dhillon as our next CEO effective January 1st, 2026. Pauline has been with us since day one and over the past two decades she has worked in virtually every part of the business from network operations, customer relations, marketing, government affairs, Chief Corporate Officer and co-CEO. As co-CEO she played a key role in building Cargojet brands, strengthening our customer relationships, driving employee engagement and over the past two years she has continued to lead with purpose driving growth, innovation and operational excellence. Pauline has grown up with the Cargojet system. She embodies our culture, our people first values and our customer service obsession. The same ingredients that have made Cargojet successful over 20 years.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

She has my full confidence, she has the full support of Jamie Porteous, she has the full support of Board and she has the full support of her team to lead this organization to the next chapter of our global growth. Thank you very much and I will turn the call over to Jamie Porteous.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

Thanks Ajay and good morning everybody. Let me begin by sharing how sincerely grateful I am for the career that I've had at Cargojet and to the many colleagues who have helped shape our business into what it is today. Including of course Ajay and Pauline whom I have worked beside since day one with a simple but bold plan to create a world class air cargo carrier. We are truly a Canadian success story from both a transportation company and a public company standpoint and have built a legacy that will endure for many, many years for all stakeholders.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

As Ajay said, I am extremely optimistic about the company's future and I am fully confident in Pauline's capabilities to lead Cargojet into the next chapter and wish her and the entire Cargojet family the best of success and will continue to support and cheer you on from the sideline while I enjoy my next chapter. Thank you. Now let me share some comments on the quarter. Entering the back half of 2025, the near term impact of seismic shifts in global trade became more apparent as persistent tariffs and other trade barriers became the new normal. Demand remained uncertain as major policy shifts continued including the removal of the U.S. De minimis exemption, disrupting Trans-Pacific e-commerce flows and tempering near term growth expectations. The longer term impacts of this new trade world order are still developing, but new behaviors rippling through global supply chains and consumer behaviors.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

In that light, and as we noted last quarter, resilience is the key to thriving in this unprecedented period this quarter. I would add the word discipline as well, although in the longer term we expect the world to adapt in global trade to reestablish new normal patterns, it remains likely that the near term will be characterized by continued uncertainty. Some volatility through that environment, resilience and discipline will underpin Cargojet's ability to continue to deliver high quality results. Periods of change bring opportunities as well as challenges. Historically, Cargojet has demonstrated a very successful capability to take advantage of macro level economic changes in the past, most recently through the boom of e-commerce during COVID and our job continues to be to find opportunities for disciplined profitable growth in this ever changing trade environment.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

At the core of our business, our domestic network remains strong, growing by more than 6% year over year and over 12% year to date, primarily because of the continuing growth of e-commerce volumes within Canada as well as the increased business-to-business volumes and the impact of inflation-based price increases. As disruption in transatlantic trade routes continued, we saw a corresponding decline in our ACMI revenue year over year as we described in the second quarter. Despite the disruption, our ACMI partnerships remained strong with the decline reflecting a shift of our ACMI operations to be more north-south focused within the Americas resulting in lower block hours year over year.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

However, I must point out, with the same number of contracted aircraft, we remain optimistic that in the longer term air cargo corridors will stabilize and Cargojet will be well positioned to take advantage of early returning opportunities with our ACMI partners. We also saw a year over year decline in our charter business as disruptions to Trans-Pacific trade, particularly e-commerce volumes, meant that we operated three flights per week through the third quarter versus an average of closer to five flights a week in the third quarter of 2024 between China and Canada. We anticipate this frequency recovering late in Q4 as we enter the holiday peak season and we continue to explore new opportunities for longer term charter arrangements.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

We remain confident that discipline and resilience, coupled with our diversified revenue streams and flexible fleet, will allow us to continue to deliver strong margins in any macro environment and to remain well positioned to take advantage of and seek out new profitable growth opportunities through this near term period of disruption and in the longer term when demand returns. With that, I'll hand it over to my longtime partner, colleague and friend and our next CEO, Pauline Dhillon.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Thank you, Jamie. I am honored to assume the role of CEO after serving alongside Jamie as Co-CEO for the past two years. Jamie's leadership and strategic vision have been instrumental in building Cargojet into a market leader with a strong financial and operational foundation. I want to thank him sincerely for his decades of contribution and partnership and his continued support as my Co-CEO and, going forward, my Strategic Advisor. I'd like to sincerely thank Jamie for his friendship. I wish Jamie and his family all the very best as they embark on this new chapter of their lives. Looking ahead, I am as excited about the future of Cargojet as I was on day one. I want to thank the Executive Chairman along with the Board of Directors for their continued confidence in me. We have a clear strategy, a strong ambition, and proven capability.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Our diversified business model, disciplined execution and a highly talented team position us well to capture new growth opportunities and to continue delivering long term value to our customers and our shareholders. As Jamie noted earlier, our position as the number one air cargo carrier in Canada is the result of years of resilient operations, delivering time and time again for our customers through periods of both opportunity and adversity. That resiliency comes directly from our unique culture and the efforts of the Cargojet team. I want to thank each and every one of those team members for their ongoing efforts, their dedication and their commitment to safety, especially as we enter our peak holiday season.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

As we discussed on our Q2 call, two of our largest customers renewed long term agreements with us early in the third quarter, demonstrating the strength of those relationships and locking in long term revenue sources and offering Cargojet preferred opportunities to fly additional routes as they develop. Even as we renew and reinvigorate relationships with our partners, we continue to look for new opportunities. As Jamie mentioned. To that end, we recently announced Cargojet's return to transatlantic markets with scheduled service to Liège, Belgium, linking our extensive domestic network with direct access into Europe's leading cargo gateway. We also continue to explore new long term charter opportunities globally as we see real market opportunity in that vertical.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

We also renewed our position as Canada's only ISO 9001:2015 Certified Air Cargo Carrier in the third quarter and in October renewed our IOSA registration, demonstrating our commitment to making safety the core of everything we do. During the third quarter we announced the redemption of our 5.25% senior unsecured debt debentures due in 2026, which we completed subsequent to quarter end using proceeds from our offering of 4.599% senior notes, extending our overall debt maturity profile and reducing our interest costs. As in Q2, we saw block hours decline year over year as a result of the shift from the transatlantic ACMI flying to South American routes as well as lower frequency of China chartered flights.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

However, our disciplined approach to cost management continues to produce tangible results as we were able to successfully scale many cost lines along with operational activity, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA margin of roughly 32%, consistent with our historical results of adjusted EBITDA margins in the low 30% range. Discipline and flexibility in our fleet management are major drivers of Cargojet success. During the quarter, we sold one 767-300 and leased one 757-200 to third parties, reducing our overall fleet size to 41. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we expect to take delivery of one 767-300 aircraft from conversion and complete the sale of another aircraft, resulting in no net change in our fleet size. While we expect to take delivery of a fully converted 767-300 in Q1 of 2026, we currently expect to lease that aircraft to a third party on or shortly after delivery.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

We will continue to look for opportunities to scale our fleet appropriately for the size and the needs of our business, something we have demonstrated a track record of successfully doing. I'll now pass the call over to our new Chief Financial Officer, Aaron McKay. We're excited to have him join our team for his remarks on the company's financial performance in Q3.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Thanks, Pauline. I want to start off by saying how thrilled I am to be joining the leadership team of Canada's leading air cargo carrier. I'm passionate about aviation and I've immediately felt the passion that all of our Cargojet team members have for this business as well. I'm looking forward to the challenges and opportunities we'll face together as a team in the coming months and years. As Pauline and Jamie noted, discipline and resilience are words that we're very proud to have described the financial management of the business. The resilience of the business in a very challenging environment this quarter is apparent in the diversity of our revenue streams. In the third quarter, domestic revenue came in at just under CAD 100 million, up almost CAD 6 million or 6% year over year, helping to partially offset declines in ACMI and charter revenue.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

As Jamie and Pauline mentioned, those declines were primarily driven by two very distinct changes linked to the macroeconomic environment. Fuel surcharge and other revenue was down 8.7% year over year, which compares favorably to the 9.3% decline in direct fuel costs, demonstrating our ability to pass on fuel and other costs as part of our pricing model. Against that backdrop, the business maintained a relatively strong adjusted EBITDA margin. As Pauline noted, one item to call out is that year over year in gross margin because we include some less variable non EBITDA impacting items like depreciation and heavy maintenance, amortization that are driven by the timing of maintenance events and fleet size in direct expenses. Our gross margin was squeezed with revenue declines excluding those items.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Our gross margin is much more stable year over year with some increases in direct costs being partially offset by reductions in SGA at the adjusted EBITDA level. Prudent and disciplined capital allocation remains a key priority for Cargojet. Maintaining a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 1.5-2.5 times over the long term. Supporting the investment grade credit rating we achieved in the second quarter of this year is a key objective for us. The current operating environment as well as the timing of certain fleet transactions has pushed our expected return to a net leverage ratio below 2.5x, which we now expect to achieve in early 2026. We remain dedicated to that goal and will balance that objective with returns to shareholders through continued dividend growth and the opportunistic use of our normal course issuer bid.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Pauline walked through the fleet changes in the quarter which resulted in growth capital expenditures of CAD 22 million, a sequential decline from Q1 and Q2 as we believe the investments we have made to date as well as our near term fleet plans are sufficient to meet near term growth plans. Maintenance capital expenditures in the quarter were CAD 45.5 million, again a sequential decline from the first two quarters of the year net of proceeds from disposal. The third quarter we saw an overall reduction in year to date net CapEx of roughly CAD 41 million to just over CAD 170 million by the end of September.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

We now expect Q4 gross CapEx to be in the range of CAD 45 million-CAD 55 million, with approximately half of that amount as growth CapEx as a result of the expected delivery of one 767-300 aircraft from conversion. As we previously disclosed, we are actively looking at transactions that may reduce that incremental CapEx in Q4 to near zero. I'll close by saying how pleased I am to become part of the Cargojet family and I look forward to spending more time with Cargojet team members, our customers, and the folks on this call. With that, I'll pass it back to Pauline to close out before we take questions.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Thanks Erin. I want to close by once again saying how proud I am of the Cargojet team members for their dedication to the success of our business, resilience, and discipline they demonstrate in their work. Every day we have the cargo pedigree. While the economic environment remains uncertain, we are confident that those qualities will continue to drive success of our business in the long run. Thank you for joining us. Kelsey will take questions now.

[Operator]

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We'll now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment please for your first question. Your first question comes from Konark Gupta from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

[Operator]

Hi there.

[Operator]

This is Nate filling in for Konark. Thanks for taking my questions and congrats Jamie for a great career and Pauline for succeeding. Just two quick questions. One is how do you expect the recently renewed DHL contract revenue to ramp up through 2026 as you navigate the near term room transition to short haul?

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

Thanks. Thanks, Nate. And thanks for the comments. I mean, as I said in my remarks, we do not see, we do not expect a rapid increase in revenues. It will really be dependent on what some of the global impact of the trade negotiations between the U.S. and other countries. As those get resolved, I think we will see a slow and steady ramp up. I do not anticipate it would be until later in 2026 and into 2027 at this point.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

Yeah, I just want to add in also that with DHL we are one of the preferred carriers because of our strategic partnership with them. When the Europe and other areas slow down for them, we were given the opportunity to fly routes in South America which are less block hours. None of our aircraft were displaced. I think DHL and Cargojet's relationship being strong enough, we are the last carrier that gets any notice if there's any slowdown. We're the first one to be brought in when things turn positive.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

I just want to add to Ajay and Jamie's comments. When DHL does ramp up again, we are ready for the ramp up. We will be prepared to continue to service their routes both in the short term and the long term.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Okay, that's very helpful. The second one I would ask is what has led to a decrease in China frequencies from last year against a backdrop of rising e-commerce demand in Canada.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

It's just been the overall sort of uncertainty from a geopolitical standpoint, the uncertainty regarding tariffs which affect more the U.S. than Canada. We saw a decline from the frequencies that we were flying in the third and fourth quarter of last year really started at the beginning of this year. It started strong. We were probably flying four or five frequencies in the first quarter. Then demand seemed to soften down to three frequencies per week, which was consistent through the third quarter. We're, as I said, expecting stronger, have already seen some stronger demand in.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

The fourth quarter and also the elimination of de minimis, you know, which impacted shipments to the U.S. A lot of U.S. shipments transit through Canada as well. Okay.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

Okay, thank you guys.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question comes from Walter Spracklin from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Walter Spracklin, Director of Cdn Research and Co-Head Global Industrials Research at RBC Capital Markets]

Yeah, thanks very much, Jamie. It's really been a great pleasure working with you all of these years. You are going to be sorely missed and I do wish you the best of luck. I envy you a little bit on that regard.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

Thanks, Walter.

[Walter Spracklin, Director of Cdn Research and Co-Head Global Industrials Research at RBC Capital Markets]

Yeah. Turning to the question, I guess fleet plan, it looks like you do not have much in the way of new additions coming in after Q4, so I am not seeing anything in 2026 or 2027, is that right? If so, are we looking at any growth CapEx or should we model in some feedstock purchases? Curious to hear what we should model in for growth CapEx in light of limited new deliveries.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Walter, it's Aaron here. We did mention we do expect to take delivery of one aircraft early in 2026, but it's our intent to lease that either on or shortly after delivery. Beyond that, I think you're correct. We're expecting pretty minimal growth CapEx through 2026 at this point.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

You know, Walter, as you know, we have always kept our minds and doors open. If there's more business and if we have some guaranteed contracts. We do have access to two aircraft, which is 767-200 sitting in our possession right now that we acquired only for engine values, which we have already extracted, and those remain available to us to convert if the market picks up or if there's a demand or a guaranteed contract.

[Walter Spracklin, Director of Cdn Research and Co-Head Global Industrials Research at RBC Capital Markets]

That's great. In terms of ACMI and charter revenue cadence, I don't know if looking at your historical is the right thing to do here given everything going on around us. I know Q4 typically, certainly last year saw quite a pickup quarter to quarter from Q3 to Q4 in all in charter, obviously some of the new business there. In ACMI we also saw a pickup. When we model now for Q4 and then also 2026, how do we look at Q4 cadence relative to Q3 and for 2026, should we, given the world around us today, should we be building in any growth in your overall ACMI and charter businesses respectively for 2026? How do you look at the, or how do you approach the outlook from that angle?

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

Quarter four. I'll get Jimmy and Pauline on this after I make my comment. Quarter four is certainly, as we know, traditionally better than quarter three, and that is just the nature of the business that the peak overall demand is up. Whether it's charters, domestic or ACMI, everything is relatively up. So quarter four, yes, it'll definitely be better than quarter three. That's all I can tell you right now. 2026, we are in the process at this time with our customers discussing the needs for the first quarter because at this stage nobody's committing anything to quarter two, quarter three, or quarter four next year. At this stage our discussions are primarily focused on quarter one of 2026. Everybody, to be honest with you, as we know what the conditions are, wait and see sort of mode.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

I wish we could give you a little more color on it, but this is exactly what we have right now is that in another week or 10 days we will have most of our quarter one of 2026 finalized.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

Just to add to Ajay's comments, Walter, I think sequentially you'll see an increase in both ACMI and the charter revenues in Q4 versus Q3 of this year, but it won't be of the magnitude of increase that we historically see sequentially from Q3 to Q4, similar to as an example for last year and as Ajay said, I think going into 2026, at least in the first quarter, I think you'll see similar revenues that we saw in year to date in both the ACMI and the charter segments.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah, Walter, Pauline here. Just to add to Ajay and Jamie, while that's what we expect from the customers, and as Ajay explained in Q4, we do plan to see an uptick going into 2026. We're also going to look at new trade routes, we're going to look at new opportunities. We're going to go out into the market and see how we can expand the brand outside of the current customer base that we have today, starting with the Liège program that we announced last week.

[Walter Spracklin, Director of Cdn Research and Co-Head Global Industrials Research at RBC Capital Markets]

That's great. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. My last question here is on margins, and I'm sure if this I know Pauline, has been near and dear to your heart, but also Aaron, you explicitly called out your efforts to rationalize costs and spoke constructively about your margin profile going into 2026. By the same token, we did see some pressure on margin due to some of the costs that Aaron, you flagged in your prepared remarks. Being sticky with lower revenue, how should we look at margins in 2026? Is this something that you see enough line of sight that given a fairly consistent revenue profile, if we were to assume that is this something you can get better margins on or is there something else we should consider when we look at 2026?

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Yeah, Walter, it's Aaron here. I think you're right. For 2026, we'll start to see more and more of the positive outcomes of the cost control initiatives we're taking. I think you'll see the margins, you know, stay consistent and you'll start to see that impact of those initiatives through the cost lines.

[Walter Spracklin, Director of Cdn Research and Co-Head Global Industrials Research at RBC Capital Markets]

Okay, that's great. Appreciate all the time. Again, Jamie, best of luck.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

Thank you, Walter.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Thanks, Walter.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question comes from Chris Murray from ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Chris Murray, Managing Director of Institutional Research and Diversified Industries at ATB Capital Markets]

Yeah, thanks folks. Good morning. First off, Jamie, I just want to wish you a good retirement. I want to thank you for all your help over the years. It has really been appreciated. Paul, congratulations on a new role. Aaron, welcome to Cargojet.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Thank you.

[Chris Murray, Managing Director of Institutional Research and Diversified Industries at ATB Capital Markets]

With that being said, maybe just trying to put together the ACMI and the charter, but also with the mainline business into Q4 and maybe just thinking about this a different way, your block hours were down year over year about, I guess about 50%. I'm just wondering, if we use block hours as a metric, how should we be thinking, thinking about block hour evolution over the next couple quarters? Because it seems like the mix is going to change. Generally we've seen that independent of where you're pointing the aircraft, it's really the block hours that drives the revenue. Just any thoughts maybe on a block hour basis on how to think about the next couple quarters?

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah, thanks, Chris, for the comments. In terms of block hours, you're right. I mean, it's a big driver of revenue, especially on the ACMI and the charter segment. Our domestic hours seem, you know, are pretty constant other than peak season. We obviously see a significant increase because of demand there. You know, the biggest driver of the reduction in overall block hours by 16% in the quarter was the reduction. A combination of. Biggest part of it was a reduction in ACMI block hours flown by DHL. As I noted in my prepared remarks, you know, two things to point out. You know, we haven't reduced. The DHL, our biggest ACMI customer, hasn't reduced. We're operating the same number of aircraft that we've operated in previous quarters. We're just flying those on lower stage length routes.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

As I have said previously, typical ACMI contracts are structured on a rate per block hour with a minimum number of block hours per month depending on the aircraft type. You get the benefit of the incremental revenue when you fly incrementally. More block hours on longer stage transit line Atlantic, European, Trans Pacific routes that we have seen in previous years in the last few quarters as DHL has shifted capacity, excuse me, globally, to meet the lower demand and we have seen more flying from within North America and between North America. On a north south basis between North America and Mexico and South America, you see a corresponding reduction in those incremental block hours. We still fly above the minimums, but I expect that will continue into at least the first half of 2026. On the charter hours, it is a combination.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

Our charter revenue is a combination of the scheduled charters we do with our Chinese customer between China and Vancouver, which you see some corresponding reduction in hours there based on the frequencies per week that we fly. The other portion of that revenue is our ad hoc charter which has remained strong year over year.

[Chris Murray, Managing Director of Institutional Research and Diversified Industries at ATB Capital Markets]

Okay, that's helpful, thank you. Aaron, maybe a question for you. There was a sale and leaseback in the quarter and you're talking about maybe just for capacity management looking at the sale or maybe a lease on the 767 coming in.

[Chris Murray, Managing Director of Institutional Research and Diversified Industries at ATB Capital Markets]

I guess the bigger question here.

[Chris Murray, Managing Director of Institutional Research and Diversified Industries at ATB Capital Markets]

Is thinking about, you know, how you're going to kind of finance aircraft and the balance sheet right now. I'm just trying to understand if this is a kind of a more structural move to just find a balance between owned aircraft and leased aircraft or how you're thinking about managing the cap stack around the aircraft over the next few years and if there's any sort of shift that we should be aware of.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Yeah, no, thanks for the question, Chris. I do not think there is any sort of strategic shift. I think what you are seeing is we have grown the fleet a little bit in the recent past and we are looking at the right ways to structure the financing of those aircraft we mentioned earlier. You know, we have got one aircraft coming early 2026 and we have opportunities with feedstock that we have if we need them. But except that, our expectation is that growth CapEx for next year is going to be pretty limited. I do not think you will see a strategic look at, you know, financing aircraft in different ways. This is just a bit of catch up.

[Chris Murray, Managing Director of Institutional Research and Diversified Industries at ATB Capital Markets]

Okay.

[Chris Murray, Managing Director of Institutional Research and Diversified Industries at ATB Capital Markets]

Because I just, I can also go back to like your comment about Q4. CapEx might be neutral. Just wondering if the, you know, there's additional aircraft you're looking to do sale leasebacks with or something else going on there.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

That's exactly right.

[Chris Murray, Managing Director of Institutional Research and Diversified Industries at ATB Capital Markets]

Okay.

[Chris Murray, Managing Director of Institutional Research and Diversified Industries at ATB Capital Markets]

All right, I'll leave it there.

[Chris Murray, Managing Director of Institutional Research and Diversified Industries at ATB Capital Markets]

Thanks, folks.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Thank you.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question comes from Kevin Chiang from CIBC. Please go ahead.

[Kevin Chiang, Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC]

Hey, good morning, everybody. Again, echoing congratulations, Jamie and Pauline. Maybe if I can ask the fleet question differently. If I just take a simple ratio of block hours to maximum payload, you're running just rough math, let's call it almost 20% below some of the peak levels you saw during the pandemic. I understand things were probably stretched at that point in time. When you look at the volume environment ahead, you've kind of adjusted this fleet at the margin. Is there an opportunity to reduce what looks to be excess capacity in the number of aircraft you have, just given the current volume environment, or is that difficult to do?

[Kevin Chiang, Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC]

Just given some of the changes in length of haul or some of these longer term strategic agreements, you want to make sure that your service holds as volumes do recover with the likes of DHL and Amazon. Just wondering how you think about the fleet composition from kind of 42 aircraft. Could you push that a little bit lower if volumes do not recover here?

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

Good morning, Kevin. Yes, the short answer is yes, we could. We've done that in the past. I think we have a very good track record. If we have excess capacity, we can just park aircraft. We can store aircraft on a short term or long term basis. We could sell aircraft ultimately if we need to. I think some of the fleet rationalization that we did in the last, really in the last six months and continuing to the end of this year is to put us in a position with the fleet that meets the requirements for all three segments of our business. Our domestic is pretty constant. The ACMI, the number of aircraft, as I mentioned, hasn't changed with DHL, but also positions us very well for when the growth cycle returns that we have.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

You know, it's all about timing in this business that we have the aircraft and we have the capacity when customer demand comes. The fact that we, you know, we're very confident that we'll have very minimal growth CapEx requirements related to aircraft over the next couple of years because the fleet size that we have today meets all of our requirements. I think more importantly it positions us for when that growth cycle comes back that we can take advantage of those revenue opportunities without any delay.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Kevin, I just want to highlight something that Jamie points out. While block hours are down, the number of aircraft that we have are still being utilized in the network, ACMI and charter flying. The aircraft fleet is consistent with what the customers are looking for and what the demands of the market are, just not the block hours associated to the aircraft that you've seen in the past.

[Kevin Chiang, Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC]

That makes sense. Maybe just my second question. You announced the expansion into Europe, a scheduled service here, I mean it looks like, and you kind of noted in your press release this is a key cargo hub and I suspect you see opportunities there. I guess when you look at your broader expansion opportunities, just what are some of the key features you're looking for? Is it trying to match your trade routes with some of the stuff I guess that came out with the budget last night? Is it tapping into untapped opportunities you've always seen that maybe were just higher hanging fruit given some of the other opportunities in front of you, just how should we think about this broader kind of international scheduled expansion just given the announcement last week into Liège there?

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah, Kevin, we're excited about it. We're looking at, we constantly look at different trade routes. We look at new opportunities. Liège, we're servicing once a week with the 767. The demand is there. We're seeing that from the marketplace. Obviously we're going to continue with this flight. We're going to operate to Liège and we're going to extend the brand into Europe and hopefully have connectivity through China and India and pick up cargo on the return. November, December looks strong for this route. You know, it's one of the things that we know best is how to manage our customers' needs and expectations. We're pretty excited about that. We're also looking for other trade opportunities in trade routes.

[Kevin Chiang, Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC]

Perfect.

[Kevin Chiang, Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC]

That's it for me. Again, congratulations Jamie and Pauline.

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

Thanks Kevin.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question comes from Timothy James from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

[Timothy James, Stock Analyst at TD Cowen]

Thanks very much. Good morning Jamie, thanks very much. It's been a pleasure not only working with you, but learning from you. And Pauline, congratulations on the, the CEO role.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Thank you very much.

[Timothy James, Stock Analyst at TD Cowen]

My first question.

[Timothy James, Stock Analyst at TD Cowen]

Can you talk about?

[Timothy James, Stock Analyst at TD Cowen]

As we sit here sort of later in the year, can you talk about if you have any additional insights, and I know it's a little bit tricky to comment on this, but if you have any additional insights on sort of pull forward and demand that occurred in 2025 again related to sort of impending tariffs and trade issues and what have you, have you seen any indications or your customers giving you any that maybe the earlier part of the year did benefit more and you're feeling that effect here in the third quarter. I'm thinking of both in the domestic market and your international volumes as well in ACMI and or charters.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

Tim, as you know, we are very, very close to our customers and there's not a day goes by where we do not talk about what's happening in the marketplace. You know, because of the tariff situations. For example, many carriers, whether it's DHL, UPS, where everybody has reduced capacity from Asia connection into Europe and to North America, people who were building, buying 10 product, like let's say they were buying 10 of widget, now is buying two or three because they do not know whether the demand will be there for them to sell or not. So the size of the shipments has considerably gone down because of the uncertain macro conditions. Now you are asking how do the customers feel about what their volumes are going to be.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

To be honest with you, our customers certainly they are in a zone where they're waiting and seeing and their customers are also telling them the same thing, that we are not going to commit anything right now because we don't know whether this is a permanent shift. I hope it's not. That's not what we feel. I think things will normalize. Tariffs do come into play and then trade normalizes at some point and that's what our industry feels as a whole. We are hoping that once people, I don't think it's the tariffs that much. It's the uncertain nature of the tariffs that are going on and how it's implemented and when it's going to happen and the backlogs at the airports and the warehouses. It's all totally connected with uncertain. That's the word that uncertainty is, is the word here.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

It's not the amount of tariffs and it's not what's happening. Everybody's aware of it. Until that clarifies, I think we are all in a zone of wait and see. The good part is that Cargojet's model is quite adjustable to these changes. We can shave block hours, we can shave some variable expenses that we don't have to do. We can cut our cost infrastructure quite deep if we needed to, without disrupting the service. Also, our relationship with customers helps us deploy those aircraft to other routes if one route is not working. We are in a best position to ramp up when things clear up, but we are also in a best position to ramp down a bit.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

As you can see on our SDNA, we saw some of that improvement is strictly because of our ability to bring the expenses down when needed.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

To AJ's point, we have the ability to do that. We proved to do that during COVID. We ramped up as market demanded and we were able to readjust after COVID.

[Timothy James, Stock Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay, thank you, that's helpful.

[Timothy James, Stock Analyst at TD Cowen]

My second question, Pauline, you mentioned about looking at opportunities for new trade routes in 2026, like the Liège route that you've. Can you just kind of give us a bit of an overview of how you evaluate those new trade route, those new route opportunities in terms of, you know, is it primarily with your existing customer base, just kind of how you go about deciding on, you know, the value, the decision, the economics behind new route opportunities?

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah, Chris, we look at where trade happens, what trade routes are required and in demand by the customer base. This customer base is a little bit more diverse than the domestic customer base. These are more freight forwarders and less couriers and integrators. We went to Liège because it is a cargo hub of Europe. It has got the best connectivity in Europe. We've taken our extensive domestic network consolidated and are opening this trade route and servicing Europe and Canada and expanding our brand globally. Yeah, we do look at the market. We look at where the market trends are going. We look at what the customers are expecting. We look at niche markets specifically that are cargo driven, that are not over serviced by passenger aircraft, allowing more cargo lift to go in and service the consumers and the markets that we strategically select.

[Timothy James, Stock Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question comes from Razi Hasan from Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead.

[Razi Hasan, Equity Research Analyst at Paradigm Capital]

Good morning and thanks for taking my call. Congrats to both Jamie and Pauline. Just quickly, on previous calls, we spoke about the potential opportunities of flying directly into Canada given the tariff impact. I know there's still uncertainty out there, but is there any updates on any potential opportunities that you guys are seeing?

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Sorry, flying into Canada?

[Razi Hasan, Equity Research Analyst at Paradigm Capital]

Yeah, it's kind of bypassing the U.S. and flying into Canada. I think you mentioned that on previous calls, just given the tariff uncertainty. Is there any update there?

[Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah, we've continued to have inquiries from customers, particularly out of China, looking at flying additional frequencies into Canada and even some into the U.S., but nothing that we're anticipating flying in the next at least in Q4 or Q1 of next year.

[Razi Hasan, Equity Research Analyst at Paradigm Capital]

Okay, great. One last question. Just in terms of flights out of China, should we expect the constant three flights a week into maybe the back half of 2026, just given setup heading into the back half of 2025?

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah. We don't see any change there.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Okay. Please take my questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. You may please proceed.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call today. We appreciate you taking the time. We'll continue with the analyst calls throughout the day. Look forward to speaking with all of you soon.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.

Participants

Executives

• Aaron McKay, CFO
• Jamie Porteous, Co-CEO
• Pauline Dhillon, CEO
• David Tomljenovic, VP of Investor Relations
• Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman

Analysts

• Timothy James, Stock Analyst at TD Cowen
• Kevin Chiang, Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC
• Razi Hasan, Equity Research Analyst at Paradigm Capital
• Walter Spracklin, Director of Cdn Research and Co-Head Global Industrials Research at RBC Capital Markets
• Analyst at Scotiabank
• Chris Murray, Managing Director of Institutional Research and Diversified Industries at ATB Capital Markets