Cargojet Q2 2026 Earnings Report

Cargojet EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.47
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Cargojet Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $275.80 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Cargojet Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 8/10/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, August 11, 2026
• 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 Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Cargojet reported CAD 275.8 million in revenue and CAD 87.3 million in Adjusted EBITDA, up year over year. Free cash flow improved to CAD 56.2 million, reducing leverage to 2.6 times.
• Positive Sentiment: Domestic overnight revenue, excluding fuel pass-through effects, increased 3% year over year, with management citing strong e-commerce demand and continued strength expected in Q3 and Q4.
• Positive Sentiment: Charter revenue rose 37% year over year, supported by the Liège operation, South and Central American activity, and UPS support flying. The company also extended its MD-11 support flying through Q4.
• Positive Sentiment: Cargojet’s one-fleet strategy is improving aircraft utilization and yields without significant additional capital spending, with new Liège–Tel Aviv service and potential opportunities involving China, Africa, the Middle East, and other regions.
• Negative Sentiment: The new five-year pilot agreement includes a 26% wage increase effective July 1, 2026, followed by 5% annual increases, creating near-term crew-cost pressure. Management expects productivity improvements and eventual customer price increases to offset the impact, but acknowledged a timing lag.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and welcome to the Cargojet Canada Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to David Tomljenovic. Please go ahead.

[David Tomljenovic, VP of Investor Relations at Cargojet]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today on this call. With me on the call today are Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman, Pauline Dhillon, Chief Executive Officer, Aaron McKay, Chief Financial Officer, Sanjeev Maini, VP Finance, and Rémi Tremblay, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. After opening remarks about the quarter, we will open the call for questions. I'd 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. Please refer to our most recent press release in MD&A for important assumptions and cautionary statements relating to our forward-looking information and for reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to GAAP income. I'll now turn the call over to Pauline.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We delivered another strong quarter, demonstrating once again the resilience of Cargojet's business model and the strength of our long-term customer relationships despite continued market uncertainty. These results would not have been possible without the dedication of our team members. I would like to take a moment and sincerely thank every member of the Cargojet team for their continued commitment and outstanding efforts, as well as thank our customers for continuing to trust Cargojet with their time-sensitive shipments each day. Our premium service, built on reliability and consistency, continues to differentiate Cargojet. Once again, we delivered an industry-leading on-time performance of 99.2%, reflecting the operational excellence our customers have come to expect.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Throughout the quarter, we remained focused on what we can control: delivering exceptional service, operating safely and efficiently, and deploying our fleet where it creates the greatest long-term value. Our one-fleet approach continues to be a significant competitive advantage. It gives us the flexibility to dynamically deploy aircraft across our network, improve utilization, and pursue the highest return opportunities as market conditions evolve. Higher fuel prices and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty remained headwinds during the quarter. Despite those challenges, our resilient business model, disciplined execution, and focus on our customers enabled us to deliver another strong quarter. Aaron will provide additional detail on our financial performance in a few moments. Before turning to our business segments, I'd like to briefly comment on our recently completed pilot agreement.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

We are pleased to have reached a well-balanced five-year collective agreement that recognizes and competitively compensates our pilots while preserving the flexibility and productivity that support Cargojet's long-term competitiveness. The agreement also continues our longstanding no-strike, no-lockout provision, providing stability and operational certainty for our customers, our pilots, and our valued team members. I would like to sincerely thank our pilots, ALPA, and everyone involved for their professionalism throughout this process. As customer agreements come due, we will look to pass these costs through. Many of these conversations have begun, but we anticipate a lag in timing. We look forward to building on this partnership over the next years. Turning to our business segments, our domestic overnight continued to perform well and remains the foundation of Cargojet's business. Supported by a strong customer demand and exceptional service, it continues to play an essential role in Canada's supply chain.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Charter flying delivered another strong quarter, including continued support flying for UPS. This business segment continues to enhance fleet utilization, strengthen customer relationships, and create long-term value. This year, we were proud to celebrate 25 years of partnership with UPS. We are pleased to continue to fly their charters for the remainder of the end of this year to the end of Q4. We look forward to supporting their continued growth for years to come. One of Cargojet's greatest strengths is our diversified portfolio of long-term customer relationships across our domestic overnight network, charter business, hybrid ACMI, interline, and international operations. That diversification provides resilience, creates flexibility, and positions us well to navigate changing market conditions while continuing to create long-term value for our shareholders. Our European hub in Liège continues to exceed our expectations.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Strong demand, including our recently launched Liège-Tel Aviv service, demonstrates the opportunities to grow our international network by leveraging existing assets while improving fleet utilization. We believe this model can be replicated in other regions as we continue expanding our global footprint. Our interline business also delivered another excellent quarter while growing volumes from our airline partners, further strengthening our domestic network and improving fleet utilization. Our ACMI business remained stable during the quarter and continues to provide an important source of diversified revenue. As opportunities emerge, we will continue allocating aircraft where they generate the strongest long-term returns. Overall, we are very pleased with our performance for the quarter.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Looking ahead, we expect the global economic and geopolitical environment to remain uncertain. However, Cargojet has successfully navigated changing market conditions for more than two decades by staying focused on what matters: our customers, our people, and disciplined execution. We remain confident in our strategy and in the strength of our business. We have exceptional people, long-standing customer relationships, and a resilient operating model that has consistently performed through changing market conditions. Together, these strengths position Cargojet to continue creating long-term value for our customers, our team members, and our shareholders. With that, I'll turn the call over to Aaron.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Thank you, Pauline, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. Our positive results this quarter reflect the organizational agility that is foundational to Cargojet's business and our ability to deliver disciplined growth across market cycles as we generated CAD 275.8 million of revenue and CAD 87.3 million of Adjusted EBITDA, improvements in each metric, both sequentially and year-over-year. As Pauline mentioned, the rising price of fuel had an impact on our results this quarter, and I think it's worth taking a moment to walk through how. Like other industry players, Cargojet generally passes on fuel cost to customers through a surcharging mechanism. Because fuel surcharges increase revenue in direct proportion to changes in fuel costs, we do not expect them to have a material long-term impact on profitability. As a result, when fuel surcharges increase significantly, reported Adjusted EBITDA margins can become temporarily diluted.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

In the second quarter of 2026, that dilution amounted to approximately 260 basis points of margin, with no material impact on Adjusted EBITDA itself. During the second quarter of 2026, excluding the impact of fuel price increases versus the second quarter of 2025, we generated revenue of CAD 250.1 million, an increase of CAD 11.9 million or 5% year-over-year. Our domestic overnight network generated second quarter revenue, net of the impact of fuel price pass-throughs year-over-year of CAD 104.9 million, an improvement of 3% year-over-year and a slight improvement sequentially. During the second quarter of 2026, our hybrid ACMI business generated revenue of CAD 54.7 million, representing a slight sequential improvement from the first quarter of 2026, but a 12% decline year-over-year as the transition from East-West transoceanic flying to North-South Intra-Americas flying had not been fully completed in Q2 of 2025.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Our charter business continued its strong performance during the second quarter, generating CAD 54.7 million in net revenue, representing 37% year-over-year growth as we continued to see success with our Liège service, Central and South American charter partner, and support flying for a previous MD-11 operator. While long-term visibility remains somewhat limited, priority air cargo continues to be one of the few reliable options for customers requiring certainty and speed in moving critical shipments. This makes it a valuable service for many customers despite the current market environment. Our revenue growth, combined with our continued focus on revenue quality, cost control, and fleet and flight level asset utilization, resulted in another strong quarter of Adjusted EBITDA.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Adjusted EBITDA was CAD 87.3 million compared to CAD 80.2 million in the same period last year, while Adjusted EBITDA margin of 31.7%, when adjusted for the approximately 260 basis point compression as a result of fuel price increases, represented a slight year-over-year improvement in the core business. Our focus on fleet and flight level asset utilization and ongoing cost management initiatives contributed to strong free cash flow generation of CAD 56.2 million during the quarter. This represents a significant improvement from the CAD 72.5 million cash outflow experienced in the second quarter of 2025. Our capital priorities remain unchanged, and our strong free cash flow generated during the quarter further supported our deleveraging efforts, resulting in a reduction of our leverage ratio to 2.6x at quarter end, well on the path to our objective of below 2.5x.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Consistent with our capital allocation priorities and our commitment to returning capital to shareholders, we also repurchased 121,390 shares during the second quarter of 2026. We will continue to evaluate opportunities to repurchase shares when we believe they represent an attractive use of capital. Before I conclude, I want to provide some additional context regarding our recently completed five-year pilot agreements. As Pauline noted, we are pleased to have concluded a new agreement with our pilot group that moves us more towards market standards of both compensation and operational productivity. Effective July 1st, 2026, our pilots will see a wage increase of 26%, followed by annual increases of 5% over each of the subsequent four years through June 30, 2031.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Just as the agreement brings our pilot group more in line with market on wages, it also includes several productivity provisions which bring us closer to market standards, including moving us from a baseline of 15 to 16 working days per month, with an option for those who value the current work-life balance to stay at 15 days for most of the year with proportional compensation. These improvements bring our business more in line with the market. As Pauline noted, a key component of this agreement is the continued inclusion of the no-strike, no-lockout provision, which recognizes the different operational requirements between cargo and air passenger carriers, as the provision provides our customers with confidence in the continued reliability and stability of our operations.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

For clarity, crew cost, as reported in our financial statements, includes several costs which are not directly driven by wages, including per diems as well as hotel and transportation costs. Costs driven directly by wages have historically represented approximately 60%-65% of the total crew costs reported in our financial statements. Overall, we believe this agreement provides the appropriate balance between recognizing the important contribution of our pilots, maintaining our competitive position, and providing the long-term operational certainty required by our customers.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Absorbing these costs without long-term impact to our margins is critical to our business. As you know, we have been focused on cost control initiatives for some time, and as Pauline mentioned, as customer agreements come due, we will look to pass through the additional cost increases. That will take some time to work through, but I will note that some of these conversations have already begun. With that, I will hand the call back to Pauline.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Thank you, Aaron. In previous quarters, we have highlighted the elevated levels of volatility and uncertainty across our markets. As we move through the third quarter, these challenges remain, but we are also seeking new opportunities to emerge. Our partners continue to grow, which gives us confidence that their growth will create additional opportunities for Cargojet. More importantly, we remain focused on pursuing selective and accretive international growth opportunities that leverage our existing fleet. We have said many times that Cargojet is built for change. What has become evident during this quarter is that we are also built for disciplined growth. Our business continues to evolve. Over the past several quarters, we have challenged ourselves to identify opportunities for improvement across our entire organization, from finance to sales and technology to operations.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

While the foundation of Cargojet will always remain the same, a stronger and more agile Cargojet continues to emerge. I understand that change can be challenging. That is why I want to extend my sincerest and deepest appreciation to the entire Cargojet team. It is their hard work, their commitment, and their belief in this organization that continues to drive our success. With that, operator, we will take questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star two. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Konark Gupta from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

[Konark Gupta, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Thanks, and good morning, everyone. Congrats on a good quarter.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Thanks, Konark.

[Konark Gupta, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Morning, Pauline. I want to dig into the ACMI segment a little bit here. DHL recently reported their quarterly numbers and seems like they're seeing a volume inflection in their express segment. I guess those are your customers, obviously one of the biggest customers you have. Just curious, when do you see the inflection in your ACMI business with them? Is there any disconnect between what you do versus what they are seeing in their volumes? Or they haven't yet given you sort of incremental volumes for the next little while?

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah, Konark, I'll take that question. No, they haven't given us any indication at this time, but we have a very strong relationship with DHL. We've always been their first in and last out operator. As their volumes continue to grow, we definitely look at that as opportunities for Cargojet's ACMI growth.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

The other thing I'll add there, it's Aaron here, Konark. The only thing maybe I'll add is by the end of Q2 last year, we had completed the transition to the North-South Intra-Americas flying for them. So I would expect from a comp perspective, as you look forward to future quarters, you'll be more in line. You won't see the same annual declines.

[Konark Gupta, Analyst at Scotiabank]

I see. So the comp effect will normalize going forward in the second half, right? But we should not expect maybe a big turnaround in volumes, if I understand correctly.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Well, at this point. Sorry. We anticipate that they will grow because that's where they're trending at this point. Their projections for Q3, Q4 have all indications that ACMI and their volumes will grow. As I stated earlier, we are their first preferred partner of choice. We're the first in and the last out. So as market trends change, as global flows increase, we are positioned well to take on any additional ACMI flying that they may have.

[Konark Gupta, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Understood. No, makes sense. Thanks. And maybe, Aaron, on the fleet side, so it seems like you haven't changed anything for the fleet plan, but I noticed that this B767-200 that you guys are converting right now, that's coming in 2027. Looking to offload that. So A, what's the rationale for not including in your fleet? Do you have enough capacity to absorb future demand? And do you have any excess fleet from the recent transaction with 21 Air that you might also be looking to divest?

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Yeah, Konark. So we've been looking for the last little while at an exercise of sort of cleaning up the balance sheet and looking at assets that we can either make use of or monetize. And this is one of those two airframes that we've mentioned in previous quarters we've had as feedstock. So this is part of those efforts of looking to clean up the balance sheet. Right now, we haven't added it to the fleet plan because we're considering some opportunities to invest in aircraft. But to your point, I think, we've said for the last year, if and when we have material accretive growth opportunities that we can generate strong ROIC with a new asset, we'll look to do that.

[Konark Gupta, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. No, appreciate it. Thank you.

[Operator]

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

[James McGarragle, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Hey, this is James McGarragle. I am on for Walter this morning. Good morning.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Hi, James.

[James McGarragle, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Hey, I just wanted to ask, get a progress update on the revenue per aircraft or the one-fleet strategy. You mentioned last quarter some of the DHL aircraft are now available for incremental charter opportunities. Can you just quantify how much incremental revenue was generated in Q2 from DHL aircraft? And how much more opportunity is there from here with this strategy as we look into the back half and into 2027?

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Yeah. I think it's going to be tough for us to specifically say how much incremental revenue was generated from those particular aircraft. I think we'll continue to look at opportunities where either aircraft are underutilized or they're sitting for a period of time. So a great example, as Pauline mentioned in her prepared remarks, the launch of our service from Liège to Tel Aviv. When we launched the Liège service earlier this year, we mentioned that it was using an aircraft that was otherwise idle over the weekend. That aircraft in Liège sits for a period of time, and so we've been looking for opportunities to use that, and Tel Aviv emerged as a winner for us. So from an overall network point of view, it's looking at those sorts of opportunities of where we can pick up incremental work with aircraft that are otherwise sitting.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah, James, just to add to what Aaron said, our one-fleet strategy is working well for us. It's improved our yields without growing any CapEx. Just to add on what Aaron McKay's saying, we are exploring opportunities to utilize our fleet, but ensuring that we have the most accretive routes that we deploy on. The hybrid ACMI fleet has also allowed us to operate for that customer on their schedules and block our agreements that we have in place, but we're able to utilize those assets when they are sitting idle. We're doing a number of charters from Miami into South America, into North America. And to further Aaron McKay's point, when the assets are sitting in Canada and they're not being utilized, whether they're on the East Coast or the West Coast, we're deploying those assets.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

In November, when we launched the Liège route, we were very optimistic with it, and today we're very pleased with it. And we were able to extend that, and today when the asset just would remain here in North America, it's being utilized to fly to Liège. And we've been exploring opportunities, and we continue to explore opportunities, and we're very successful into going into Tel Aviv. On the other side of the nation, on the West Coast, we're now looking at charter opportunities into China with those assets that sit in Vancouver. So we're constantly looking for new opportunities with the one-fleet strategy, and we're very pleased with the outcome of it. I hope that answers that question.

[James McGarragle, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Yeah. It does. Appreciate the color. Just on the charter business, obviously, that was a standout in the quarter, but can you just help us break down and understand how much was driven by sustainable new routes? Any impact from the MD-11 grounding, and potential one-time ad hoc activity? Just want to get a better understanding with the MD-11 winding down into Q3 or potentially into the back half of the year, how we should be thinking about the charter run rate ex the MD-11 uplift.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

The MD-11 is now extended until Q4. It's really hard for us to determine the charter revenue per aircraft, primarily because that's what we do. We look for opportunities to utilize the assets when the assets are not operating, whether they're for the ACMI customer or for the domestic network.

[James McGarragle, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Appreciate the color, and I'll turn the line over. Thank you.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Tim James from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

[Tim James, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Thanks very much. Good morning.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Morning, Tim.

[Tim James, Analyst at TD Cowen]

I guess my first question, returning to the new pilots agreement. You have outlined the annual wage increases there while highlighting the productivity improvements. I just want to focus on that a little bit because that is obviously an important component to forecasting over the next couple of years as opposed to just thinking about the wage increases. Is there any more color you can provide us or help in terms of shaping up expectations on what productivity improvements really mean and how we should think about those in terms of our modeling and forecasting going forward?

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Yeah. Tim, it is Aaron here. I think one of the things I mentioned in the prepared remarks was this moves us closer to sort of an industry standard of work days per month. I think everyone we have talked to knows that we have been a bit low on that metric versus the rest of the market. What that means is the pilot group will be flying a bit more per person, and so it will probably take a little bit of time to fully realize the benefits of that as we grow into it.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Our pilot group today is, I think, of a good size for our business. As you know, we have spent some time over the last year optimizing for the reserve pool and overtime. I think as we continue to grow through the next couple of quarters, you will see us utilize that additional time more and more effectively.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

Tim, it's Ajay. I'll just weigh in on. As Aaron indicated that our workdays used to be 15 per month per pilot is now going up to 16. Also some of the training days which would be, say, over the next year, at least two to three training days on top of that a year. As we move forward with the wage increases, which were behind the industry, our productivity also lagged, which is now becoming closer to the industry as well. While giving the pilots flexibility, if they want to work less, 15, then they get prorated and get paid less. While the wages are now matching the industry, the productivity is also catching up with the industry, which we lacked. I think combine that with our ability when the contracts with the customers come due to ask for those increases will put us in a better position overall.

[Tim James, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay. My second question related is as we look at crew costs today, I know last year there was some heightened costs related to training into overtime, if I'm not mistaken. Have those sort of impacts more or less normalized now as we think, if we look at Q2 as a base case, or are they still higher than they would be at a steady state under normal conditions?

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

I think some of them have normalized in Q2, but with these productivity improvements, they would further be normalized or get reduced as we go on.

[Tim James, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay. That is great. Thank you very much, Ajay.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Cameron Doerksen from National Bank. Please go ahead.

[Cameron Doerksen, Analyst at National Bank]

Yeah, thanks. Good morning. I wanted to ask about the domestic network, just if you can comment maybe what kind of trends you are seeing there. Obviously, some decent revenue growth. But just what do you see into Q3 and Q4 from your customers there, and have you got any, I guess, early indication on peak volumes from your customers yet, or is it maybe too early to tell?

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah. I will take that question. July has been strong. We are continuing to see strong growth in our domestic. It is probably driven by e-commerce. I often refer back to a change that we have seen in patterns here to secondary markets. When the Hudson's Bay sort of closed their doors, we have seen more B2C. It seems like the secondary markets now are not going to retailers. Retailers are not carrying inventories as they were. They are moving into more of the warehousing. So we are seeing an uptick on e-commerce, primarily into the secondary markets. We anticipate domestic to remain strong for Q3 and Q4.

[Cameron Doerksen, Analyst at National Bank]

Okay. That's helpful. Just going back to the, I guess, the fleet and maybe, I guess more specifically, the CapEx expectation for this year. Is there any, I guess, change to the gross CapEx number you expect for 2026? Is there any change on the outlook into 2027, specifically around maintenance CapEx?

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Yeah, the only change I would say at this point, Cameron, is we noted in the MD&A that came up a little earlier that we did decide to take one of the feedstock B767-200s and put it through conversion. That'll add CAD 10 million-CAD 15 million of CapEx this year, and maybe CAD 5 million next year.

[Cameron Doerksen, Analyst at National Bank]

Okay. No, that's-

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

I think, Cameron, the key is that all CapEx that Aaron just talked about will be either matched with increased demand or we have potential to leave these aircraft out if we don't need it. So it'll not just sit up, it'll be sitting idle.

[Cameron Doerksen, Analyst at National Bank]

Okay. No, perfect. That's helpful. I'll pass the line. Thanks very much.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

Okay.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Benoit Poirier from Desjardins Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Benoit Poirier, Analyst at Desjardins Capital Markets]

Yeah. Good morning, everyone, and congratulations for the solid results. Maybe Pauline, could you discuss about the upcoming customer agreement up for renewal this year and what you would expect in terms of pricing?

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah. Good morning, and thank you, Benoit. There are no customer agreements coming due, the contract customers this year. The next ones will be 2029 and 2030. But we are speaking to customers about this new increase, and we are passing it through where we can with where the pilots are concerned. So we are looking at certain customers that do have shorter-term contracts, and we are introducing these new costs to them.

[Benoit Poirier, Analyst at Desjardins Capital Markets]

Okay. That is great. Last quarter, you provided a good update on the international opportunities and countries that you have been looking at. Could you maybe provide an update on the discussion you are having, whether you added some geographies and whether there are some that are close to the finish line?

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah, absolutely. We have added Tel Aviv this last quarter. Q1 was focused on Liège. We built that lane. We built a lot of trade between Canada and Liège. Now we have extended Liège to Tel Aviv. We are in a lot of conversations, still pursuing Africa, the Far East. We are doing charters now back from Western Canada into China. We look for opportunities there. Again, with the fleet sitting on the weekends, we are utilizing the assets well, and we continue to look at opportunities throughout Europe, and Far East Asia, as well as Africa and the Middle East.

[Benoit Poirier, Analyst at Desjardins Capital Markets]

That is great. Thank you very much for the color.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Thanks, Benoit.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Thanks, Benoit.

[Operator]

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

[Kevin Chiang, Analyst at CIBC]

Hey. Thanks for taking my questions here. Maybe just not to belabor the point on the new labor agreement and how it flows through our models. I guess if I just think of it simplistically, adjusting for some of the stock-based comp noise in Q2 and looking at Q1 as well, you are kind of run rating about CAD 27 million a quarter of crew costs. Aaron, I think you said about 60%-65% of that is wages. Am I just applying a 26% lift to that starting in Q3 here and then just adding the 35% of that CAD 27 million? Is that the simple way to think of it? If I ran the math, that gets me around CAD 31 million-CAD 32 million a quarter. Is that the right ballpark to think about where crew costs go from here on?

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

I think at a gross level, that is the correct math. There is going to be-

[Kevin Chiang, Analyst at CIBC]

Okay.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

... the offsets that we will get out of the productivity in there.

[Kevin Chiang, Analyst at CIBC]

Right.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

I think if you look at the math of 16/15 of work is probably a good way to look at the math there.

[Kevin Chiang, Analyst at CIBC]

Okay.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Plus, just like Ajay said, there is a couple of training days.

[Kevin Chiang, Analyst at CIBC]

Okay. I guess if I think of that productivity, I guess simplistically, as you and Ajay said, you are going from 15 to 16 days. That is a 6% offset. I guess that is the offset you are talking about against that 26% wage increase.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

Yeah, Kevin, that's exactly right. You got one day equals 6.5%, I guess, of productivity, plus some training days as we go. In the first year, we get one training day, in the second year, two, in the third year, three, and four year, four. So over the course, we would be looking at probably average two additional training days a year that we get on top of that. But also, not just the productivity, but it also gives us opportunities to be more price competitive with American carriers that we constantly compete with charters.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

Now we have a lot more crew days. If you look at the total crew days, we gain about 6,000 crew days here, so over the year. That productivity gives us a lot more pricing flexibility, long-term sustainability, and also reduces the need for overtime that we had. It's a very well-balanced agreement where the industry productivity and wages are now closer to the market than they were.

[Kevin Chiang, Analyst at CIBC]

That's helpful. Pauline, you mentioned some of the longer-term contracts will take a little bit of time here to reprice on this new labor agreement. I guess for ACMI and Charter, I often think of those as you're pricing that in real time. Is there a way to think about maybe the potential revenue step up here? If we just assume, let's say, the amount of flying is the same, but just related to this labor contract. Is it something that could be relatively material on a quarter-over-quarter basis, just as you look to reprice those rates to reflect the new labor agreement?

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah. Kevin, that's absolutely correct. We're going to reprice that. We're also looking at the mid-market customers where we're aligning that pricing because that's subject to annual pricing versus contract pricing. So all of those are being adjusted accordingly.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

Kevin, you are right. Kevin, you are right on the charters and ACMI and some of the other stuff, which is real-time pricing.

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

That in pricing will be taken into account when further quotes and all that stuff is provided.

[Kevin Chiang, Analyst at CIBC]

Okay. That is helpful. Maybe last one for me, and maybe I will borrow from James' question earlier, maybe ask it a little bit differently. It looks like when I look at the last, let us say two to three quarters, your EBITDA per block hour has seen a step up here, maybe closer to what you were seeing during the pandemic, actually, when clearly the market was in a different place. Feels like some of this might be related to the one-fleet strategy. Just wondering, how should we think about EBITDA per block hour? Is there a lot of upside here still, even with the lift you have seen over the past two, three quarters, just given some of these initiatives you have been pursuing?

[Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman at Cargojet]

Yeah. One thing I will, before Aaron and Pauline answer, one of the strategies that Pauline Dhillon has implemented is quality of revenue and revenue enhancement. It means quite a bit of yield management. Quality of revenue means stuff that is not profitable or it should not be on our flights because it is not time sensitive, and we were pricing it with passenger carriers. Those are the days of the past. I think that you will see that the revenue enhancements and revenue improvements, yield improvement initiatives that have been started a number of months ago are paying dividends now. I will let Aaron and Pauline comment on the rest of it.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah. Thanks, Ajay. Kevin, I'll put it really simply. We've recognized that we're the best steakhouse in the city. We're not going to charge keg pricing anymore. We're realigning our revenue. We're looking at better revenue quality. We're looking at routes. We're looking at reins. We're looking at everything, and we're reassessing our pricing. We're looking at mid-market. E-commerce is certainly surging. We're looking at mid customers. We're expanding, and we're looking at our dim factors. We're looking at utilization of the aircraft. That's why you see a big bump in interline. We're going out and having conversations with those customers. So we're filling a lot of gaps that were in place on the domestic overnight previously to us looking at revenue quality.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

I'll add, at the same time, we've been talking for the last three, four quarters about how we're trying to pressurize the cost structure constantly. I think Cargojet has always been a nimble, lean carrier. But one of the things we're making sure we're watching as we look at revenue initiatives, to Pauline's point, is making sure that we're keeping the lid on cost at the same time.

[Kevin Chiang, Analyst at CIBC]

That's very helpful color. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

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

[Razi Hasan, Analyst at Paradigm Capital]

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just for, start off with just in regards to volume growth in the domestic business for the quarter, could you let us know what that was outside of the CPI-related growth?

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Yeah, we don't report specific volumes on the domestic network. I think if you look at the financials, we think of the domestic network as the unit sort of being the operating day. So if you look at the revenue per operating day, that's probably the right metric to think of as a unit growth.

[Razi Hasan, Analyst at Paradigm Capital]

Okay. Fair enough.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

We're seeing increasing growth in the e-commerce is coming from our mid-market customers.

[Razi Hasan, Analyst at Paradigm Capital]

Okay. That's fair. I may have missed this one, but just on CapEx for the remainder of the year, can you provide any color on how to think about that for Q3 and Q4?

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Yeah. No change to what we've talked about previously other than, like we said, we've put one B767-200 into conversion. That's likely to have somewhere in the range of CAD 10 million-CAD 15 million this year and maybe another CAD 5 million next year. To Ajay's point, that's CapEx that will either be tied to meaningful revenue growth and EBITDA growth opportunities if they arise, or divestment opportunities, which is what we've got in the fleet plan right now.

[Razi Hasan, Analyst at Paradigm Capital]

Okay, great. Maybe just one last one, just on the fuel surcharge revenue for the remainder of the year. Should we look at it more as closer to Q1 levels, obviously from the Q2 hike, or maybe how to think about that for Q3 and Q4?

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Look, the fuel has been so volatile, and there's been a lot of reaction to each side of the current conflict in Iran saying certain things. I think our expectation right now is it remains elevated at the moment. It seems like it's likely to remain elevated, but if I could predict the energy markets that well, I think I'd be a happy man.

[Razi Hasan, Analyst at Paradigm Capital]

Fair enough, Aaron. Thanks for the call. Appreciate it. Pass it along.

[Operator]

Your last question for today comes from Chris Murray from ATB Cormark. Please go ahead.

[Chris Murray, Analyst at ATB Cormark]

Yes. Thanks, folks. I guess maybe I am just going to try to tie some of this together a little bit because I think the question around the revenue efficiency, if I look at it and I look at extra fuel charge, your revenue was up about 7%, but block hours were maybe down 7%. We think about that in context of the lower capital spending, maybe the more discipline around. How are you guys thinking about how that all combines going forward, thinking that you have got the MD-11s, that capacity you will have to replace, and being able to maintain that quality of revenue in a capital disciplined fashion. How do we think about longer term into 2027 and 2028, how you are expecting to see Return on Invested Capital trend and your thoughts around the business longer term?

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

Chris, I will start maybe at the end of that question. Return on Invested Capital is something that I am laser-focused on. It is one of the reasons we have been talking about cleaning things up on the balance sheet and to your point, improving the quality of revenue, the quality of EBITDA. If you look at the trending in our ROIC, particularly in the denominator, over the last two quarters, I think we have had ending invested capital start to come down from some of the peaks six to eight quarters ago or four to six quarters ago. Just because of the way the math works there and you do the average invested capital, there is a bit of a drag as you look at some of those peaks. It will take us another three, four quarters to get past that.

[Aaron McKay, CFO at Cargojet]

But I think at that point you will start to see average invested capital in a more reasonable place at the same time as we are working on the NOPAT side. I think in general, what you are pointing at is exactly what we are trying to accomplish as a management team, which is be more efficient, work on higher quality revenue, higher quality margin, with the assets we have.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Yeah. No, I think you have summed it up well, Aaron. It is exactly what we have been saying on the call. It is growth, international growth outside of the borders of Canada. It is utilizing the assets while keeping laser focus on our costs.

[Chris Murray, Analyst at ATB Cormark]

Okay. I will leave it there. Thanks, guys.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back over to Pauline for closing remarks.

[Pauline Dhillon, CEO at Cargojet]

Thank you everyone for participating on our call today, and we look forward to speaking to you the next quarter. Have a great day.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect. Thank you.

Participants

Executives

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

Analysts

• Konark Gupta, Analyst at Scotiabank
• James McGarragle, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets
• Tim James, Analyst at TD Cowen
• Cameron Doerksen, Analyst at National Bank
• Benoit Poirier, Analyst at Desjardins Capital Markets
• Kevin Chiang, Analyst at CIBC
• Razi Hasan, Analyst at Paradigm Capital
• Chris Murray, Analyst at ATB Cormark