Avianca Holdings Reports First Quarter 2019 Operating Income of $18.5 Million First Quarter 2019 Highlights
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Avianca Holdings Reports First Quarter 2019 AVIANCA HOLDINGS S.A. Operating Income of $18.5 Million NYSE: AVH BVC: PFAVH Bogota, Colombia, May 15, 2019 – Avianca Holdings S.A. (NYSE: AVH, BVC: PFAVH) today reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2019 (1Q 2019). All figures are expressed in millions of US dollars unless otherwise stated. The information within is presented in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The reconciliation between IFRS and non-IFRS financial information can be seen in the financial tables section of this report. Except when noted, all comparisons refer to first quarter 2018 (1Q 2018) numbers. Figures and operating metrics of Avianca Holdings S.A. (“Avianca Holdings” or “the Company”) are presented on a consolidated basis. Financial Highlights (3 months ended March 31 st) ($millions) 2018 2019 First Quarter 2019 Highlights Revenues 1.17Bn 1.15Bn EBITDAR 227.2 169.7 EBIT 75.8 18.5 1 • Avianca Holdings SA adopted IFRS 16 on January 1, 2019. The new accounting standard EBITDAR 249.6 169.7 EBIT1 101.2 18.5 requires the accounting of operating leases as assets and liabilities within financial Net Income 3.5 -67.9 Net Income*1 44.6 -56.7 statements, for all leases exceeding 12 months unless the underlying asset is of low value. *Excluding Fx and Derivative Charges As such the lessee recognizes the right of use of the underlying asset (and debt) at the present 1Excluding items on footnote 1 value of the outstanding lease payments. Therefore, the Aircraft rentals line item has been Profitability eliminated from 2019 onwards. (3 months ended March 31 st) 2018 2019 • 1Q 2019 results were primarily driven by a 1.5% decrease in total operating revenues, as EBITDAR% 19.4% 14.7% EBIT% 6.5% 1.6% passenger revenues decreased by 0.1%, mainly driven by average fare declines in Central, EBITDAR%1 21.4% 14.7% North and South America as well as an 8.4% decrease in Cargo and Other revenues due to EBIT%1 8.7% 1.6% Net Income%1 2.5% -5.9% the termination of the commercial agreement with Etihad. In addition, first quarter 2019 total 1 Net Income%* 3.8% -4.9% operating expenses increased by 3.6%. *Excluding Fx and Derivative Charges 1Excluding items on footnote 1 • Net Income totaled $ -67.9 million, compared to $ 3.5 million in 1Q 2018. Net income margin Operational Highlights for 1Q 2019 reached -5.9%. Operating income (EBIT) reached $18.5 million, with a 1.6% (3 months ended March 31 st) operating margin. Further, operating revenues reached $1.2 billion for the quarter; a 1.5% 2018 2019 year-on-year decrease. Passengers 7.42M 7.74M ASKs 12.73Bn 13.81Bn • For the first quarter 2019, yields reached 8.6 cents; a 6.2% year on year decrease. This RPKs 10.65Bn 11.34Bn Load Factor 83.6% 82.1% decline was driven by an 4.2% average fare decrease, due to macroeconomic weaknesses in RASK 9.2 8.3 Latin American economies. CASK 8.6 8.2 • Cost per available seat kilometer excluding fuel (CASK ex-fuel) decreased 6.3%, to 6.0 cents in the 1Q 2019, compared to 6.4 cents in 1Q 2018. This was primarily driven by a 26.7% decrease in Flight Operations expenses as well as a 4.9% reduction in Salaries wages and benefits expenses. The latter was partially offset by increased jet fuel consumption, which on average increased by 7.7% in the first quarter of 2019, as well as by an 49.0% increase in Fees and other expenses. 1Q 2019 CASK therefore decreased 4.5%, to 8.2 cents. • EBITDA for the 1Q 2019 was $169.7 million, with a 14.7% EBITDA margin. • 1Q 2019 capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometers (ASKs), increased by 8.5% year- on-year, due to the base effect the pilot strike had last year’s operations. Passenger traffic, measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPKs), increased by 6.5% in the first quarter 2019, reaching a consolidated load factor of 82.1% across the network. • Avianca continues to implement its Transformation Plan to shift from a growth to a profitability and cash generation-focused business model. As such, Avianca reduced services offered within Peru’s domestic market by its local subsidiary Avianca Peru S.A. and eliminated non performing routes operated out of Bogota’s El Dorado Airport. Further, Avianca reached an agreement with Airbus to cancel the delivery of a total of 17 A320 Aircraft and postpone delivery of an additional 35 Airbus A320 Aircraft. Contact Information: Avianca Holdings S.A. Investor Relations Office [email protected] CEO Message Dear Shareholders, It is my honor to address you today as Avianca’s Interim CEO, which came into effect on May 1, 2019 after Mr. Hernán Rincón retired from the Company after three years serving as our Chief Executive Officer, leading our Company’s transformation process and establishing a solid foundation for our Company’s long-term strategic and organizational development program. We would again like to express our gratitude to Mr. Rincón. I have been appointed Interim CEO by Avianca’s Board of Directors for this transition period, while we finalize the appointment of our new CEO. I look forward to manning the helm of Colombia’s regional flagship carrier until our Board- mandated search for our next CEO has been completed. This process requires three strong candidates to be identified through a thorough and comprehensive search that is currently being conducted by an independent executive search agency, as per Avianca Holdings bylaws. Turning to our first quarter financial performance, we continued to successfully implement the strategic plan which we announced at the beginning of this year and will continue deployment throughout the year, based on our Transformation Plan. Avianca Holdings had a difficult start of the year. The unfortunate U.S. dollar relation between fuel prices and regional currencies pressured our results during the quarter, combined with other obstacles which created a very challenging environment. However, we successfully advanced important strategic objectives related to our Transformation Plan on several different fronts. These are initial indications of our success in stabilizing our business, as we pivot from a growth-driven strategy to now focus on our core business units, namely our (i) Passenger, (ii) Loyalty and (iii) Cargo operations, with a strong emphasis on profitability and strengthened cash generation. As part of the first pillar of our Transformation Plan, we successfully re-negotiated in March our 128 A320neo purchase order with Airbus. We successfully agreed to drop 17 Airbus A320neo from the original order of 128 A320neo planes, and to postpone deliveries between 2019-2022 of another 35 aircraft of the same type, to ensure we maintain our financial stability over the next three years, which will also benefit from the important efficiencies we have been able to capture through our fleet management strategy and throughout our operations across the network. With this renegotiation, we have reduced Avianca’s financial commitments by more than $2.6 billion dollars and we preserved a cash position of $350 million for the 2020-2022 period. While we are confident that Avianca will continue to grow, the rhythm of this growth and of the expansion of our fleet has been reduced considerably since implementing our strategic plan in 2018. The Airbus renegotiation is only the first step of adjusting our fleet structure, which includes the sale and phasing-out of the aging Embraer E190 jets within the fleet and the transfer of our ATR fleet to our new Regional Express Americas subsidiary. Along these lines, I’m pleased to let you know that Regional Express Americas formally began operation in the first quarter 2019, effectively strengthening Avianca’s connectivity in Colombia. Turning to our progress related to network repositioning, our focus on improved profitability resulted in several network changes, including cutting our Peruvian domestic network to a single route between Lima and Cusco (with 35 weekly frequencies) and maintaining our Lima Hub for international destinations. We have turned our attention to reassessing other routes with an eye towards profitability, including suspending service to Boston and Chicago from Bogota starting May 1, 2019, and ending flights from Cartagena to both Pereira and New York John F. Kennedy on the same day, we also canceled Bogota-Montevideo and Lima-Mendoza in March 1, 2019. While we have suspended a total of 16 routes, we will be adding capacity to several of Avianca’s more profitable routes and have increased capacity on routes from Bogota to Medellin, Cali, Santiago de Chile and a seasonal flight to Barcelona. In November of last year, we announced plans to sell off Avianca’s interest in several non-core shareholdings and raise capital, which is the third pillar in our Transformation Plan. The sale of these non-core assets progressed well in 2018, with positive discussions with our respective regional partners. In the first quarter 2019, we continued to see success in divesting those non-core assets earmarked for sale, and recently announced that we had divested Avianca’s 50% stake in our Avianca-CAE Flight Training joint venture. We continue to strengthen Avianca’s balance sheet and remain focused on improving our overall profitability as we divest other assets no longer relevant to our core strategy. As these updates reflect, we have made significant progress in line with the key pillars of our Transformation Strategy during the quarter. However, looking to the year ahead, we expect continued macro headwinds, increased fuel cost, and declining yields.