Air Transport Services Group (NASDAQ: ATSG) reported Q4 EPS of $0.36, $0.01 better than the analyst estimate of $0.35. Revenue for the quarter came in at $280.78 million versus the consensus estimate of $227.72 million.

Joe Hete, President and Chief Executive Officer of ATSG, said that ATSG delivered on its 2018 commitments to meet demand for its freighter aircraft by deploying ten of them during the year, while securing additional assets and businesses to ensure its growth and diversify its customer base far into the future.

“Our 2018 Adjusted EBITDA increased 16 percent to $312.1 million, our second straight year of double-digit growth in that financial metric. Our acquisitions of Omni Air and rights to twenty more 767 feedstock aircraft from the fleet of American Airlines, plus the extension and expansion of our agreements with Amazon, have strengthened our platform for sustainable, profitable and diversified growth with some of the world’s largest entities,” Hete said. “With ninety aircraft in service providing solid incremental returns, we are poised for strong growth in 2019 and superior long-term returns for our shareholders.”

Outlook

Hete said, “We expect strong returns in 2019 from our work for the Department of Defense, including charter and ACMI passenger services, as well as for our commercial customers, including Amazon and DHL. We expect to place eight to ten newly converted 767 freighters in service as dry-leased aircraft this year, including the five we will deploy with Amazon in the second half. We also expect overall stronger results from our ACMI Services segment from the addition of Omni Air.”

ATSG currently projects Adjusted EBITDA for 2019 will exceed $445 million, reflecting a full year of contributions from Omni Air and from the freighter aircraft deployed during 2018. Most of the additional cargo aircraft deployments this year will be in the second half. As a result, a greater portion of that growth will occur later in the year. We also expect about $1.5 million in costs to ready crews for the additional 767s we will operate for Amazon.

ATSG projects that 2019 capital expenditures will total about $400 million in 2019, principally to purchase and modify Boeing 767 aircraft for freighter deployments in 2019 and 2020.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) click here.