Ricardo Bottas Dourado
Analyst · factors, which are discussed in detail in our SEC filings. If there are any members of the press on this call, please note that for the media, this is a listen-only call. I will now hand over to your host, Ricardo Bottas, CFO, to begin. Please go ahead
Thank you, Roberto. I invite you to move to the next slide, Slide 4. In terms of operational performance, LATAM Group continues to deliver solid year-over-year growth. Consolidated capacity measured in the ASKs increased by 8.3%, driven primarily by a 10.9% expansion in LATAM Airlines Brazil domestic operations, a figure that partially reflects the impact of the temporary closure of Salgado Filho International Airport in Porto Alegre during 2024, now fully recovered. As well as 9.6% increase in the group's international capacity as well as 9.6% increase in the group's international capacity, supported by positive momentum in both regional and long-haul travel. Commercially, domestic capacity across the group's affiliates in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru recorded a slightly decline of 0.3%. This is explained by the strategic reallocation of part of LATAM Airlines, Colombia's domestic fleet to support growth in international routes. Both effects are aligned with the updated 2025 guidance and reflects the ability to dynamically adjust capacity strategically towards high demand markets. Load factors remained healthy across all segments with the consolidated load factor reaching 83.5%, a 1.2 percentage point improvement compared to the same period last year, reflecting strong demand and disciplined capacity growth. During the quarter, LATAM Group transported 20.6 million passengers, a 7.6% year-over-year increase. In terms of consolidated passenger revenue per ASK, it remained stable year-over-year even as the group faced currency depreciation in several key domestic markets and a reduction in jet fuel price. This coupled with its continued growth and expansion speaks to the resilience of the commercial performance and the strength of LATAM's Group's diversified network. In particular, LATAM Airlines Brazil's domestic passengers, RASK in local currency grew a solid 7.8% year-over-year, reflecting strong underlying demand, however, when we express in dollars, LATAM Airlines Brazil domestic passengers RASK declined by 3.3% due to the year-over-year depreciation of the Brazilian real. Meanwhile, passenger RASK in domestic markets of the affiliate spaces in Spanish-speak countries remained robust, supported by continued strength across geographics and the stabilization of capacity of LATAM Airlines Colombia's markets. Lastly, international passenger RASK held nearly flat despite a 9.6% increase in capacity, underscoring healthy demand dynamic and network optimization efforts across the long-haul markets. Moving to the next slide, Slide 5, beyond operational performance. LATAM Group continued to make progress on elevating the customer journey through investments in product, technology and service design. In particular, enhancements in the premium segment have elevated the overall experience and customer satisfaction while also driven a stronger revenue contribution. Regarding LATAM Group retrofit, significant progress has already been made on the narrow-body fleet, and the current focus is now retrofitting the wide-body aircraft. In May, a new premium business cabin was introduced and is already operational in selected aircraft. These redesigned cabin features suite doors for full privacy, full-flat seats 18-inch high-definition screens and layout inspired by South America landscapes and testers. The new retrofitted aircraft are with passengers, delivering an improvement in customer satisfaction levels of NPS versus the previous generation of retrofitted aircraft. In terms of connectivity, WiFi is now available across the entire narrow-body fleet of LATAM Airlines Brazil and continue to scale rapidly across the region, reaching nearly 90% of all affiliate carriers, narrow-body aircraft operating domestic, international, intra-South America flights. The implementation remains on track to complete the rollout across the entire LATAM group narrow-body fleet network by the end of 2025. Looking ahead, LATAM Group is prepared to expand connectivity with wide-body fleet beginning in 2026 through a commercial agreement with ViaSat. This next generation system will be implemented across long-haul aircraft operating intercontinental routes, further strengthened LATAM's Group's commitment to offering a modern and connected onboard experience. LATAM Group is also elevating the premium on ground experience. On June 1, the new terminal at Lima International Airport opened its doors and LATAM launched its signature check-in services for Black and Black Signature members, a feature that previously didn't exist in that hub. With this addition, LATAM Group now offers signature check-in services at the 3 major hubs, Santiago, Sao Paulo and now in Lima. Moving to the next slide, Slide 6. The results from these ongoing investments in the passenger experience are clearly reflected in LATAM Group's customer satisfaction metrics. During the second quarter, LATAM Group maintained an operational net promoter score of 56 points, matching the record high reached in the first quarter of 2025. Among premium passengers, NPS rose to 60 points, confirming the continued positive response to enhancements across our product and service touch points. This progress was reinforced by a global recognition, as Roberto mentioned at the beginning. In June, at the 2025 Skytrax World Airline Awards, LATAM received 9 distinctions, marking the first time the group won every award available in the South America category. This included recognitions for best business and economy class, onboarding catering, cabin cleanliness clearances and Creo and lounge. This broad recognition is a testament to the dedication of LATAM Group's teams and the strength of the travel experience, the affiliate air carriers of the group offer across the region. It also confirms its position as the airline group of choice in South America, not only because of the scale of its network, but because of the quality and consistency of the journey the group delivers. Turning to the next slide, Slide 7, about the LATAM financial results. The second quarter reflects a strong and disciplined execution across all fronts. Total revenues reached $3.3 billion, an increase of 8.2% year-over-year, supported by healthy demand across both passengers and cargo segments. Passenger revenues rose by 8.5% while revenues from premium travelers performed even better, increasing by 12% year-over-year. Cargo revenues also grew by 10.2% with notable performance during seasonal peaks, such as Mother Day, particularly in Colombia and Ecuador. On the cost side, LATAM Group benefited from a favorable fuel environment with jet fuel costs decreasing by 10.6% year-over-year. At the same time, it maintains a disciplined approach to controllable costs supporting margin expansions. As a result, LATAM delivered an adjusted EBITDA of $850 million with a 25.9% margin, improving 5.5 percentage points year-over-year and reached an adjusted operating margin of 12.9%, the highest ever for a second quarter, a clear demonstration of improved operating leverage. Ultimately, net income for the quarter totaled $242 million, up 66% year-over-year bringing first half net income close to $600 million. Moving to the next slide, Slide 8. The strength of second quarter performance is not only the result of revenue growth of favorable fuel dynamics, but it's also a reflection of LATAM's long-standing discipline on cost containment. In the second quarter, adjusted CASK ex fuel remained at $0.048 and an adjusted passenger CASK-ex held at $0.043, both aligned with the updated full year guidance. LATAM Group's cost strategy continues to be one of defining pillars of its business model. It is what allows the group to invest in the customer, expand the network and consistently deliver healthy margins. Turning to Slide 9. Looking at LATAM's trailing 12 months performance, the company reached an adjusted EBITDA of $3.5 billion from the last 12 months, with a margin of 26.2%, continued the upward trend we have seen over the past several quarters. This sustained growth reflects the strength of its operating model, combining solid demand in strategic capacity deployment and strict cost discipline and also reinforce LATAM's ability to invest in the business, improve the customer journey and preserve financial flexibility, all while maintaining healthy leverage and delivering returns to shareholders. Turning to next slide, Slide 10. The cash generation, as we showed in the slides, the second quarter, LATAM delivered another solid performance driven by a strong adjusted operating cash flow of $753 million in this quarter, continued discipline in capital allocation. Throughout the quarter, the company maintained investment plans to support fleet growth and maintenance, resulting in adjusted unleveraged free cash flow of $522 million. After accounting for interest expenses, adjusted leverage free cash flow amounted to $395 million. Overall, LATAM generated $367 million in net cash before implementing shareholder return initiatives. In total, $445 million was returned to shareholders during the quarter, comprising $293 million in dividends, equivalent to the 30% of the fiscal year 2024 net income and $152 million through the first share repurchase program, as Roberto mentioned at the beginning. After accounting for these returns, LATAM's cash balance was largely unchanged with a slightly decrease of $78 million quarter-over-quarter, supported by healthy underlying profitability and solid liquidity management. Considering the first half of the year, LATAM has generated $1.3 billion in adjusted operating cash flow, $743 million in adjusted unleveraged free cash flow and $592 million in adjusted leverage free cash flow and also net cash variation of $111 million in the first semester. Looking ahead, LATAM remains confident that the operation will continue to generate cash throughout the second half of the year, in line with the updated 2025 guidance given the company the flexibility to support strategic initiatives, reinvest in the business and return value to shareholders in a sustainable and disciplined way. Moving to the next slide, now Slide 11. About the capital structure. At the end of the second quarter, LATAM reported liquidity of $3.6 billion, equivalent to 27.2% of last 12 months revenues. This strong financial position was maintained and supported by continued access to committed revolving credit lines even after deploying cash during the quarter to return capital to shareholders. In terms of leverage, LATAM closed the quarter with an adjusted net leverage ratio of 1.6%, which reflects the company consistent financial discipline and well below the financial policy target. LATAM Capital structure continues to be one of its key strength, both in absolute terms and relative to the industry. As we move forward, we will remain focused on protecting the solid financial position, staying within the parameters of our financial policy, while continuing to explore opportunities to enhance efficiency and create long-term revenue. Moving to the Slide 12, an important update and milestone for the group and the continued strength of LATAM's capital structure in June -- last June, the second and the final stage of our post restructuring refinancing plans was completed with the issuance of $800 million in senior secured notes during 2031 and 7.58% coupon. This transaction allowed us to fully prepay the remaining high interest rate debt from 2022 with a strong reduction above 570 basis points in the cost of the refinance of debt. This represents an additional annual savings in interest, about $33 million savings. Together with the savings from last year negotiation, we are accounting now combined savings close to $151 million. Let's turn to Slide 13. As LATAM Group moves into the second half of the year, the business fundamental remains strong, and there is less uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment. And in this sense, we are pleased to report that we have been closely monitoring demand trends and both passengers bookings and cargo have remained stable in the recent weeks. And in light of this, we have narrowed the range of LATAM group's guidance for the full year and made certain revisions and upwards adjustments, including capacity and some key financial indicators. In terms of capacity, the company has narrowed its consolidated growth range while now expecting larger growth in the Brazilian domestic market with the updated guidance reflecting an increase from 7 -- between 7% to 9% to 9.5% and 10.5%. This is supported by stable demand trends and the group's ability to deploy capacity in markets with a strong performance and better opportunities. The company also expects an adjusted operating margin between 14% and 15%, up from a previous range between 13% to 15%. Additionally, adjusted EBITDAR is now forecasted between $3.65 billion and $3.85 billion, revised upward from $3.4 billion to $3.75 billion. In terms of capital structure, the expectations for adjusted leverage free cash flow have been increased to above $1.3 billion, up from above $1.2 billion. The company is also reaffirming the targets of maintaining adjusted net leverage ratio at or below 1.5x. These updates reflect LATAM Group's consistent execution and confidence in its ability to generate sustainable value going forward. Moving to the last slide before we move to the Q&A, let me quickly recap the main takeaways from this strong second quarter. First, we saw solid performance -- operational performance with continued growth and efficiency. LATAM Group transported over 20 million passengers in this last quarter and ended this quarter with a consolidated load factor of 83.5%, supported by strong demand across all business segments. Second, financial results were robust. LATAM delivered a solid adjusted EBITDA and the double digit adjusted operating margin of 12.9%, supported by stable unit revenue, lower fuel prices and continued cost discipline. Third, we continue to deliver value to shareholders. LATAM reported net income of $242 million for the quarter and close to $600 million for the first half of the year, demonstrating consistent execution and profitability. Additionally, the company returned $445 million to shareholders through dividends and the repurchase of 1.6% of its outstanding shares in the Santiago Stock Exchange. Fourth, customer satisfaction remained at record levels, driven by the continued investments in premium cabins, enhanced onboard connectivity. This is also reflected in the recognition that we have mentioned regarding the LATAM recognized as the Best Airline in South America in 2025 by Skytrax awards. Fifth, we reached a major milestone in capital structure optimization through the recent $800 million refinancing, significantly reducing our interest costs and unlocking over $30 million in annual savings. And finally, LATAM Group's fleet plans remain firmly on track. The group has already incorporated 14 new aircraft during the first half of the year and expect to receive 12 more in the second half, reinforcing its growth strategy and operational efficiency. With that, now we can open the line for the questions. Thank you.