Air Transport Services Group, formerly ABX Holding, plans to step up efforts to find customers other than its largest one, DHL, and to redeploy its aircraft among them.
The company hosted a conference call and Webcast on Tuesday morning to discuss with investors their current status and plans for a post-DHL environment.
Since May 28, when DHL made public its attempts to secure a deal with UPS to take over its domestic U.S. air network, the fate of ATSG has been in doubt. Public officials in Wilmington, Ohio are trying to stave off the closing of the DHL hub there and the loss of more than 6,000 jobs. ABX Air has offered to rewrite its contract with DHL to make the switch to UPS unnecessary. ATSG stock was selling at 96 cents on Monday. A year ago, the stock was trading at approximately $7.50 per share. On Tuesday, the Russell 2000 Index dropped ATSG from its small-cap listing.
Joseph C. Hete, president and CEO of ATSG and CEO of ABX Air, said during the Webcast that for the past five years, ABX has been developing a diversified customer base for their fleet of fuel efficient 767 aircraft. The company flies for the U.S. military and the Postal Service.
Quint Turner, CFO, said the company has a strong financial base with strong cash flow from non DHL businesses. The DHL business is a lower margin operation than other contracts, and ABX expects to provide ACMI leases to other customers who will give a better return on the capital investment, Turner said. He did not say how many planes the company can reasonably expect to redeploy within the next year.
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