Willis Lease Finance - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Record quarter: revenue $195.5M (+29.4% y/y), pre-tax income $74.3M, diluted EPS $8.43; utilization rose to 88.3% exit-rate (avg. 87.2%).
• Clear beat vs S&P Global consensus: Q2 revenue $191.85M* vs $134.00M* and Primary EPS $4.77* vs $2.57*; note limited coverage (1 estimate) and methodology differences from company GAAP EPS [GetEstimates]*.
• One-offs materially boosted results: $43.0M gain on sale of U.K. consultancy to the WMES JV and $27.6M gain on sale of leased equipment; underlying operating income fell y/y on higher G&A and impairments.
• Balance sheet/liquidity catalysts: $596M WEST VIII ABS priced in June; warehouse facility amended/extended post-quarter; leverage improved to 2.96x; $0.25 quarterly dividend declared (payable Aug 21, 2025).

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Strong core and trading: lease rent $72.3M (+29.4% y/y); short‑term maintenance reserve revenue $50.2M (+9.5% y/y); spare parts & equipment sales $30.4M (incl. $21.1M single engine sale); gain on sale of leased equipment $27.6M (30% margin).
• Portfolio health: utilization improved to 88.3% at quarter end (avg. 87.2%); management cited portfolio yield in the “high teens” and lease rate factor ~1.01%.
• Strategic/financing moves: $43.0M gain from sale of consulting arm to WMES JV; $596M ABS with tightest pricing to date; leverage down to 2.96x; quarterly dividend maintained at $0.25.
  “Quarter 2 was WLFC’s strongest quarter ever…record lease revenues, increased utilization and solid recurring reserves.” — CEO Austin Willis.

What Went Wrong

• Operating income compression: income from operations fell 47.7% y/y to $28.3M on higher expenses; equipment write‑downs of $11.5M (six engines).
• Elevated G&A: $50.4M (+45% y/y) driven by $12.6M stock‑based comp (incl. ~$5.3M acceleration tied to GC departure) and higher legal fees; partially offset by $6.3M UK grant proceeds for SAF project.
• Maintenance services margin pressure: revenue $8.0M with gross margin ~‑7% as WLFC built labor to support new Jet2 lines (early-stage expansion).
• Interest expense climbed 36.7% y/y to $33.6M amid higher debt and ABS timing (temporary restricted cash effect).

Transcript

Speaker 3

You're welcome to the Willis Lease Finance Corporation's Q2 2025 earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. We would like to remind you that during this conference call, management will be making forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our expectations related to financial guidance, outlook for the company, and our expected investment and growth initiatives. Please note these forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risk and uncertainties. These statements reflect the Willis Lease Finance Corporation's views only as of today. These should not be relied upon as representatives of views as of any subsequent date when Willis Lease Finance Corporation undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events.

These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. For further discussion of the material risk and other important factors that could affect Willis Lease Finance Corporation's financial results, please refer to its filing with the SEC, including, without limitation, Willis Lease Finance Corporation's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q, annual report on Form 10-K, and other periodic reports which are available on the Investor Relations section of the Willis Lease Finance Corporation's website at https://www.wlfc.global/investor-freelicence. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Austin Willis, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Operator, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss our second quarter 2025 financial results. On our call today, I'm joined by Scott Flaherty, our Chief Financial Officer, and Brian Hole, our President. First and foremost, I'd like to emphasize that this was a record-setting quarter for the company. We achieved our highest ever quarterly total revenue: $195.5 million, an increase of 29.4% over the same period last year. This achievement highlights the continued strength of the aviation marketplace, our platform, and our portfolio. Airlines increasingly rely on our leasing, parts, and maintenance solutions to avoid costly and time-consuming engine shop visits, helping to drive the recurring revenues that are the foundation of our business. Our steady performance has enabled us to expand our business while returning capital to our shareholders.

One year ago, we announced a policy of paying a common quarterly dividend, and last week, the board declared our fifth consecutive quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share. Scott will provide a deeper look at our financials, so I would like to turn to what we accomplished in the quarter. The momentum from the beginning of the year continues, despite any lingering concerns related to tariffs and the impact on trade and economic growth. As we've said in the past, we have designed a robust and durable business model that we believe can generate premium returns across the economic cycle and under a wide variety of market conditions. Fundamentally, the increasing expense of new engines makes leasing a compelling strategy for obtaining spare engines, while our maintenance capabilities offer an attractive alternative for airline operators relative to more conventional maintenance solutions.

Additionally, our position as a leading engine-focused lessor is supported by our premium, differentiated asset portfolio, coupled with our integrated maintenance and materials capabilities, as well as our deep relationships with aviation operators, OEMs, and other key market participants. We continue to see positive trends and strength in our core leasing business. The yield of our portfolio, as defined by lease and interest revenue plus maintenance reserve revenue divided by net book value, is in the high teens. This is attributable to numerous factors, not least of which is our lease rental factor of 1.01% and the steady growth of our utilization from 82% at the end of June last year to 86% at the end of March 2025 to 88% at the end of June 2025. Operationally, the quarter's results are a testament to the dedication and expertise of our team and the successful execution of our strategic initiatives.

It's been a busy quarter for us. We purchased or sold 31 engines and four airplanes. We completed our largest ever engine ABS, which also achieves our tightest pricing to date. We did our sixth JOCO. We began to see results from our lean business system called STORE. We received over $6 million in grant proceeds from the UK government for our SAF initiative, and we entered into a contract with Safran to build a test cell facility. Our services are well aligned with the industry's direction of travel as more airlines seek to avoid complexity in favor of a simple operating model to drive efficiency and optimize their businesses. Airlines increasingly rely on our leasing, parts, and maintenance solutions to achieve those objectives by avoiding costly and time-consuming shop visits and maintaining large in-house maintenance capabilities. I'd like to go into more detail on some of these recent accomplishments.

Earlier this year, we launched STORE, our lean business system built around strategy, operations, actions, and results to ensure we scale efficiently while maintaining the high-quality service and products our customers expect. As we grow, STORE helps us expand operating margins, improve delivery timelines, and attract and retain top talent. Over the past nine months, we have identified and eliminated waste across critical processes. These efforts have already delivered measurable results. For example, an 85% reduction in time from engine acquisitions to lease readiness, and we are starting to see faster lease closings because of simplified workflows. Our quarterly earnings this period were influenced by a few distinct factors. Changes in the way we grant stock-based compensation going forward, the increase in our share price and its effect on our 2024 stock-based compensation plan, the transition to a new General Counsel, and the sale of our consulting business.

As announced earlier in the quarter, we incurred costs related to the departures of our previous General Counsel. Saying that, I'm pleased to announce that Cliff Dameron has been appointed GC. Cliff joined us in 2024 from Carlyle Aviation Partners. His experience in aviation and private equity and establishing investment vehicles is proving invaluable as we look to grow our assets under management. Collectively, two of these items led to an increase in FCNA in the second quarter, and I highlight these points to help investors look past these one-off impacts that Scott will address in more detail shortly and focus on the continued strength of our underlying operating performance. Additionally, we sold our consulting and advisory business, Bridge End Asset Management, to Willis Mitsui & Company Engine Support Limited, our existing joint venture with Mitsui & Co.

We purchased this business in 2016 and have since grown it considerably in revenue and capabilities. This business is an important part of our differentiated offering in that we rely upon their expertise to guide us on insourcing maintenance risk, particularly as it pertains to constant thrust, where we recently signed another agreement with Air India for 26 CFM56-7B engines. We believe our close collaboration with Mitsui & Co. strengthens our platform overall, and the combined ownership will help drive further growth in both the consulting business and the joint venture more generally. This allows us to maintain the same strategic benefits we enjoyed as 100% owners of the consulting business in a way that drives a superior return to our shareholders by bringing in third-party equity and fees without diluting shareholders.

Subsequent to the quarter end in July, we announced that our subsidiary, Willis Aviation Services Limited, secured a commitment from leading leisure airline Jet2.com for two base maintenance lines for the upcoming season. Both maintenance lines will be carried out at our Keyside facility, reflecting the demand we referenced earlier and our commitment to serving that demand while creating skilled jobs in the UK aerospace industry. We look forward to updating you on our expansion in the region in quarters and years to come. A few other positive developments I'd like to touch on are tariffs and taxes. We are encouraged by what appears to be an agreement between the U.S. and the EU to have a zero-tariff policy between each for aircraft and aircraft parts, of which engines qualify. We feel that this is a positive development for the U.S.

and the EU, as well as ourselves, who historically have benefited from the frictionless movement of assets across borders. Additionally, changes regarding the treatment of depreciation and interest in the Big Beautiful Bill are expected to benefit us over the long term. Lastly, I'd like to especially recognize the great work of our finance departments and banks in executing WestAce, our most recent and largest ABS, which closed during the second quarter and is priced inside of the other aviation leasing securitizations coming out around the same time. This is a testament to the market's confidence in our business and the strength of our platform. As we look ahead, we are confident that our operational excellence and commitment to innovation will continue to position Willis Lease Finance Corporation for further growth and value creation.

With that, I'll hand it over to Scott Flaherty, our CFO, to discuss our financial performance in greater depth.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Austin, and good morning all. We closed out the first half of 2025 with a solid second quarter performance, where the business produced record quarterly revenues of $195.25 million, up 29% from the comparable period in 2024. Record earnings before taxes or EBT for the quarter of $74.3 million, up 28.3% from the comparable period in 2024. Net income attributable to common shareholders of $59 million for the quarter, up 41.5% from the comparable period in 2024, and yet another quarterly record for the business. Continued strong core lease rent and maintenance reserve revenue, our trading profits all enhanced by our vertically integrated service offering, as well as the recognized value creation associated through the sale of our Bridge End Asset Management consultancy business through our Willis Mitsui joint venture, were the key drivers to our profitability for the quarter.

Walking through the P&L as it relates to the top line, core lease rent revenue for the quarter was $72.3 million, up 29.4% from the prior comparable period. Interest revenue, which we collect interest income on long-term loan-like financings, was $3.6 million, up 59.8% from the prior comparable period. The relative growth we see in the comparable quarter in 2024 was driven by an increase in our equipment held per operating lease, which sits at $2.61 billion as of June 30, 2025, as well as growth in our long-term loan-like financing portfolio. Our total owned portfolio is reflected on our balance sheet as equipment held per operating lease, maintenance rates, notes receivable, and investment and sales type leases, which aggregates at $2.83 billion. Average portfolio utilization was 87.2% for the quarter, compared to 83% in the comparable period of 2024.

Utilization has been trending up, and we ended the second quarter at a utilization rate of 88.3%. We discussed on our last earnings call how we were getting our Q4 2024 new TCS purchases on lease, and we are seeing the effects of our efforts in the P&L. Lease rate factors for the portfolio were in line with the comparable period of 2024 at 1.0%. Maintenance reserve revenues for the quarter were $50.7 million, down $12.2 million from the prior comparable period, but showing relative strength as we peel back the numbers. Short-term maintenance reserve revenues associated with the cyclical and hourly usage of our engines came in at $50.2 million, up 9.5% or $4.4 million from the comparable quarter in 2024, as we continue to see more engines, specifically of the current generation vintage, out with short-term lease conditions.

Long-term maintenance revenues associated with engines coming off lease and the associated release of any maintenance reserve liabilities came in at $0.5 million, compared to $17 million in the comparable prior period. Spare parts and equipment sales to third parties increased by $24.2 million, or 391%, to $30.4 million in Q2 2025, compared to $6.2 million in the comparable prior period. This increase was related to equipment sales of $21.1 million in the quarter, representing a sale of one engine where there were no equipment sales in the comparative prior period. Equipment sales represent the pure trading of an asset that has not been placed on lease. These sales are reflected on a gross revenue basis in our P&Ls. Margin on equipment sales was 6.4%. Spare part sales of $9.2 million were up $3.1 million or 49.3% from the comparable period in 2024.

Margins on spare part sales for the quarter came in at 9.8%. Lossy, our spare parts business, provides valuable feedstock in a tight parts market, supporting both the Willis and our customers' fleets. The recycling of these spare parts often occurs at one of our two engine MRO facilities, which are located in Coconut Creek, Florida, and Bridgend, Wales. Gain on sale of lease equipment, a net revenue metric, was $27.6 million in the second quarter, up $13.2 million or 91.2% from the comparable period. This gain was associated with gross equipment sales of $91.1 million, less economic closing adjustments. Included in this gain was the sale of 14 engines and 2 airframes. The 30% margin realized on these sales is reflective of the unrealized value we have in our engine portfolio.

Trading is an important part of our business and keeps our portfolio relevant and provides capital to build our portfolio. Maintenance services revenue, which represents fleet management, engine and aircraft storage and repair services, and revenues related to management of fixed-base operator services, increased by $1.3 million to $8 million in the second quarter of 2025. Gross margins were a negative 7% as we are in the build-out stages of our aircraft line and base maintenance business. Our maintenance service offerings create lease opportunities for our business and enable a more efficient lease process through vertical integration. On the expense side of the equation, depreciation and amortization was up $5.4 million in Q2 to $27.6 million as compared to the prior year. Growth in depreciation was primarily attributed to portfolio growth and new off-lease assets going on initial lease, which starts the depreciation cycle through the P&L.

To a lesser extent, this increase was related to the depreciation associated with shop visit investments, which start a slightly more accelerated depreciation schedule as shop visit investments are depreciated over a shorter timeframe. Write-down of equipment was $11.5 million for the quarter, representing impairment on six engines, four of which were moved to held for sale. G&A was $50.4 million in the second quarter, up $15.7 million compared to $34.7 million in the comparable period in 2024. Increases in the overall G&A spend were mainly related to a $15 million increase to personnel expenses, of which $12.6 million was due to share-based compensation. Of this $12.6 million, $5.3 million was associated with the departure of our former General Counsel and the acceleration in his care of Epton. $5.0 million was related to our April 2025 grant, which was awarded under our prior LTEA program and linked to 2024 performance.

For 2025, we have modified the LTEA plan following a significant stock price appreciation in 2024 and have granted awards in January of 2025, which are subject to service and ongoing performance-based metrics. $2.2 million of the increase was related to wage growth due to increased staffing associated with the growth of the business, and $2.2 million was due to increased legal fees. These cost increases were partially offset by the receipt of $6.3 million of government grant proceeds associated with our SAF program, which we were awarded in October of 2024. Technical expense, which consists of non-capitalized repairs, engine thrust rental fees, outsourced technical support services, sublease engine rental expense, engine storage, and freight costs, increased by $3 million to $7.5 million in the second quarter, compared to $4.5 million in the prior year period. This increase was primarily due to an increased level of engine repair activity.

Net finance costs, which were $33.6 million in the second quarter, compared to $24.6 million in the comparable period of 2024. The increase in costs was primarily related to an increase in indebtedness, as total debt obligations increased from $1.95 billion at June 2024 to $2.8 billion at June 2025. A significant portion of the increase in total balance sheet debt was associated with the late Q2 2025 ABS capital raise, which will have a temporary effect on leverage as well as restricted cash until such time as the beneficial interests in our engines associated with this transaction are transferred to our new financing. In the second quarter, the company recognized a $43 million gain on the sale of our Bridge End Asset Management consulting business to our joint venture, Willis Mitsui & Company Engine Support Limited.

This transaction allowed the company to recognize the substantial value created in our consulting business, which we purchased in 2016, build further substance in our joint venture partnership with Mitsui & Co., and free up capital to grow our core leasing business while still maintaining access to the consulting capabilities of the Bridge End Asset Management business through our 50% ownership interest in our Willis Mitsui & Company Engine Support Limited joint venture. Concurrent with this sale, we made an incremental $22.5 million investment in our Willis Mitsui & Company Engine Support Limited joint venture. The company also picked up $3.1 million in rentable earnings from our 50% ownership interest in our Willis Mitsui & Company Engine Support Limited and Classic Willis joint venture. EBT for the quarter was $74.3 million, up 28.3% from the comparable period in 2024.

Income tax expense was $13.9 million, an ATR of 18.7%, which was influenced by the favorable tax treatment of our gain on the Bridge End Asset Management sale to Willis Mitsui & Company Engine Support Limited. The company produced $59 million of net income attributable to common shareholders, which factors in GAAP taxes and the cost of our preferred equity. The diluted weighted average income per share was $8.43 in the second quarter of 2025. Net cash provided by operating activities was $145.2 million in the first half of 2025, as compared to $129.7 million in the first half of 2024.

The increase was predominantly related to a large disparity in working capital as inventory went from a $40.7 million use to an $8.9 million source of cash, partially offset by a $22 million decrease in payments on sales type leases and a $10.9 million decrease in cash flows from changes in accounts payable and accrued expenses. Cash flows from investing were a negative $2.2 million in the first half of the year. Contributing to this were $155 million of equipment purchases and $17 million of purchases of PP&E, offset by $142 million of proceeds from the sale of equipment, as well as $23.1 million of net proceeds from our sale of the Bama business. On the financing and capital structure side of the business, the company completed six JOCO financings in April for $19.8 million, bringing total JOCO financings at quarter end to approximately $125 million.

In June, the company accessed the ABS market and raised its eighth ABS financing, WestAce, raising $596 million in aggregate principal amount of fixed-rate notes. This transaction was a two-pronged debt offering representing the largest ABS financing the company has done to date. The transaction was well oversubscribed during its marketing and priced the tightest spread the company has achieved to date, demonstrating the strong demand our business model has generated in the structured debt markets. Subsequent to quarter end, we amended and extended our $500 million warehouse facility to provide the company with more favorable asset advance rates, reduced borrowing costs, and extensions of the commitment period and final repayment dates to May 3, 2027 and May 3, 2028, respectively.

As a specialty finance company, Willis Lease Finance Corporation regularly accesses the capital markets as we look to source competitively priced capital to continue to grow our balance sheet and P&L. In May, we paid our fourth consecutive regular quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share. Subsequent to quarter end, we declared our fifth consecutive regular quarterly dividend, which is expected to be paid on August 21, 2025, to stockholders of record at the close of business on August 12, 2025. We believe that our ability to pay a recurring dividend speaks to the health of the business and provides our shareholders with a moderate current cash yield on their investment while not degrading the strong cash flow characteristics and equity growth of the business, which supports our overall growth.

With respect to leverage, as defined as total debt obligations, net of cash, and restricted cash to equity, inclusive of preferred stock, our leverage ticked lower to 2.96 times as compared to 3.48 times at year-end 2024. The flexibility of our capital structure, our liquidity due to our $1 billion credit facility and $500 million warehouse facility, as well as our current leverage profile, provides us the flexibility to quickly and opportunistically access the market as we look to continue to build our lease portfolio and provide the best and most creative solutions to our customers. With that, I will now open the call for questions. Operator?

Speaker 3

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please go ahead by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach your equipment. Once again, that is star one. If you would like to ask a question, we'll now take a question from Hillary Cacanando with Deutsche Bank.

Speaker 1

Hi. Thank you so much for taking my question. I was just curious to know, with OEM production now that it's starting to improve a little bit, are you seeing any impacts on lease rates? I think the lease rates on engines are still very strong, but I've heard some investors express some concern about whether lease rates are peaking, or when lease rates are expected to peak, if you have a feel for that. Any thoughts?

Speaker 0

Hey, Hillary, this is Austin. Thanks for your question. We've seen lease rates increase about 9% relative to the same period last year and about 2% to 4% over the prior quarter. I think lease rates are stabilizing. In some cases, a little bit higher, in some cases, about the same. In terms of production, we're hoping that the OEMs are starting to source things out and are going to be starting to produce the aircraft with more consistency. I think that's what we're seeing broadly. We don't expect to see any real negative pressure on lease rates because of that in the near term. That's also why we've got about 54% of our portfolio in the next-generation equipment. As the pool of GTF and LEAP-powered aircraft increases, that increases our market to lease out those engines.

Also, as we start to see the phase-out of the current generation technology, which we still think is a little ways off, we're pretty well placed to exploit that with our programs like Constant Zero that are really designed for aircraft transition. In general, we think the lease rates are good and expected to stay pretty strong for the foreseeable future.

Speaker 1

Okay. You're not really seeing that peak, peaking as of last. Okay. Thanks for it. Just a follow-up question. We've been hearing that some very young aircraft, like A320 Neos and A220s, younger than 10 years old, are now being parted out to use the engines as spares. It speaks to the demand for engines. Are you seeing that? Is that actually good for you guys? Is that part of the environment or not?

Speaker 0

Yeah. We are seeing that, but it's a bit nuanced. There are some aircraft that I believe the engines have been pulled off and the airframes are being parted out, but I think it's pretty limited. What we're seeing a little bit more of are airlines obtaining the lease or otherwise aircraft where they're pulling the engines off temporarily to support their own fleet. We're acquiring some aircraft, underwriting them on the basis of the engines. In general, I think it's a positive. I think it goes to the fact that there's so much demand for engines in the marketplace that people are doing whatever they can to attain lift.

Speaker 1

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

Speaker 0

You bet. Thanks, Hillary.

Speaker 3

As a reminder, that is star one if you would like to ask a question. We'll take our next question from Eric Gregg with Four Tree Island Advisory.

Speaker 4

Thanks, guys. Great quarter. Four quick questions here. The first here is, you said the end of the quarter utilization rate was 88.3%. What was the average unit quarter?

Speaker 0

Scott, do you want to take that?

Speaker 4

The average utilization rates for the quarter.

Speaker 0

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4

Yeah. The average utilization rate for the quarter was 87.2%. At the end of the quarter that was quoted by Austin, the utilization rate was 88%.

Speaker 0

Sorry, Eric, was your question what was the utilization rate average for the quarter or the end of the last quarter? Can you repeat your question?

Speaker 4

It looks like the draw, and we can get that to operator.

Speaker 3

Eric is next here.

Speaker 0

Hello.

Speaker 3

Okay, we can hear you now, Eric.

Speaker 0

Okay. Sorry. I think you said it was 88.3% at the end of the quarter. I just wanted to know if that was the high point, and if it's lower, that's great. I guess my other question is sort of blocked out too.

Speaker 4

Yeah, no, Eric, I think.

Speaker 0

I think.

Speaker 4

I think you got by the opportunity.

Speaker 0

Eric, sorry, not to interrupt you, but I think, you know, why the reason we quote it is, you know, we try to quote the average utilization in the periods as well as the end to just kind of speak to the trend. Over the last year, we've seen, going back to when we picked up a lot of GTFs in the fourth quarter, we had a higher off-lease percentage. I think if you kind of looked at the end of last year, we were in the high 70%. As we've gotten those on lease, we've seen our utilization go up. We just wanted to highlight that the average utilization in the quarter was lower than the utilization at the end of the quarter, and the business is trending well in that regard.

Speaker 4

Great. My other questions are these. What was the employee count at the end of the quarter? How is the Bridge End sale going to impact income on a quarterly basis? My final question is to express the cost of maintenance quarter, and is the revenues all for, but the cost of maintenance services is also inclusive of your internal client as well as third party? Those are my remaining questions. Thanks.

Speaker 0

Sure. I'll try to stick through those. You were a little choppy there, so I'll try to get as many as possible. Scott, if you don't mind, let me jump in on that. We lost some of your later questions, but in terms of employee counts, we're around 420. I think one of your questions was asking for a little bit of color on the transaction between ourselves and the joint venture selling the consulting business. Is that correct?

Speaker 4

Yeah, I was wondering, what's the ongoing revenue and operating income impact of selling that business?

Speaker 0

Okay. The P&L from that business hasn't been particularly material to our own business. I think the P&L impact to us now having that additional infusion of roughly $40 million of equity is going to have a pretty positive impact when you take into account our ability to leverage it and buy profit-making equipment over time.

Speaker 4

Great. Just to repeat in case you didn't, you know, I was jumbled, the maintenance service revenues this quarter were less than the cost of maintenance services. I assume that the maintenance service revenues line item is a third-party revenue. Is the cost of maintenance services third-party plus internal, client-related costs, or is it the case that you're losing money on third-party maintenance services, on a gross margin?

Speaker 0

Sure. I'll answer part of the question, and then from the accounting side, I'll hand over to Scott. The margin, the difference in the margin for the maintenance services business is really attributable to the additional labor that we picked up during the period. That's largely driven by the airframe business, Wasl. I think I mentioned in my prepared remarks that we secured a contract with Jet2 for two additional lines. In order to secure that contract, we had to show that we had the labor force in place that was capable of servicing their aircraft. That's really a lot of it, just buildup of that labor to support that contract with Jet2. Scott, did you want to touch on the data force?

Speaker 4

Yeah. No, I think you answered it all. I think that, Eric, you're definitely seeing a little bit of the cost of the growth of that business in the early stages. That's why you've seen the change in margin. Obviously, you've seen also some growth in the top line there as well.

Speaker 0

Okay. Thank you very much. Great quarter.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Eric.

Speaker 3

We'll take our next question from Will Waller with M3.

Speaker 2

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. You mentioned the maintenance reserve revenue was $50.7 million in the current quarter, and it was $50.2 million of that that was short-term maintenance reserve revenue. I'm kind of curious. The long-term maintenance revenue that you mentioned is only $500,000. If I look back at last quarter, that was $9.6 million. If I look back a year ago, the same quarter, it was $17 million. When I look at the maintenance reserve liability, that grew from last quarter being about $104.4 million up to $113.1 million. Can you kind of walk through what's going on with extensions of leases and if there's an above-normal number of extensive extended leases and the stats affecting how that's accounted for, and then eventually how that maintenance reserve liability, if that eventually some of that runs through the income statement and sort of the timing of that?

Speaker 0

Hey, thanks, Will. Thanks for the question. I think the way you're thinking about the long-term maintenance revenue relative to some lease extensions and long-term leases is generally correct. For the benefit of other investors, long-term maintenance reserve recognition generally occurs when we have an engine that comes off of long-term lease. Now, part of that is lumpy, and part of that is due to extensions. I'd say we have seen a reasonable amount of extensions, but I think the bigger factor in the second quarter was more just to do with timing than anything else. We had some long-term reserve come in a little bit later and some come in a little bit earlier. I would be cautious to focus too much on lease extensions and more just the timing more than anything else. Scott, do you want to add to that?

Speaker 4

I think the only thing I would add is that if you look at the core short-term recurring maintenance reserve revenue, you've seen that increase, you know, approaching 10%. Really, as you know, the long-term piece is always associated with those engines coming off lease. Less engines with those conditions off lease. I think you noted the point that we build the maintenance reserve, so we're still obviously pulling dollars in on that front as well, not recognizing them yet through the P&L, but ultimately, we will be. We're very happy with the yields that are getting generated by the portfolio.

Speaker 2

Okay. Great. Thanks. My question was probably kind of confusing, but you answered it, exactly what I was basically asking. I think you understood it, so thanks a lot for that. My last question is related to the sustainable fuel project. You had the expenses that were associated with some of the plans in the first quarter. It sounded like you got some of that grant revenue in the second quarter, and then I think there was a release that you got another grant that was awarded. Just kind of curious on how the timing of that will work and if that's reported on the income statement and where that would flow through if it does or if it has.

Speaker 4

Sure. Correct. We had, and as we said in our last call, we mentioned that the lion's share of the cost that we would incur, and that you see in the P&L, would happen in that first quarter of the year. We did receive a grant. We were awarded the grant in October of last year, and we received the proceeds for that grant, finally in excess of $6 million, in the second quarter. We recognized that through the P&L in that quarter. The other grant that you're referring to similarly was awarded in this quarter. In dollars, it's a little north of $4 million, and that will be recognized in the P&L upon receipt.

We don't have a color for you now on the receipt, but we stand by what we said in the past that you've seen the lion's share of material costs on the SAF side come through, and those were predominantly in the first quarter.

Speaker 0

Just to add to that briefly, we're thrilled that the UK government has decided to give us another grant. It's really just a testament to the project and their confidence in our ability to execute.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you very much.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Will.

Speaker 3

The panelists are now for their telephone questions at this time. I might turn the conference back to our presenters for any additional or closing comments.

Speaker 0

Thank you all for joining us today. We're thrilled with another great quarter, and we look forward to talking to you next quarter. Bye-bye.

Speaker 3

That does conclude today's conference. We thank you all for your participation. You may now press comma.