Headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Chorus Aviation (TSX: CHR) is a leading lessor of regional aircrafts to airlines around the world. Chorus provides a full suite of regional aviation support services that encompasses every stage of an aircraft’s lifecycle, including aircraft acquisition and leasing, aircraft refurbishment and engineering, contract flying, aircraft and component maintenance, disassembly, and parts sales.
The company is cheap with a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.94, price-to-book ratio of 0.87, and market capitalization of $550 million. Debt is high at Chorus, as evidenced by a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.33. Chorus has excellent performance metrics with an operating margin of 17.99% and a return on equity of 11.31%.
The company’s regional aviation services segment includes three sectors of the regional aviation industry in which Chorus currently operates. Chorus provides contract flying services through two of the company’s wholly-owned subsidiaries, Jazz and Voyageur.
Jazz is the largest regional airline in Canada and operates more flights into more airports in Canada through a scheduled services arrangement with Air Canada than any other Canadian airline. Jazz operates substantially on behalf of the Air Canada Express brand. Voyageur provides charter services and specialized contract flying, such as medical, logistical and humanitarian flights, to international and Canadian customers.
Jazz is certified to perform heavy maintenance on multiple regional aircrafts and is also Transport Canada, Federal Aviation Administration, and European Aviation Safety Agency certified. Voyageur provides client dedicated solutions for all levels of aircraft inspections, heavy checks, modifications, installations, and repairs.
Voyageur Avparts, a division of Voyageur, provides parts provisioning and sales and aeronautical product support for regional aircraft to customers around the world. It serves airlines, maintenance organizations, leasing companies, and other aviation-related companies in the provisioning of aircraft parts, inventory management, inventory consignment services, component repair and overhaul, and aircraft disassembly management.
Jazz and Voyageur also earn revenue from aircraft leasing. Chorus also earns fees from providing maintenance, repair and overhaul, part sales and other technical services. The technical services division of Jazz provides technical advisory support and is certified on several aircrafts and aircraft products. Voyageur also provides a variety of specialty and customized services, technical advisory support as well as aircraft disassembly and parts provisioning and sales.
Chorus provides aircraft-leasing services to third-party air operators through the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, CAC. CAC’s portfolio of leased aircraft consists of the full suite of Airbus A220-300s aircrafts.
Chorus’s growth strategy is focused on providing an integrated and comprehensive suite of regional aviation services, including aircraft leasing and support services, to customers around the world by drawing on the company’s expertise in all areas of regional operations. Each of the company’s subsidiaries possesses unique expertise and capabilities in regional aviation.
The combined capabilities of the company’s subsidiaries provide Chorus the opportunity to offer a full suite of flight, maintenance, repair, overhaul, parts provisioning and sales, aircraft conversion, refurbishment, modification and leasing solutions to regional aircraft owners and operators around the globe. Chorus is uniquely positioned to deliver regional aviation to the world.
