Conferencia de resultados del T3 de 2026 de Lindblad Expeditions (LIND): los ingresos suben un 12 % y se elevan las proyecciones

Puntos clave

• Los ingresos del tercer trimestre de 2026 aumentaron un 12,1% interanual hasta los 269,2 millones de dólares, mientras que el EBITDA ajustado subió un 12,0% hasta el récord trimestral de 64,1 millones de dólares.
• El beneficio neto atribuible a los accionistas alcanzó un récord histórico para la compañía de 24,2 millones de dólares, o 0,36 dólares por acción diluida, frente a las pérdidas registradas en el tercer trimestre de 2025.
• La ocupación aumentó 310 puntos básicos hasta el 91,2% a pesar del incremento del 4,3% en las noches de huésped disponibles. El rendimiento neto avanzó un 6,4% hasta los 1.398 dólares por noche de huésped disponible, el nivel más alto en un tercer trimestre en la historia de la empresa.
• Lindblad Expeditions elevó sus previsiones de ingresos para 2026 a un rango de 870 a 885 millones de dólares y sus previsiones de EBITDA ajustado a 142-148 millones de dólares.
• La empresa adquirió una participación de control del 60% en White Desert y Echo Charlie por aproximadamente 54,6 millones de dólares, ampliando su cartera de viajes de experiencias por mar, tierra y aire.
• La dirección señaló que las reservas para 2027 se encuentran en niveles récord y que las reservas para 2028 avanzan a un ritmo superior al de 2027. Asimismo, indicó que un crecimiento de un solo dígito medio del rendimiento neto es una expectativa razonable para 2027.

Datos financieros clave

Desempeño operativo y del negocio

Ambos segmentos operativos registraron un crecimiento de ingresos de doble dígito. El EBITDA ajustado del segmento Lindblad aumentó un 13,2% hasta los 37,1 millones de dólares, mientras que el EBITDA ajustado de Land Experiences subió un 10,3% hasta los 27,0 millones de dólares. El crecimiento de los ingresos de Land Experiences estuvo impulsado principalmente por un aumento del 12% en el número de huéspedes.

El crecimiento de los ingresos superó al incremento de los costes operativos, favoreciendo la expansión de 130 puntos básicos en el margen bruto. Excluyendo el beneficio fiscal por retención de empleados del ejercicio anterior, los gastos generales y administrativos disminuyeron aproximadamente un punto porcentual en proporción a los ingresos.

El plazo medio de reserva previa se amplió de 9,5 meses a 11,9 meses, lo que mejoró la visibilidad de los ingresos. Los ingresos a bordo y de expansión crecieron un 27% en el acumulado del año. La dirección atribuyó este resultado a la fijación dinámica de precios, a las mejoras en marketing, a unos canales de venta más amplios y a la gestión de ingresos.

Lindblad redujo el consumo total de combustible a pesar del incremento del 4,3% en la capacidad. Sin embargo, el alza de los precios elevó el gasto en combustible en 1,3 millones de dólares, es decir, un 22%, pasando los costes de combustible a representar el 4,9% de los ingresos del segmento Lindblad frente al 4,5% del año anterior.

La transacción de White Desert y Echo Charlie fue la mayor adquisición realizada por Lindblad hasta la fecha. White Desert aporta experiencias de campamentos y aviación con base en la Antártida, mientras que Echo Charlie es una nueva marca de expediciones con tres itinerarios inaugurales previstos para 2027. La dirección también está trabajando para añadir un cuarto campamento de White Desert.

Previsiones de la dirección

La dirección señaló que se prevé que la capacidad del cuarto trimestre disminuya un porcentaje dentro del rango medio de un solo dígito debido al calendario de entrada en dique seco y al reposicionamiento de buques. Se espera que la solidez de las reservas del propio ejercicio mitigue parcialmente la reducción de la capacidad y los elevados costes de combustible.

Para 2027, la dirección calificó de expectativa actual razonable un crecimiento del rendimiento neto de un solo dígito medio. Se prevé que la ampliación de fletes siga siendo una palanca moderada de crecimiento de la capacidad, mientras que la empresa indicó que está a punto de concluir los planes para incorporar barcos a su flota.

Riesgos y factores a vigilar

• Los precios del combustible siguieron siendo un obstáculo importante, al subir aproximadamente un 50% interanual, según la dirección. Lindblad no realiza coberturas de combustible ni prevé recurrir a recargos por combustible.
• Se prevé que la capacidad del cuarto trimestre disminuya un porcentaje en el rango medio de un solo dígito debido a las entradas en dique seco y al reposicionamiento.
• Los costes de venta y marketing aumentaron en parte por el último incremento escalonado del porcentaje de cánones en virtud del acuerdo con National Geographic.
• El apalancamiento neto aumentó a 2,5x tras la adquisición de White Desert y Echo Charlie.
• Los riesgos geopolíticos siguen formando parte del entorno operativo, aunque la dirección indicó que no se prevé que las rutas aéreas actuales afecten a la demanda de los itinerarios de 2027 o 2028.

Puntos destacados del turno de preguntas y respuestas con analistas

Precios y demanda futura: La dirección afirmó que los ingresos reservados récord para 2027 implican precios más altos. Los precios están aumentando a un ritmo de doble dígito en muchos itinerarios, aunque la expectativa de rendimiento para el conjunto de la cartera en 2027 se sitúa actualmente en el rango medio de un solo dígito.

Ampliación de la flota: Lindblad prevé un crecimiento continuo de la capacidad de un solo dígito medio mediante barcos fletados a lo largo del tiempo. La dirección también está evaluando nuevas construcciones, adquisiciones y barcos fletados adicionales, y señaló que los planes sobre la flota están a punto de finalizar.

Mitigación del combustible: La empresa se centra en reducir el consumo y optimizar dónde y cómo compra el combustible. La dirección rechazó añadir simplemente un recargo por combustible, argumentando que los precios deben sustentarse en la demanda y la experiencia del huésped.

Crecimiento de Land Experiences: La dirección ve margen para una mayor expansión orgánica mediante nuevas geografías, salidas adicionales y nuevos productos en destinos existentes. Los fundadores de los negocios de Land Experiences de Lindblad han ampliado sus compromisos de liderazgo.

Iniciativas de costes: Se prevé que los programas lanzados en 2026 aporten todo su beneficio financiero en 2027 debido a sus largos plazos de implantación. La dirección identificó el coste de los tours, los gastos generales y administrativos (G&A) y las inversiones de capital como las principales áreas propensas a beneficiarse.

IA y búsqueda de viajes: Lindblad está invirtiendo en relaciones públicas y narrativas de marca a medida que los viajeros recurren cada vez más a herramientas de IA para planificar sus vacaciones. La dirección también subrayó que los comentarios orgánicos de los huéspedes pueden influir en la forma en que los agentes de IA recomiendan productos turísticos.

Transcripción completa de la teleconferencia de resultados

Transcripción completa de la conferencia de resultados

Comentarios de la dirección

Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Lindblad Expeditions Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results. [Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference over to Rick Goldberg, Chief Financial Officer. Rick, please go ahead.

Rick Goldberg

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Lindblad's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. With me on today's call is Natalya Leahy, our Chief Executive Officer. Natalya will begin with some opening comments, and I will follow with details on our Q3 results and expectations for the full year before we open the call for Q&A. As always, you can find our latest earnings release in the Investor Relations section of our website. Before we get to all of that, I'd like to remind everyone that the company's comments today may include forward-looking statements. Those expectations are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and performance to be materially different from those expectations.

The company guarantee the accuracy of any forecast or estimates, and we undertake no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. If you would like more information on the risks involved in forward-looking statements, please see the company's SEC filings. In addition, our comments may reference non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and other associated disclosures are contained in the company's earnings release.

With that out of the way, I'll turn the call over to Natalya.

Natalya Leahy

Thank you, Rick. Well, this has been a fun and exciting quarter for us. We welcomed 2 extraordinary brands White Desert and Echo Charlie to our global experiential travel platform, expanding our ability to take guests to some of the world's most remarkable places by sea, by land and now by air. At the same time, we continue to deliver strong business momentum. Combined with developments gave us the confidence to raise our guidance mid-quarter and again today.

We delivered another outstanding quarter with double-digit growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. Total company revenue reached $269 million, up 12% from a year ago, while adjusted EBITDA increased 12% to $64 million, despite fuel prices rising approximately 50% year-over-year. We also generated approximately $27 million in net income available to stakeholders. Our year-to-date revenue, adjusted EBITDA and net income are all at record levels. These results are especially meaningful against a backdrop of a challenging geopolitical environment and significantly elevated fuel prices.

They demonstrate the strength and resilience of our business model, the effectiveness of our strategy and our team's ability to execute. I'm incredibly proud of what we continue to accomplish and very confident in the opportunities we have. Occupancy increased 310 basis points to 91% on a 4% increase in capacity. It was our third consecutive quarter with occupancy above 90%, consistent with our long-term stated goals. Net yields increased 6% year-over-year to $1,398 per gas night, the highest third quarter net yield in the company's history.

Lindblad segment revenue increased 12% to $153 million, and our Land Experiences segment revenue increased 13% to $116 million. Our disciplined commercial execution, revenue management and improved marketing strategies continue to drive strong bookings momentum. I'm pleased to share that our 2027 bookings continue to outpace the prior year, both our expedition and land seconds, and our 2027 booked position is at record high. Our 2028 bookings are also pacing ahead of 2027.

Given our continued momentum, we are raising our 2026 full year guidance again. Specifically, we're increasing our revenue guidance to a range of $870 million to $885 million from our previous guidance of $850 million to $880 million. We now expect net yields for the full year to increase in the range of 6% to 7%, and we are updating our full year adjusted EBIT guidance to a range of $142 million to $148 million.

Before I walk you through our 3 strategic pillars, I wanted to highlight the significant growth opportunity ahead of us and how are we increasingly diversified experiential travel platform positions us to capture it. We continue to benefit from powerful macro trends as affluent travelers increasingly seek authentic, immersive experiences in extraordinary places. Expedition cruising is one of the fastest-growing and most underpenetrated segments of leisure travel. While expedition capacity has more than doubled over the past decade, it still represents less than 1% of total cruise capacity with fewer than 0.5 million guests traveling on expedition cruises annually.

To put the broader opportunity in perspective, our approximately 60,000 annual guests across 8 brands represent less than 0.1% of global travelers with financial means to experience our journeys. This gives us an enormous runway for growth. And importantly, with the additional White Desert and Echo Charlie, we have further strengthened our position as a truly global experiential travel platform. Our 8 complementary brands now offer extraordinary experiences by sea, by land and by air, creating more opportunities for guests to explore the world with us across multiple brands and destinations, while further diversifying our portfolio and expanding our addressable market.

I believe this combination of strong market tailwinds and exceptionally large untapped opportunity and our expanded platform positions us extremely well for sustainable long-term value creation.

Now let me walk you through the progress we made across our 3 strategic pillars. First, maximizing revenue through higher occupancy, pricing and deployment optimization; second, optimizing financial performance through cost innovation and fixed asset utilization; and third, pursuing accretive growth opportunities. Beginning with our first pillar, maximizing revenue. We continue to execute against several revenue levers we have discussed previously. Dynamic pricing, improved marketing communication, maximizing sales channels and optimizing revenue management.

These initiatives continue to deliver on their objectives as evidenced by our results and forward booked position. We stated several times that one of our goals over the past 18 months was to expand booking curves, which drives better revenue predictability and stronger price elasticity. I'm happy to share that our average booking window increased from 9.5 months to 11.9 months. We also continue to see strong momentum in onboard and expansion revenues, delivering 27% growth year-to-date. And with a robust pipeline of initiatives ahead, I believe we have significant room to further unlock the full potential of this revenue stream.

Moving to our second pillar, cost innovation and fixed asset utilization. We have a culture of continuous improvement, and we continue executing several efficiency initiatives across the company. To give you a few examples, we outsourced our warehouse operations and completely overhauled our accounts payable processes. We are also building out our supply chain and inventory management capabilities and exploring AI to drive further efficiencies. Fuel costs remain a significant headwind, but I'm particularly proud of the partnership between our shoreside and shipboard teams that walk together to deliver year-over-year improvements in fuel consumption this quarter despite 4% capacity growth.

We have a strong pipeline of process improvements and cost initiatives and we see more opportunities ahead to capture efficiencies and improve margins. That brings me to our third pillar, accretive growth, which I'm most excited to discuss today. On our last few calls, we talked about evaluating opportunities to add to our portfolio of brands. On September 15, we announced transition of a majority stake in White Desert and Echo Charlie. It is the largest transaction in the company's history and the beginning of an incredible new chapter in our 60-year legacy of exploration. If you aren't yet familiar with White Desert. You're in for something truly special.

[indiscernible] in 2005 by the record breaker Explorer Patrick Woodhead. White Desert life gets deep in the interior of Antartica on private aircraft to all the World camps in places very few people will ever see in 1 of the client bucket list itineraries range from majority to the geographic sales fall to visit with Ampere penguin colony of more than 20,000 ports. When I experienced White Desert, I immediately felt a shared period of curiosity and innovation and a mutual desire to keep pushing the boundaries of what travel can be. Why Desert as a distinctive new offering to our platform that we are actively working on growing, including the addition of a fourth cap.

I'm equally excited about what Echo Charlie brings to our portfolio. Echo Charlie is a new expedition travel brand we're launching together with Patrick. It combines why deters aviation expertise with our knowledge of extraordinary places to create churns into some of the world's most remote regions the kinds of adventures, many of us grew up reading about, dreaming about and never stopped hoping to experience ourselves. We see strong long-term value creation opportunity here. We just introduced 3 inaugural 2027 itineraries, each offering multiple departure dates exclusively to our past guests, and we are planning to launch publicly over the coming days.

Echo Charlie gives fast guess of wind blood and White Deserts new reason to travel with us. Our Chief Expedition Officer, our Head of Corporate Development and I just returned from Cape Town, where we spent time with white desert team brainstorming our future together. What an amazing group of people. They are incredibly innovative, talented. And let me tell you, really fun, I came away even more convinced that we create cultural feet, and even more excited what we can build together and the growth opportunities ahead. We are also very pleased that Patrick Woodhead will serve as a strategic innovation in vitro in blood. This acquisition reinforces our view that Lindblad experiential travel platform provides an exceptional opportunity to drive value creation by enabling affluent travelers to explore by Air, lands and sea.

As we talk about ROI and commitment to sustainability, I would like to highlight that white Desert shares the same commitment to our mission. White desert flies hundreds of scientists to resource stations across Antartica each season, and it has long been a trusted partner for the scientific community. Additionally, White Desert recently announced the first commercial agreement in Africa to supply sustainable aviation fuel in partnership with Sasol. This will help lower the carbon emissions of our flight and support our carbon offset program.

Before I turn the call over to Rick, let me leave you with 3 key takeaways. First, our revenue maximization efforts are working. Net yields increased 6%, occupancy rose to 91%, and our '27 and '28 bookings continue to pace ahead. Second, we have become a more efficient organization and that discipline is showing up in adjusted EBITDA margins and growth. But our accretive growth initiatives give us multiple ways to capture a large and still underpenetrated market. With White Deserts and Echo Charlie, we have added air to our cruise expeditions and land corners, making us a comprehensive experiential travel platform.

Lastly, this year has had its share of challenges from geopolitical risks to significantly higher fuel prices. I'm very proud of our operating results in the face of them, and I want to thank every member of our team for their focus, their resilience and their unwavering commitment to the gift experience, and to our new colleagues at White Desert and Echo Charlie, we're delighted to have you with us.

With that, I am turning it to you, Rick.

Rick Goldberg

Thank you, Natalya. I'm pleased to report that the third quarter was another record-setting quarter for Lindblad Expeditions with our highest ever quarterly adjusted EBITDA and net income and our third consecutive quarter with occupancy above 90%. Reflecting the strong performance and continued booking momentum, we're raising our full year guidance for the second time in just 6 weeks. Before diving into the details, I'd also recognize the acquisition of White Desert and Echo Charlie, our largest acquisition to date and an important milestone in Lindblad's growth. I'm particularly proud of the team's work to bring this transaction to completion, reflecting the capabilities we've built to identify, evaluate and execute strategic acquisitions.

With that, let me walk through our third quarter results in more detail. Total company revenue for the third quarter was $269.2 million, an increase of $29 million or 12.1% compared to the prior year. Lindblad segment revenues were $153.4 million, an increase of $15.8 million or 11.5% compared to the prior year. Despite a 4.3% increase in available guest nights, Occupancy increased 3.1 percentage points from 88.1% to 91.2%, and net yield per available guest night increased 6.4% to $1,398, the highest Q3 net yield in company history. Land Experiences segment revenues were $115.8 million, an increase of $13.2 million or 12.8% compared to Q3 2025, primarily driven by a 12% growth in guests.

Turning now to the cost side of the business. Operating expenses before stock-based compensation, transaction and reorgination expenses and depreciation and amortization increased $22.1 million or 12.1% versus Q3 2025. Specifically, cost of tours increased $11.6 million or 9.3%, driven by additional voyages and trips as well as higher fuel costs. Despite higher fuel prices, revenue growth outpaced the increase in costs resulting in gross margin expansion of 130 basis points to 49.5%. We remain focused on reducing fuel consumption through technology and operational improvements, while preserving the flexibility for our captains and expedition leaders to [indiscernible] itineraries in real time to optimize the guest experience.

These efforts are delivering tangible results despite a 4.3% increase in capacity, we reduced total fuel consumption year-over-year. However, higher fuel prices resulted in a $1.3 million or 22% increase in fuel expense with fuel costs representing 4.9% of Lindblad segment revenue compared to 4.5% in the prior year quarter. Selling and marketing costs increased $7.7 million or [ 5.5% ] primarily due to the final royalty rate step-up under our National Geographic agreement. And general and administrative costs, excluding stock-based compensation, transaction-related expenses and reorganization costs, increased $2.9 million or 10.2%. Approximately 2/3 of this increase or $1.8 million was attributable to a onetime employee retention tax credit benefit recognized in the third quarter of 2025.

Excluding this prior year benefit, G&A as a percentage of revenue declined approximately 1 percentage point year-over-year, reflecting disciplined cost management and improving operating leverage as we scale the business. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $64.1 million, an increase of $6.9 million or 12% compared to the third quarter of 2025. Lindblad segment adjusted EBITDA increased $4.3 million or 13.2% to $37.1 million, while Land Experiences segment adjusted EBITDA increased $2.5 million or 10.3% to $27 million.

And despite higher fuel costs and the final royalty rate step-up under our National Geographic agreement, we maintained adjusted EBITDA margins of 23.8%, consistent with the prior year quarter. Net income available to stockholders reached $24.2 million or $0.36 per diluted share compared to a loss in the prior year quarter. Importantly, this represents the highest quarterly net income in our company's history, a significant milestone that underscores the progress we're making in driving profitable growth. Through the first 9 months of the year, an income available to stockholders totaled $28.8 million or $0.44 per diluted share.

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with total cash of $308.2 million, an increase of $18.4 million since year-end 2025. This reflects strong operating cash flow of $111.3 million, driven primarily by solid business performance and increased bookings for future travel. Cash used in investing activities totaled $73.4 million, including $18.8 million in capital expenditures, primarily from maintenance of our owned fleet and approximately $54.6 million for the acquisition of 60% controlling interest in White Desert and Echo Charlie. Net cash acquired and subject to customary post-closing accounting reconciliations. Year-to-date free cash flow reached $92.5 million, an increase of $32.1 million or 53% compared to the prior year quarter.

Following the acquisitions of White Desert and Echo Charlie, net leverage stood at 2.5x at quarter end compared to 2.2x at the end of the second quarter. Our balance sheet remains strong, and we believe we are well positioned to continue pursuing accretive growth opportunities, including fleet expansion through new builds, acquisitions and charters as well as additional land experience acquisitions.

Turning now to our full year outlook. When we announced the acquisition of White Desert on September 15, we raised our full year guidance to reflect both the addition of White Desert and the continued strength of our core business. Since then, our core business has continued to demonstrate strong momentum, and I'm pleased to share that we are once again raising our outlook. As Natalya mentioned, booking momentum remained strong with continued strength in bookings for travel during the remainder of 2026, and both 2027 and 2028 are pacing ahead of the prior year.

Reflecting this momentum, we now expect net yield per available guest night to increase 6% to 7% year-over-year, up from our previous guidance of 5.5% to 6.5%. We are also raising our full year revenue guidance to a range of $870 million to $885 million, compared to our prior range of $850 million to $880 million. While higher fuel prices continue to present a headwind, the strength of our underlying business is helping offset these pressures. Accordingly, we are raising the low end of our full year adjusted EBITDA guidance by $2 million, resulting in an updated range of $142 million to $148 million compared to our previous range of $140 million to $148 million.

In closing, we're proud of the progress we've made this year, levering record financial results while continuing to invest in the long-term growth of our business, with strong booking momentum, a healthy balance sheet and an expanded portfolio of differentiated travel experiences, we are more confident than ever and Lindblad's future.

Thank you for your interest in the company. With that, Natalya and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Steven Wieczynski.

Preguntas y respuestas

Steven Wieczynski

So I want to ask about the '27, '28 booked position and demand -- and current demand patterns. So if we think about '27, '28 bookings, you guys noted they're running at record -- you guys are running at record booked levels or a booked position at this point. I guess my question is, as we think about that book position, can you maybe give us some color around how pricing is looking? What pricing is looking like in those out years. Just trying to understand what that pricing could look like at this point, given your occupancy is now running in that low 90s range. And to us, that should mean the you should be able to kind of push a little bit more on price given where demand is. But I'll stop there and let you answer that, if you can.

Natalya Leahy

Yes. Steve, great question. I mean we had optimal occupancy level like we noticed. And the revenue booked position is all time high in '27 in the company history reached by mathematical definition means that our pricing is up. And I'm very pleased, it's, of course, pricing course and we are managing over 100 destinations, but on many, many occasions, our pricing is in double digits. Now it will label to about mid-single-digit yield that's what I would be forecasting, but we are very pleased with what we are doing with revenue management and demand generation, both in '27 and '28.

Steven Wieczynski

Okay. So just to be clear, there you're kind of saying as we think about next year, like the mid-single-digit yield would be pretty fair at this point?

Natalya Leahy

Correct.

Steven Wieczynski

Okay. And then I want to ask about maritime capacity expansion, which Rick touched on just briefly in his prepared remarks thing from our seat, the next step here has to be, from a growth perspective, more capacity given demand, given where demand is for luxury and exploration. I mean, obviously, that continues to be extremely, extremely strong. So maybe, Rick or tell give us a little bit more color in terms of the options that are out there for you guys in terms of maybe how you're thinking about those options between building -- whether it's building, whether it's chartering, whether it's buying, but any more color around there, I think, would be super helpful.

Natalya Leahy

Yes. Steve, let me start and we can jump in it. First of all, as we talked about, we continue to expand our charter capacity. We have seen mid-single-digit capacity growth this year, mainly from our optimization of deployment, but also from significant expansion of our charters, and we will continue to see mid-single-digit capacity growth on our charter expanded business going forward. As we talked about in the last couple of calls, we also work on adding ships to our fleet. We're not ready to share yet, but we are very close to finalizing our plans on that regard. And I just ask us all to be a little patient with that. Rick, anything to add?

Rick Goldberg

No, I think you covered it Natalya.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer.

Ian Zaffino

Glad to see demand is so strong here. Question would be just on -- for and maybe EBITDA guide. Can you help us understand the bridge there. Is this kind of mostly related to fuel? I'm just looking at the year-over-year comp and is that on fuel -- anything else going on there? Anything else you could do to mitigate that?

Rick Goldberg

Yes. Thanks so much, Ian. What I'd say with Q4 is, as we shared previously, we expect capacity to be down mid-single digits in Q4 due to the timing of dry docks and repositionings. We're continuing to expect full year capacity to be up 4.5% to 5%, but there always is some fluctuations between quarters in terms of dry docks and repositioning. And so you're seeing that in Q4. And in addition, we have price which remains a headwind for the business. And despite that, we're continuing to see strong in-year bookings, which is helping to offset and mitigate those factors.

Ian Zaffino

Okay. And just maybe sticking on fuel for a second longer. And I know you kind of mentioned a few things to mitigate fuel costs, but any thinking on surcharges or pursuing hedges or anything like that or any other kind of mitigating steps that you think that you could take to offset some of that. And maybe even the dynamic pricing, I don't know if that factors into any of that at all and, if you could give us some color there.

Natalya Leahy

Ian, let me cover your surcharges on dynamic pricing question, and we can comment on hedging. The pricing, and I firmly believe in that has to be driven by consumer, and so our job is to drive demand there and develop capabilities, first of all, develop an outstanding product and guest experience and that will be supported by our marketing tools to generate pricing capabilities. And we are doing that in a very, very strong way, which obviously helps to offset any kind of cost fluctuation, including fuel or investments in our user and guest experience.

I don't believe you can just add the surcharge for fuel. And I think it needs to be supported by guest experience and natural organic demand. I'll let Rick comment on hedging.

Rick Goldberg

So the company has never hedged fuel consistent with some other public peers. And our focus is really on looking at ways that we can control fuel prices. We talked about a little bit on the call, the steps that we're taking to reduce consumption. We're also looking at how and where we purchase fuel in order to help us limit the impact of these price increases that we're seeing in the fuel markets.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank.

Chris Woronka

So I know that you've always talked about kind of the importance of availability of airfare, particularly adequate or first class seats from some key U.S. markets. So if you kind of look out to 2027, just given airlines keep kind of playing around their schedules in response to fuel. Is there anything on the good side or bad side that you see schedule wise in terms of -- do you think there's enough going to be enough first-class capacity in the major airlines and the major feeder markets to your markets internationally?

Rick Goldberg

Thanks so much, Chris. We're not seeing anything in terms of air routes that we expect to impact demand for our 2027 or 2028 itineraries at this time.

Natalya Leahy

And again, I think, Chris, remember, we have with all the growth that we have for our company, but we only have 60,000 guests traveling with us annually across all of our brands.

Chris Woronka

Yes, that's a great point. And the follow-up question is kind of a [indiscernible] seen in the last quarter, we've seen 1 of the major cruise companies kind of do this newer land-based strategy with the joint venture. I know that's not something you guys have necessarily look at in that kind of size or scope. But is there any thought to hotel operations in certain markets, if there's the right opportunity that kind of fits your demographic?

Natalya Leahy

Chris, I think this is like very much related to our main topic of this call is we are and have been building a truly experiential travel platform. We are not pursuing a quartile business. We are in experiential travel business. Our goal is to grow our portfolio by delivering very high to replicate exceptional experiential guest experience and most unique destinations. And we had portfolio of land companies that take people by feet, by bicycles to most exceptional destinations and close to the nature and culture. Now we added White Desert, we are launching Echo Charlie and all of these brands play in this experiential travel segment. allowing our guests to transition from brand to brand as they experience this world?

Operator

Your next comes from the line of Anthony Berni with Jefferies.

[Operator Instructions]

Anthony Berni

Anthony, if you're speaking, we can't hear you.

Rick Goldberg

We'll go to the next question. And if Anthony comes back on, we can bring him back into the queue.

Operator

Okay. Your next question is from Eric Des Lauriers with Craig Hallum Capital Group.

Eric Des Lauriers

Congrats on another very impressive quarter here. both my questions focused on the land expedition growth opportunities. So we saw some increased ownership stakes this quarter. Just wondering what capacity remains for increased ownership stakes across some of your various land expedition brands or companies here? And then sort of ownership stakes aside, how should we think about the organic growth opportunities within your existing land expedition portfolio?

Rick Goldberg

So I'll start with the second half of that question, Eric, which is we still continue to see tremendous opportunities to grow our land portfolio businesses organically. And you can see the results over the last year of those businesses, and we remain very bullish on them. In terms of the increased stakes, we did, earlier in the year, purchase a little bit of the outstanding stakes for Natural Habitat indentures as well as classic journeys. However, over the last year, all the founders of our Land Experience businesses, have signed extensions to continue to lead those companies into the future, and we remain very excited and enthusiastic about those partnerships.

Operator

And again, we have Anthony Berni with Jefferies.

Anthony Berni

Can you hear me now?

Natalya Leahy

Yes, we can, Anthony.

Anthony Berni

Sorry about that before. Congrats on a great quarter. Apologies if this was asked before, but just following up on the capacity question, I think I heard charters will increase cruise capacity by mid-single digits next year. One, is that correct? And are there any other factors to consider? And then also on the land side, I appreciate that you can flex your capacity up and down with demand pretty easily. But can you give us any color on how much volume you expect next year in that segment as well?

Natalya Leahy

Well, I think, Anthony, we are going to provide next year guidance in upcoming calls. So I'm not going to share an exact numbers. But you are hearing correctly the fact that we will continue to grow our charter business in some of the most unique destinations we expanded our Amazon offerings. We have Greg Mortimore expanding our Alaska business and growing, and we continue to develop this long-term partnership. You heard about European [indiscernible], et cetera. So yes, that will continue to be our moderate capacity growth lever. And yes, our Land Businesses are growing both in geographies that they are offering, but also in adding additional departures or various different products within their current destinations. Last time we talked about [indiscernible] past launching a new grant product in Alaska that's sold out within PACE. So we continue to innovate in places where we already are strong.

Anthony Berni

Perfect. And then last 1 from me. In the past, you've called out some of cost innovation initiatives that you have available. Can you quantify how much you intend to save with those and which cost buckets you think you see the biggest benefits?

Natalya Leahy

So Rick will answer a more detailed question. What I want to stress here, we continue to see those on cost innovation initiatives. And what I would say, while we have seen significant results translate into margin this year, we're still in pretty early innings on that work, given some of the investments in technology we are making and a couple of duties, I mentioned today inventory management. That's 1 of the areas that I think we're going to really see some results coming in upcoming years, given our investments in technology and people and capabilities in that space.

Rick, anything to add?

Rick Goldberg

Yes, I'd just say that of the initiatives that we have launched here in 2026, we won't see the full benefit of those hit the P&L until 2027, just given the long lead time that many of them have. And if you think about what lines on the P&L are most impacted, it's cost of tours, it's G&A and it's CapEx.

Operator

Your last question comes from the line of Stephen Grambling with Morgan Stanley.

Unknown Analyst

Maybe a good segue from that last question on technology. It's actually just thinking about the potential impact of genetic bookings that you're mainly direct in terms of your business. But curious how you make sure that as more people use agents and/or LLM and how they're researching their vacations, how do you ensure that you'll be kind of in the top of the heap or even maybe see opportunity to improve the awareness and pricing capabilities?

Natalya Leahy

Yes. Thank you, Stephen. It's great to hear from you. We talked a little bit last time and I talked about that. I think we are all learning here. What I would say in terms of yes, people use AI to get an information. and say for, we think about our storytelling and demand generation. What really we are what plays a bigger role than ever is areas like public relationships or organic generated opinion on things like radio, et cetera, where what we can do there is 1 is we are investing in our public relationships and store talent capabilities. We just welcomed a new PR leader into our organization last quarter. We also will have to continue to deliver exceptional guest experience to generate organic comments that are feeding AI agents as providing recommendations. So Hopefully, it helps.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Rick Goldberg for closing remarks.

Rick Goldberg

Thanks so much. Really appreciate everyone taking the time to join today's call and your continued interest in Lindblad Expeditions. Thanks so much, everyone. Bye now.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.