SIX (2022 - Q1)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Six Flags Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call. My name is , and I will be your operator for today's call. During the presentation, all lines will be in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Thank you. I would now turn the call over to Mr. Steve Purtell, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Steve Pu

Good morning and welcome to our first quarter 2022 call. With me is Selim Bassoul, President and CEO of Six Flags. We will begin the call with prepared comments and then open the call to your questions. Our comments will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities Laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. And the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements. In addition, on the call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures. Investors can find both a detailed discussion of business risks and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures in the company's annual reports, quarterly reports, and other forms filed or furnished with the SEC. At this time, I will turn the call over to Selim.

Good morning. Thank you for joining our call. Today, we will focus on three areas. First, I would provide an update on the improvements we are making in our parks. Second, Steve will go into more detail about our financial results and our outlook for the remainder of the year. Finally, I will return to discuss our strategy and why we are excited about our future over both the short and long-term. Over the past few months, we have been executing quickly to improve the guest experience focusing on our largest part first and implementing the sixth objective I highlighted on our last earning calls. Objective Number 1, improving our ride efficiency and convenience. While it is early, we are very pleased with our progress improving right throughput which has increased our rides per guest per day. A metric that has consistently ranked as the Number 1 determinant of guest satisfaction. In my first 100 days, I was shocked to learn that nearly 30% of the seats on our coasters are empty every time a train leaves the station. Because groups don't want to split up. This was clearly inefficient and exacerbated our problem with long drive wait times. To fix this issue, we have implemented single rider lanes on our busiest days allowing guests who are willing to ride solo to move quickly through the line and fill the empty seats. This has been tremendously well received by our guests as you can see on the social media. Our guests have responded favorably to this change. We have also introduced skip the line passes for one ride and each right. Two, creating funds through employee friendliness. One of our biggest guest complaints last year was under staffing of our parks. To fix this issue, this year we began our recruiting efforts earlier in the season than was customary in the past. We are pleased to report our staffing levels are greatly improved versus last year. The improved staffing of our parks together with our enhanced training efforts has empowered our team members to deliver exceptional guest service. Three, improving park appearance. We have moved quickly to update the front gate experience at several of our large parks, including entirely new entrances with a modern aesthetic. No more ticket boost from the