Vail lowers 2024 guidance as pass sales disappoint

BROOMFIELD — Vail Resorts Inc.’s (NYSE: MTN) stock price carved downward about 13% in late morning trading Friday after the company posted disappointing pass sales and lowered its earnings guidance for the 2024 fiscal year. 

While lift-ticket performance improved a bit late in the ski season, pass sales in North America “decreased approximately 5% in units and increased approximately 1% in sales dollars as compared to the prior year period through May 30, 2023,” Vail said in its third-quarter earnings report. 

“Given the unfavorable conditions across our North American resorts for a large portion of the 2023/2024 North American ski season, we were pleased to see improved results in March and April, with visitation across our western North American resorts in particular benefiting from improved conditions,” Vail CEO Kirsten Lynch said in a prepared statement. “While pass product visitation returned as expected, as we communicated in April, lift ticket visitation did not return to typical historical guest behavior for the spring, primarily at Whistler Blackcomb, which was down significantly relative to the prior year period.”

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The company’s EBITDA guidance for the full fiscal year is now between $833 million and $851 million. The company’s previous EBITDA guidance, issued in March, was between $849 million and $885 million.

“The reduction relative to the guidance provided on March 11, 2024 is primarily from lift ticket visitation not returning to typical historical spring behavior as expected in the March and April period, primarily at Whistler Blackcomb, along with lowered expectations for the fourth quarter of $9 million primarily related to the demand outlook for our Australian resorts,” Lynch said.