Vail Resorts Eyes Park City Lift Projects in 2026 and 2027

Vail Resorts released its fiscal 2025 fourth quarter and full year earnings report, including updates on pass sales, cost cutting and capital improvements. Net income for the year ended July 31st rose 21 percent to $280 million compared with $231.1 million a year earlier. Resort Reported EBITDA landed at $844.1 million compared to $825.1 million for fiscal 2024, an increase of 2 percent. On the less bright side, pass product sales for next season declined 3 percent in units and rose just 1 percent in dollars through September 19th despite a 7 percent price increase. The Company provided an outlook for fiscal 2026, expecting net income attributable to Vail Resorts, Inc. to decline to between $201 million and $276 million and Resort Reported EBITDA to fall between $842 million and $898 million. In a subsequent release, Vail announced the departure of two longtime board members. Vail Resorts’ share price has fallen roughly 15 percent year to date and declined 2 percent after hours upon the earnings release.

“The results from this past season were below expectations and our season-to-date pass sales growth has been limited,” noted Rob Katz, Vail’s newly-returned CEO. “We recognize that we are not yet delivering on the full growth potential that we expect from this business, in particular on revenue growth, in both this past season and in our projected guidance for fiscal year 2026. However, we are confident that we are well positioned to return to higher growth in fiscal year 2027 and beyond.” Vail acknowledged an outsized focus on email for attracting guests and a drive toward season pass sales at the expense of lift ticket revenue. “Our approach to engaging with guests has not kept pace with shifting consumer behaviors and as a result, we have not been able to fully capitalize on our competitive advantages or adapted our execution appropriately to respond to shifting dynamics,” Katz said. “While email was for many years our most effective channel, its impact has declined significantly in recent years, and we’ve been slow to shift to new and emerging marketing channels. We also believe we need to shift more focus to marketing our lift ticket business, which has not received the same level of focus, creativity, and resources as pass penetration increased.” Commenting on recent pass sales, Katz noted the company is seeing lower renewal rates from less-tenured passholders and fewer new passholders. Renewal rates are better for people who’ve held a pass for many years. ” We continue to see long-term opportunity to further expand the reach of our pass program,” Katz said.

Vail is largely on track with its resource efficiency transformation plan announced a year ago. At the time, the company planned to achieve $100 million in annual cost savings by fiscal 2026 through scaled operations, global shared services and expanded workforce management. It achieved $37 million in savings for fiscal 2025 and plans $75 million in savings in fiscal 2026. Vail plans to exceed $100 million in efficiencies in fiscal year 2027.

Vail traditionally announces new lift projects and key capital priorities for the following year in September. This go around Vail affirmed its commitment to build a new Canyons Village gondola in 2026, replacing the aging Cabriolet. Subject to approval, the 10 passenger gondola will include a mid-station to service the middle village and will also serve the new Canyons Village parking structure, set to open this winter. “This new gondola will provide an upgraded arrival experience to the resort and complement the Canyons Village Parking Garage, a new covered parking structure with over 1,800 spaces,” said Vail. Vail Resorts and the Canyons Village Management Association will split the cost of the village gondola, similar to the nearly complete Sunrise Gondola by Leitner-Poma.

Notably Park City plans to resubmit plans to replace Eagle and Silverlode, projects sidelined in 2022 over a process dispute. If approved, the six-seater Eagle and eight-seater Silverlode would be constructed in 2027. Vail sent the original Doppelmayr equipment for these lifts to Whistler Blackcomb in 2023 and 2024 so the project will need to be contracted anew.

The only other capital projects Vail announced across its 42 resorts was a hotel renovation at Vail and additional functionality in the My Epic App. There certainly are other needs, however, and additional projects could be announced with Vail’s next earnings in December.