Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Lufthansa Group Full Year 2021 Results Conference Call. Throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, you may press star followed by one on your touchtone telephone. Please press the star key followed by zero for operator assistance. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dennis Weber. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the presentation of our results for the full year and Q4 of 2021. With me on the call today are our CEO, Carsten Spohr, and our CFO, Remco Steenbergen. After a brief introduction to 2021 by Carsten Spohr, Remco Steenbergen will discuss the financial development over the past 12 months. Carsten Spohr will conclude by discussing our strategic priorities and focus topics for 2022. Afterwards, you will have the opportunity to ask your questions. Carsten, over to you.
Yeah. Thank you, Dennis, and a warm welcome to all of you from me here from Frankfurt. Thanks for joining our call today in very special times, obviously, and I think we all agree that speaking today basically means speaking when previously at least unimaginable events are shaking Europe and the rest of the world. To give you an example, the way I look at this is we were not in the year 2022, and this was just an ordinary Thursday in any March, there would be 4,000 people on our flights to and from Ukraine and Russia. We would either connect to our home markets, bring home friends, family, doing business, and that's what we are there for. We connect both nations, their peoples and their economies with Europe and the rest of the world.
That, as you know, is our purpose at the Lufthansa Group. We believe a purpose that has never been more relevant than today. We connect people, cultures and economies. We actually bring people together, and that, I hope you agree, is contributing to international understanding and peace. Obviously this is not an ordinary Thursday today. On this very Thursday, our short-haul aircraft that were scheduled to fly to Russia and Ukraine are sitting here empty in the hangar next to us. The long-range aircraft, at least some of them, are in the air for up to 15 and a half hours, circumnavigating Russian and Ukrainian airspace to at least continue to connect Japan, China and Korea with our home markets and the rest of the world.
I think I speak on behalf of all of our more than 100,000 employees today when I say that our thoughts in this moment are with the women, the men and the children in Ukraine. Of course, we at Lufthansa do the very best to support our 130 colleagues on the ground. As you are all aware that for a globally operating airline group, the current situation is another challenge. The political and economic effects of the conflicts are risks for the development of the whole global economy, for the recovery of our industry, and as a consequence, of course, also for the outlook of the Lufthansa Group. The closure of Russian and Ukrainian airspace affects therefore our business, but to be honest, only a small part of our business.
For example, the planned passenger capacity for Russia and Ukraine this summer is less than 2%, and only a very small portion of our passenger flights to China, Korea and Japan will actually have to take a detour. Also there, they account, in this case, even for less than 1% of our entire capacity. Not only the loss of revenue from canceled flights affects our business, also the rising oil price, obviously, and the additional cost for detours, and not forgetting Lufthansa Technik had to stop all services for our customers in Russia. Regardless how uncertain the future might be, I think one thing is for sure, we in Lufthansa are ready to master this additional challenge, and we want to do it at least as well as we mastered the previous one.
Throughout the past two years, we have not only managed the most severe crisis in our corporate history, we have kept our promise and used the crisis as an opportunity. We worked hard to secure jobs, to transform the companies and accelerate their transformation. We made, as you well know, very significant financial progress, not only short-term, but also for the mid and long-term outlook and financial structure of this company. The Lufthansa Group is emerging from the crisis with more efficient structures, lower cost, and more sustainable. Today we are better equipped than ever before for the future and can tackle the next challenge, as I said, with renewed strength. All in all, we had to downsize the Lufthansa Group from around 140,000 to 105,000 employees worldwide and have successfully completed this enormous personnel restructuring.
In Germany alone, we cut more than 10,000 jobs just last year. On the one hand, that number is devastating because our unique team is our greatest asset. While on the other hand, I'm quite proud that we have always acted in a socially responsible manner and kept our promise to our staff that at least we want to maintain 105,000 sustainable jobs. I'm also glad that by the way, we now have found solutions to avoid layoffs for our pilots, which as you can imagine, all were trained by us for many, many years. Glad to have a chance to keep them on board and use them. Our strict cost management has enabled us to return to profitability in the summer 2021, and it also helped us to stop the cash outflow.
We already achieved more than 75% of our annual cost saving targets of a total of EUR 3.5 billion. Today, the implemented measures have structurally reduced our annual cost by almost EUR 3 billion. Perhaps the most important success of all, in November 2021, we were able to announce the full repayment of the German government stabilization measures far ahead of schedule and following successful capital increase. Although we still have to report a loss for 2021, we are convinced to be on the right path. In the full year, our airlines welcomed 47 million passengers on board, which is more than 30% more than the previous year. We reduced our operating loss by more than half. The adjusted EBIT, excluding restructuring costs, was -EUR 1.8 billion.
Group revenue increased by a quarter year on year to EUR 16.8 billion in 2021. Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa Technik were important contributors for these good results. In fact, the result of Lufthansa Cargo was once again historic, a record adjusted EBIT of EUR 1.5 billion in cargo alone. I remember years when that was the result for the whole group. Imagine what potential we have really been able to get out of cargo in this unfortunate overall difficult times. The winter has indeed been long and cold, and the emergence of Omicron has surely resulted in a tough start for the year 2022. However, bookings have improved significantly week after week, so we have all reason to be confident. After two years of a global pandemic and obviously comprehensive travel restrictions, the pent-up demand for leisure and business travel is strong.
People just want to travel again. We expect strong growth for our group airlines in the spring and even stronger growth the summer months. Already the demand for flights at Easter and in the summer is high. The intake of new bookings has reached almost 85% of pre-crisis levels already. I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation and thanks to the employees of the Lufthansa Group. Surely, the past two years have not been for the faint of heart, but now we reach the point where we can focus firmly on what lies ahead, and we surely owe this success to the joint effort of the whole team. We will now continue to push the transformation of our company at full speed to shape the company for the future.
I go into that in detail in a bit, but first, Remco will bring you up to speed on our key financial figures. Remco, over to you.
Thank you, Carsten. Before starting, let me also say that with much sadness, I'm watching and reading the news during the last week. My thoughts are with the people of Ukraine. They deserve all the support that we can give them. Having said that, let me give you more detail on the group's financial performance in the final quarter of the year and the full year 2021. In line with our guidance in November, adjusted EBITDA was solidly positive in the Q4 , amounting to EUR 304 million. This was achieved despite Omicron, which impacted short-term demand, especially in German domestic and European short-haul in late November and early December. Restructuring expenses amounted to EUR 126 million, higher than initially expected. Excluding this, the Q4 adjusted EBIT loss amounted to -EUR 145 million in the quarter.
The adjusted free cash flow came in at -EUR 261 million, including around EUR 520 million of tax deferrals, which we paid in the final three months of the year. The full year adjusted EBIT loss amounted to -EUR 1.8 billion, excluding restructuring expenses of EUR 581 million, a reduction by two-thirds compared to the previous year. In addition to the recovery in demand, the result improvement was driven by the success of our restructuring and continued cost discipline throughout the organization. I am equally encouraged by the clear focus on cash preservation and generation, which the organization embraced during the crisis. Full year adjusted EBITDA reached almost EUR 500 million, excluding restructuring charges.
Adjusted free cash flow was far less negative than adjusted EBIT, amounting to -EUR 855 million in 2021. Without the one-off repayments of deferred taxes of EUR 810 million, the adjusted free cash flow was almost no longer negative. I consider this a great achievement. Analyzing our performance in 2021 in more detail, the network airlines flew an average of 40% of pre-crisis capacity and achieved a seat load factor of 60%. European short-haul led to recovery over the summer months of the year, driven by strong leisure and visiting friends and relatives demand. The transatlantic was boosted by the reopening of the U.S. for European travelers in November. The increasing share of premium leisure demand, as well as the short-term nature of bookings, supported yields.
While the slower recovery of corporate demand held back yields in the short haul, yields in long haul even exceeded 2019 levels. The adjusted EBIT loss of the network airlines amounted to -EUR 3.5 billion in 2021. This compares to a negative adjusted EBIT of -EUR 4.7 billion in the prior year. Excluding restructuring expenses, the adjusted EBIT loss in 2021 amounted to -EUR 3.1 billion. At Eurowings, capacity reached 43% of pre-crisis levels. Strong leisure demand over summer drove a seat load factor of 74% that impacted yields, especially as corporate demand on German domestic routes remained under pressure. Nonetheless, the 15% lower yields compared to 2019 still represents a very good performance relative to low-cost peers.
Unit costs at Eurowings were almost in line with 2019 levels, despite the still significant reduced capacity, demonstrating the progress made in realigning the strategic direction of the business and rightsizing the cost base since 2019. The adjusted EBIT loss shrunk to EUR 230 million compared to -EUR 703 million in 2020. Our aviation service companies recorded a broad-based recovery in 2021, with all of them generating profits. Lufthansa Cargo had the best year ever. Yields doubled compared to pre-crisis levels, driven by continuing capacity limitations due to missing belly space and strong demand as a consequence of global supply chain disruptions and distortions in ocean shipping. In addition, the streamlining to a triple seven-only fleet and increasing digitalization of sales and handling processes generated strong efficiency gains.
Taking all of this into account, Lufthansa Cargo reported a record adjusted EBIT of nearly EUR 1.5 billion, thereby almost doubling the record results from the prior year. Lufthansa Technik benefited from the growing maintenance demands in connection with the industry-wide recovery. In addition, the nonrecurrence of negative one-time effects in the prior year, such as the partial reversal of bad debt provision, supported results. Adjusted EBIT amounted to EUR 210 million. The catering segment around LSG also returned to a profit of EUR 27 million, mainly driven by the strong industry recovery in North America. In addition, wage subsidies under the US CARES Act made a positive contribution. Finally, the more negative results in the other businesses and group function segment was mainly related to higher restructuring expenses and other one-off effects offsetting the 20% cost savings in overhead functions.
Now turning to cash flows. The full year adjusted free cash flow amounted to -EUR 855 million. Excluding the now full repayment of taxes deferred in the early stages of the crisis, amounting to EUR 810 million, the adjusted free cash flow was close to breakeven levels. Strict working capital management and the net inflow of new bookings of EUR 1.2 billion supported operating cash flows. Investing cash flows, outflows amounted to EUR 1.1 billion, reflecting lower than forecasted CapEx because of delays in delivery of new aircraft. At the beginning of the year, we mapped out a path to restoring the strength of our balance sheet, including return to investment-grade rating and the provision of significantly higher liquidity to protect against future crises. Today, I'm proud to report that we've made great progress in all fields of action.
We laid the ground for our return to profitability by securing sustainable cost savings of around EUR 2.7 billion. This was key to stopping the group cash burn in the second half year. We repaid all repayable stabilization measures in Germany earlier than expected, following a successful EUR 2.2 billion capital increase. We initiated a comprehensive portfolio review. Our portfolio decisions will be entirely driven by strategic considerations and to maximize value for our shareholders. Following on from what I've just said, liquidity at the end of the year amounted to EUR 9.4 billion. This is comfortably above our target corridor of EUR 6 billion-EUR 8 billion. A great achievement, especially when taking into account repayment and termination of more than EUR 5.5 billion of silent participations provided by the German government.
This would not have been possible without the trust placed in us by the capital markets, and we would like to thank you for that. In addition to the successful capital increase in October, the group issued six bonds and concluded 20 aircraft financings at very attractive conditions over the course of the year. We thereby managed not only to refinance the WSF stabilization measures, but also more than EUR 3 billion of maturing liabilities, including the KfW loan in Germany. Our measures to optimize our liquidity profile do not stop here. We are working on establishing a larger syndicate credit facility that will replace the existing bilateral credit lines, adding financial flexibility and improving the efficiency of our balance sheet. The capital increase I just mentioned helped us to reduce net debt by almost EUR 1 billion compared to the end of 2020.
Pension provisions declined by almost EUR 2.9 billion over the course of the year. The decrease was mainly driven by the increase of long-term bond yields, resulting in increase of the discount rate from 0.8% to 1.3%. In the current environment of rising inflation interest rates, there is a clear possibility that an increase in discount rates will further reduce the deficit and increase shareholder equity in the years ahead. Despite the 2021 net loss, the contribution from the capital increase, as well as the lower pension deficit, meant that shareholder equity increased by EUR 3.1 billion to EUR 4.5 billion, representing equity ratio back to over 10%. Ladies and gentlemen, we are encouraged by the strong demand recovery we witnessed in the past weeks.
At least as far as the pandemic is concerned, the tide finally seems to be turning. However, this does not alter our focus on structurally improving the group's cost base. We target to eliminate costs on a structural basis of at least EUR 3.5 billion. By now, we have already secured reductions accounting for more than 75% of the planned volume, equaling around EUR 2.7 billion. In the area of personnel costs, our focus is threefold. We are adjusting the size of our organization to the new normal. We are increasing productivity by focusing growth on lower cost, higher productivity platforms, and by optimizing our network, our fleet, and our operations to drive gains across all group airlines. We are maintaining maximum flexibility should the recovery of demand turn out stronger than currently expected.
Since the beginning of the crisis, we reduced our workforce by over 30,000 people, a reduction of 20%, even when excluding the effect from the divestiture of our European catering operations. In Germany, we secured a reduction of 10,000 people in the past 12 months alone, mainly via offering voluntary leave programs at Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Lufthansa Technik. By now, around 7,000 of these 10,000 colleagues have already left. Another 3,000 signed termination agreements to depart in 2022, and a few in the years thereafter. Employee numbers declined across all work groups. On the ground, the reduction amounted to more than 30%, including fewer people in administrative functions. The number of cabin staff declined by 12%. The number of cockpit staff declined by 4%.
The latter equals a reduction of 400, which is net of some selected new hirings at Eurowings and Eurowings Discover. Another 400 pilots will leave in 2022, primarily based on the voluntary program offered over last summer, which received a lot of interest. In addition, in 2022, we also consider offering additional voluntary programs for first officers at Lufthansa German Airlines and a group of pilots at Lufthansa Cargo, following the retirement of the remaining MD-11s, subject to negotiations with employee representatives. Based on the effect of voluntary programs and the ongoing negotiations regarding collective reductions of working hours, we ruled out forced dismissals for Lufthansa German Airlines pilots two weeks ago. Negotiations with our social partners also continue in order to find a solution regarding the remaining pilots who are currently without work after the closure of the Germanwings passenger flight operations.
We aim at either employing them at another group airline or a newly established AOC so that we can avoid forced dismissals. Considering all these measures, we remain confident that we will achieve our EUR 1.8 billion reduction target in the area of personnel. By the end of 2021, group personnel costs are down 10% when excluding, one, the one-time effects such as short-term work and restructuring expenses, as well as temporary cost reductions. The structural decline will grow to between 15% and 20% once the remaining measures are implemented and recognized in the P&L. This reduction, only a few would have believed possible at the beginning of the crisis, and when we announced our cost savings target in June 2021. Agreements with our social partners create a framework for the achievement of our productivity and cost targets.
From our point of view, there's no question that future collective agreements must reflect structural changes by industry. Competitive costs and productivity levels, at least equal to those of other leading network airlines, are prerequisites for future profitable growth. They are a key driver of our target to reduce unit cost by low- to mid-single-digit % in 2024 compared to 2019. The more we can achieve in this regard with our social partners, the better. Progress in our negotiations in the coming weeks will determine the extent to which a shift in capacity and future growth to lower cost and more productive AOCs will be necessary. Looking at the scheduled short-haul fleet this summer, this shift is obvious. We're bringing back more planes more quickly in our most productive AOCs.
That means our regional and leisure-focused airlines, a pattern which will remain in the next stages of the recovery. Turning to the rest of our cost base, airport charges are set to increase throughout nearly all European hubs as airports try to recoup their losses. The same is true for our group hubs. However, the rate of increases at our key airports is much lower than elsewhere in Europe, and in some cases, just related to expiry of crisis-related temporary reductions. We also do expect other fees and charges to increase, most notably those related to air traffic control. We estimate the overall increase in this area to amount to between 5% and 8%, a rate which other airlines will face, too. Personnel cost inflation, however, is expected to be below general inflation in 2022, owing to the ongoing challenges our industry is facing.
The same applies to material costs, excluding fuel. The latter, I will discuss in a second. When it comes to CO2 certificates under the European Union Emissions Trading System, we have almost completely covered our needs through 2024 at an average rate of EUR 24. As you know, far below the current market prices. Talking about fuel, our fuel hedging positions for 2022. For the current quarter, our hedge ratio amounts to 74%. For the full year 2022, we have currently hedged 63% of our exposure at a breakeven price of $74 per barrel, significantly below current price levels. At least from a medium and long-term perspective, however, it's clear that fares will have to rise across the industry, not just because of higher fuel prices, but also considering the inflationary trends in other cost areas which affect the whole economy.
We made first successful steps in this regard in the past weeks and quarters, especially on touristic routes, which are in high demand for spring and summer. Let me finish my part of the presentation with our financial outlook. Carsten will discuss the strong recovery in demand experienced in recent weeks in a minute. This gives us cause for optimism, so we plan to increase capacity to more than 70% of pre-crisis capacity in the full year 2022. Our ambition is clear. We want to return to positive results as quickly as possible. We have laid the foundations for this, above all, by implementing our cost-cutting program. We expect operating results to improve significantly after a very challenging start of the year due to the Omicron variant, resulting in expected EBIT loss in Q1. Some uncertainties regarding the future course of the pandemic remain.
More important now, however, we cannot yet foresee to what extent the current Ukraine conflict will affect demand and the current economic environment in 2022. That is why we cannot guide on a full year 2022 EBIT target. Obviously, we clearly expect full year adjusted EBIT to improve compared to 2021 levels. The same is true for full year adjusted free cash flow, despite normalization of capital expenditure, which is expected to reach around EUR 2.5 billion in 2022. Based on the further recovery we're expecting this year, we reconfirm our medium targets communicated last summer. From 2024 onwards, we target an adjusted EBIT margin of at least 8%. In addition, we remain committed to strong capital returns by targeting adjusted ROCE of at least 10%. Adjusted free cash flow should reach EUR 2 billion a year in 2023 and 2024.
With that, back to you, Carsten, for some more insights into our key priorities and drivers of performance in the current year.
Very good. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, as I indicated before, we will continue doing everything possible to make the Lufthansa Group a structural winner. In this, we are guided by our purpose, connecting people, cultures, and economies in a sustainable way. We obviously live up to our ambition to be among the best in our industry. Just like the year 2021, also this year will continue to be characterized by our ongoing transformation. In this, we are focusing on five priorities: the recovery of strong demand for passenger flights, our core business. Second, the further operational ramping up of our flight operations while maintaining maximum flexibility. The premium customer experience, sustainability, and number five, portfolio enhancements. On demand recovery, let me highlight the following. We and the entire travel industry expect a strong summer season and a sustained demand recovery thereafter.
I mentioned it at the beginning of my speech. Pent-up demand is bursting at the seams after two years of the pandemic, which is already shown by our booking fares. On specific leisure routes to the Mediterranean, demand has already tripled that of 2019. Besides European short-haul, demand is especially strong on the transatlantic, and the trend, very important for us, toward higher value bookings in our premium classes continues unabated. As you well know, that for us in many ways is a very good message. We're well prepared for the next months when people will enjoy their holidays and visit their friends and relatives abroad. Even before the pandemic, we began positioning Lufthansa more broadly in this segment, something we have accelerated in the past two years. Now we are benefiting from our strong network and broad offer of our dedicated leisure airlines.
With more than 120 vacation destinations, we offer our customers more choice than ever before, and many of them are offered by our group airlines, specifically tailored for leisure travel, which as you know, is Eurowings and even more Eurowings Discover and Edelweiss. As demand grows, we are also flexibly expanding our flight schedules. We expect group airlines to reach about 85% of capacity during the summer compared to 2019. On short and medium-haul, capacity utilization will even be higher. In this segment, we expect a return to around 95% of pre-crisis level in the summer. Depending on the demand, we're able to respond flexibly on short notice and operate the full 2019 capacity. Eurowings will offer more capacity even than compared to summer 2019. In the full year 2022, we expect an average capacity above 70% compared to 2019.
Regarding our longer-term outlook, we outlined our expectation of at least 90% capacity utilization in 2024, and a return to pre-crisis levels by the middle of this decade. From today's perspective, strong demand dynamics, at least in the weeks before the tragic events in the Ukraine, and I definitely see the possibility that this estimate will prove to be too conservative. We want to return to pre-crisis levels also regarding customer satisfaction. We are painfully aware that over the past two years, like all airlines around the world, we were not always able to deliver the level of service quality we want and we stand for. It is why now, shortly before the start of the first travel wave, consumer satisfaction will be among the top priorities.
To make this happen, we are doing our very best to offer our customers the premium service they rightfully expect from us and that we ourselves expect from us. Despite the financial effects of the crisis, we are investing billions to significantly enhance our offers and product once again. This includes the new state-of-the-art Premium Economy seat that will be introduced before the end of the Q1 , initially at Swiss, and investment in many other products and services on board and on the ground, catering, lounges, digital offerings. The best travel experience possible, that is our goal, and this includes more and more sustainability. Another area in which Lufthansa Group is leading the industry. The crisis has once again accelerated our transformation towards more sustainability and the reduction of our CO₂ emissions.
We continue to develop new carbon offset tools for leisure and business travelers. We will offer our customers around 50% more sustainable offers over the next three years. This includes tickets that already include CO₂ compensation via our industry-leading platform, Compensaid, or carbon neutral all-inclusive travels, which we are currently testing in cooperation with our partner, REWE, here in Germany. We want to ensure that every guest has the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions of their flight in the most convenient and in the most effective way possible. In addition, we have also used the past 24 months to carry out the most extensive fleet transformation in the history of our company, and are continuing this renewal at a high pace. By 2025, we'll receive 120 new, highly efficient, fuel-efficient aircraft, and even more than 180 aircraft by 2030.
That basically means every two weeks we get a new aircraft without exceeding our capacity, our CapEx targets. Now to the last point of my agenda, the enhancement of our portfolio. We are committed to concentrating on what we do best, flying people and goods safely to their destination as an airline group. That is what we will be focusing on even more going forward. Since the beginning of the crisis, we have analyzed the synergies generated out of LSG in 2020, and we plan to divest the remaining rest of the world part of that business this year, assuming we can realize its full value. The same is true for AirPlus. With regard to Lufthansa Technik, we initiated a comprehensive strategic review to define how we can best support the business to unfold its full strength and to create maximum value for our shareholders.
We continue to be convinced that Lufthansa Technik should remain an integral part of the Lufthansa Group, benefiting the group and its shareholders. However, we are equally convinced that the minority sale or partial MBO will enable Lufthansa Technik to realize its full potential. Remco and I have led the way in commanding the carve-out preparations, and Remco and I will make sure that work is continued at full speed. Subject to market conditions, we actually can aim for transaction in the course of 2023. Furthermore, we are closely monitoring the renewed consolidation trend in our industry. As the European aviation recovers, this has become a key topic again, but for us, as a strict rule, every acquisition must add value for our shareholders. We only talk about M&A when it happens.
We will not participate in speculation about what could happen, what could not happen, blah, blah. The strength of our group is of particular benefit to us now, and because competition in aviation will get fiercer, not only due to the crisis, but also due to the parameters affecting our efforts regarding sustainability. That is why Lufthansa Group has become a member of the newly founded aviation alliance, Fit for 55. The alliance of European hub airports and network carriers supports the EU ambitious climate targets for aviation. At the same time, though, it advocates a European climate policy that effectively actually reduces emissions, avoids carbon leakage, and ensures the international global level playing field. Europe and our home markets need a strong aviation industry in order to be globally successful.
The more we see in these days a dependency on global energy sources outside of Europe, I think the more that belief is gaining strength in Brussels and capitals throughout Europe. We should not weaken those who are doing a lot for sustainable aviation like us and benefit those who do not. Also in our democracy here in Europe, it cannot be politically desirable that autocratically led states, of all things, are the beneficiaries of European regulations. We all see that, I think, more clearly ever these days than before. Ladies and gentlemen, after two years of the pandemic, we are more determined than ever to put the crisis behind us and look to the future with strength and confidence. We have achieved the goals we set ourselves, and we are ready for further progress.
We are emerging from the crisis with more efficient structures, lower costs, better unit costs, more sustainable and more focused. We have maintained and solidified our position among the top airline groups in the world, and we have secured jobs for more than 100,000 people. More than 100,000 people that without a doubt will continue to set industry standards with unmatched passion and professionalism. We are too committed to creating value for our shareholders, and we do reconfirm our medium-term targets. By 2024, we strive to achieve an adjusted EBIT margin of at least 8% and an adjusted ROCE of at least 10%. We hopefully, including you, will celebrate 100th anniversary of the founding of Lufthansa together in just four years. We believe for that we're gonna be young and fresh as never before.
At Lufthansa Group that strongly believes in leading the aviation industry also in the future, and that is our aspiration here, and we will not settle for anything less. With that, thanks for your attention, and Remco and I, and of course, Dennis as well, all three of us now look forward to your questions in these unique times.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selections. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from the line of Jaime Rowbotham from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, Carsten, Remco, and Dennis. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got three. First one, you've said that short-haul and Trans-Atlantic bookings are leading the recovery and that you expect the strong yield performance from the end of 2021 to continue. Ryanair recently said they're seeing pricing going into summer above pre-crisis levels. IAG said something similar for the Trans-Atlantic. Can you quantify at all what Lufthansa's Network Airlines and Eurowings are seeing currently on price, please? Second one, Lufthansa and the shipping group MSC have been linked with acquiring a stake in ITA. Carsten, apologies because I hear you on not wanting to speculate, but I did wonder if you could provide some color on how the link up with MSC came about, who approached who, the rationale for a potential joint investment in ITA, and any update on where things stand today.
Thirdly, and finally, as per slides 42 and 43, I can see Lufthansa is adopting some changes to its reporting structures, both in the P&L and the cash flow, presumably in an attempt to be more transparent. Remco, I wondered, perhaps you could quickly give us some of the high level thinking behind these changes. Thanks very much.
Yes. I start with the central question on Italy, and then Remco will give you our agreement with Ryanair and IAG on the forecast of prices. On ITA, as you know, we have been looking at Italy many years. It's our most important market outside our home market in Europe, globally number two. We have been, I think, involved with all the stakeholders, including the Italian government. On the other hand, the Italian government has obviously linked up with MSC, and then they asked us for a blind date, and we just fell in love.
Thanks.
Now, if you talk about yields, what we see clearly, I think the reality last year was clearly on the long haul, we did slightly better than 2019. I said that also in my speech. We clearly see that that trend on the yields will continue also this year. This year we also expect the yields to be slightly above 2019. The short hauls that we were about 14% below 2019, we see that gap halving. We see clearly an improvement versus 2021 in our yields, although they will be slightly below 2019.
Of course, that last gap, and hopefully we will be over it when business travel will be fully coming back because that remaining 7% would be fully related to business travel. Actually when it's fully back, we should actually coming back with a higher yield. We're in a similar ballpark figure, I think, as our competitors. Then I would also argue with regard to the long haul, we're actually better doing than our competitors if you look at the yields of last year. With regard to the KPIs, the adjusted EBIT of the industry in general, but also from competitors, excludes restructuring and large incidental legal items, correct? Lufthansa has traditionally not done that.
During last year, we have every time to explain adjusted EBIT excluding restructuring, and it's actually a bit weird because restructuring should have already been excluded when you give the adjusted EBIT number. That's why we have just wanting to align those KPIs with what everyone else in the world is doing. That's similar for the ROCE, correct? With the ROCE, you exclude net debt. You don't keep cash in. That's what the industry does in general. That we will also change. For the segment reporting, we just bring it back in line to have all the airlines into one group because we manage it that way. I think a very logical consequence of the way we operate and to be in line with market. I hope, Jamie, that answers your questions.
Thanks, Remco. Anything quickly on the cash there, the cash, metrics and pensions?
I'm not sure what you mean exactly on the cash, but let me start with the pensions, correct? I think.
Clearly you have seen the pension liability coming down during the year because of the interest rates and also the good performance of the plan assets. If you would look in the beginning of January, and some of you are pretty curious where it roughly stands now. In the beginning of the year, the interest rate went further up with inflation coming in, and it came to a range of between 1.70% and 1.90% versus the 1.30%. If you look at the current level, it is currently around 1.70%, not necessarily because the interest rate higher because the spread, and the length spread is much higher with the uncertainty. Secondly, of course, the plan assets are coming down slightly, but it's limited.
If you will take the 170 versus the 130, which is 40 basis points, and you multiply it with 450 for every 10 basis points, you can see that we still be easily above EUR 1 billion even after deducting the negative impact of the plan asset. Again, it's as it stands now, it can change. If you look at the mid-long term, and I've also said that last year, I believe the inflationary environment will in the end result in high interest rates. Just to remind everyone that at 300 basis points, the pension liability would be zero, and that amount would come straight into our equity. I would only argue it's more a question of timing than if, but that's my personal view. You have to make up your own mind.
With regard to cash, I think you have seen the liquidity at EUR 9.4 billion, slightly above, slightly higher than also the consensus originally had. I think it's in a comfortable position we're currently in. It shows the good cash flow generation which we have had, and we will continue that path. Depending on the course of this year, how the economic situation goes, we might pay more debt, we might do something with our government funding we have in the countries outside Germany. We have not made decisions in this regard. We'll just follow common sense in the course of this year.
Jamie, I think the other change you were referring to was the adjustment of our adjusted free cash flow definition. Here we simply exclude effects from either the acquisition or the divestiture of assets, again, to align with peers and to provide fully transparent view on the recurring financial performance of the business.
Makes complete sense. Thanks a lot, guys.
The next question is from the line of Alex Irving from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Three from me, please. First of all, on the new AOC in Germany. I understand the logic to having a lower cost production platform, but how large are the risks to relations with your workforce that might see this as potentially resulting in worse terms for employees? Does this put at risk any other changes that you might want to implement which rely on their agreements? Secondly, I appreciate you don't want to speculate on specific M&A transactions, but can I please ask about your underlying philosophy? Hopefully a straightforward question, in order to make any investment, would you have to believe the target will sustainably earn its cost of capital?
Finally, if you could please comment on what you're seeing around demand for business travel, both on short haul and long haul around bookings, and maybe what you're hearing from some key, corporate customers, please. Thank you.
Afternoon. On the new AOC, basically, there's lots of rumors spreading around, but as easy answer, what we are creating is a second CityLine. We already have the former regional airline CityLine, which you probably know about, and that is limited to a certain amount of aircraft. Now the cost pressure, we need to extend the lower cost production feeding our hubs. At the same time, we didn't agree with our union on safeguarding those 250 people who lose their jobs in Germany, who are all mainline pilots, and I will need them next summer. Let them go in German labor law is a very expensive exercise if you need to rehire them next summer.
There's some internal friction in the union, but we decided that we create a solution for them and have them working for us in that new AOC, which will also allow us to have critical mass from the beginning. Then we rehire into that AOC, from then on. These people newly hired will have the same CLA as the ones working in CityLine today. It's basically extension of CityLine with the two additional elements of safeguarding those 250 people for critical mass beginning. It's also avoiding the fact that we need the union to extend the size of CityLine. We don't have approval for that, so we have to create a new AOC. Of course, to be honest, the best news for the staff out of this is that we don't need to fire people.
A little surprised that that reaction is not coming through from the union, but I'm sure it will come. The second question is very easy. Yes, we only do M&A when we can at least recover the cost of capital and even do that more with that investment than we could have done with that capital otherwise, because otherwise you would use the capital somewhere else. That's how we do things. If you look at what we have done with Swiss and our market position in Switzerland and our market position between Austria and Germany, our market position between Belgium and Germany, I think you can see a certain logic. Obviously, Italy is, as I said before, the most important market, even ahead of Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium. The third one, Remco will, I think, come back to.
Yeah, I can take that one, Carsten. As you know, during the crisis time, the business travel was low at between 15%-20%. We've seen the bookings clearly coming up very fast on the business travel. The bookings are more around 40%. When you think about the second half of the year, we expect at least 60%. We have to see what will come about. Clearly, we expect quite an increase in the course of this year on the business side.
We're very confident here.
Super, very clear. Thank you.
The next question is in the line of James Hollins from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Oh, yeah, good afternoon. Just wondering if you could let me know where you're planning your capacity on transatlantic. Clearly, you've talked about 85% group capacity for the summer, short haul at 95%. If you could single out transatlantic, that would be great. The second one, I know we don't really like to talk about it, but if Russian airspace were to remain closed longer term, can you just run me through, as an uneducated idiot, really how the network planning would have to change? I think you said you wouldn't have to do much rerouting, but I'm not sure that's the case. If you can talk about passenger and cargo, clearly.
Thirdly, I don't want to be too combative here, but I've asked you dozens of times, Carsten, in the past about Alitalia or ITA or whatever we call it, and you have consistently said you would never invest financially unless it was effectively transformed business. Do we ignore what you said before, or is it transformed business? Thank you.
Yeah. Let me start with the second one. That's the easy one. We always have said, rightly so, we would never invest into Alitalia because we don't believe it's a restructured business. It's like we did not invest into Swissair before it was turned into Swiss. We did not invest into Sabena before it was turned into Brussels Airlines. We did not invest into Austrian Airlines before it was restructured under the ownership in the old days. The same applies to Alitalia. We would never have invested. With new ITA, we believe it's worth to have a look in the data room. If there is the optimum choice to just be commercial partners, which probably is easy win-win for everybody, or can we do more? Then we might have to take a minority investment. Maybe not. We'll look at that. Surely, you're right.
I would never have invested into Alitalia, if I got your question right. Again, we wouldn't have invested into Swissair or Sabena either. On the network scheduling, we indeed see about two-hour detours depending on winds. I cannot give you the exact number because it's different every day, winter and summer. We will continue to do so as long as the Russian airspace is closed. That additional cost for detours, by the way, is to a high degree compensated by saving royalties over flying Siberia. You might know that while we don't give our own number, you probably know the number from the European Commission, that EUR 400 million or more than EUR 400 million are spent on Russian overflights. We obviously save those for every frequency, but we have additional costs for fuel, aircraft, and crew going via the southern route.
We'll continue to do so, as long as we have to. If there's more demand in and out of Asia, we all hope Asia will open up more, the north. The south is opening up while we speak, or we add more aircraft on that route. Cargo, it's more convenient to have intermediate stop because you would otherwise endanger the maximum payload. So for them, it's better to have a fuel stop more economically than flying nonstop with reduced loads. I hope that answers both of your questions. If not, please come back to me, and Remco will give you an answer on North Atlantic numbers.
Yeah. So most of the capacity is clearly on the North Atlantic. We're looking to 95% in the summer.
Of course, managing the capacity and the pricing, of course, all according to the law with United and Air Canada is done in a very good way, as we have done also in the past. We have the same plans for the summer. In that sense, we look very positive towards the summer on the Atlantic. You have to look about 95%.
All right. Thanks very much, and thanks for your thoughts, Carsten. I do appreciate it.
Yeah, of course, I hear that skepticism about Italy, but you should look. I'm sure you have those data available to you. Look who's the number one long-range carrier out of Italy. Lufthansa. Look what Air Dolomiti is doing to our hub in Munich. We know what we're doing in Italy, don't worry. We won't do anything.
All right. Trust you. Thanks a lot.
You do. You still don't sound convinced. If I end up buying a few shares in ITA, you don't want me to keep a few shares aside for you, is that right?
I'll come back to you on that. Thanks.
No, no, I hear you, and I don't only hear you, I hear all of you. I hear my shareholders. Don't worry, we know that, of course, there is a legacy, that there are topics we looked at very closely. Don't forget, we had to do that in Swiss as well, huh? Swissair was not the same thing as Swiss, and so on. We have some experience, I think, in those issues, and we'll be very careful.
Yeah, let me also correct. I think you have seen on ITA, correct? There are now 50 planes, correct? The number of employees is a few thousand versus the 10,000 they had before, correct? The conditions for the employees of ITA are very different than they were before in Alitalia.
We believe, at least on the outside, we haven't seen the data room yet. It still has to be formally approved that's opened. I think it justifies a very good look how we can create value and can create value out of this. On that basis, they can make a very logical commercial decision. I think that's the right thing to do.
Yeah. Sadly, I'm doing this long enough to remember Swiss, so, best of luck on that. Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Stephen Furlong from Davy. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon, Carsten, Remco, and Dennis. Yeah, three quick ones. Just go back on the transatlantic. Are you seeing any industry capacity moving from Asia, which is kind of partly closed to the transatlantic? Does that worry you at all, or is it because of the partnership structure, JVs, not something to worry about? On the demand side of the transatlantic, the inbound from the U.S., I like James, like remember a long time back when, with the Gulf Wars, they were, you know, the U.S.-side Americans tend to be more hesitant at booking. I don't know whether you've seen any change there. The second question would be just on cargo. Carsten, I know you used to run the cargo business.
Do you think that the record profits, I mean, is it, how much of it do you think is structural and how much of it is because the bellies, you know, have, the capacity hasn't been added back yet and, you know, so you get those price increases? 'Cause there's certainly some structural supply chain benefits, e-commerce, et cetera. Just finally, it just sounds to me like you're further down the road than Lufthansa Technik. I think, Remco, you must have, the process you've gone through has certainly convinced yourselves that it would be right to perhaps partially IPO or sell it to get value. Might just talk about the process a bit. That would be useful. Thanks a lot.
Yeah, Stephen, hello. Good to talk again. Well, on Asia-Pacific, first of all, as you well know, it's basically closed since two years. There's only, I think, 20% of the capacity out of Europe going to Asia-Pacific compared to normal times. Now with the Russia situation, don't forget, this is taking additional capacity into Asia-Pacific because suddenly you need 1.2 aircraft for the same flight you have done with 1.0 aircraft before. That eats up aircraft capacity, eats up crews. Sometimes, you know, we'll rather take more capacity to offer the same amount of service. There, now the Asians have announced to take their flights out partly. For sure, between Europe and Asia, I don't see capacity being shifted to the North Atlantic.
I rather see additional capacity needed to maintain a certain element of flying, at least for those who continue to fly. Between Asia and the U.S., I think it's unaffected, but obviously that doesn't really affect us anyway. On the U.S., you're right. Historically, when there were times of war, some countries, including the U.S., but also very much Korea, Japan, tend to be very sensitive. The largest element of that has always come from Northern Asia, the two countries I just mentioned, Japan and Korea, which are now basically closed. So in math, I would think we see less of that, whatever you want to call it, sentiment, in this crisis than we have seen in past crisis, just because the most sensitive part of the market is not traveling anyway. Cargo. First of all, again, this will eat up capacity on freighters.
I think we'll see another hike on yields, I think, on cargo the next weeks because supply chains are interrupted on the ground. Russian and Ukrainian sailors, I was told, are leaving their ships in the harbors. There's a big mess, so I think we see more coming from there in terms of demand, and we see less capacity because detours are flown. I think the next weeks are strong, but your question goes more towards structural. There, I'm very convinced that we see a big part maintained, while of course, some of the belly capacity coming back will take care of a certain element. Supply chains, you know, are such a mess around the world. I think it will take a long, long time to have them rebalanced. We see e-commerce being even stronger after COVID than before due to consumer behavior.
I'm sure you have other sources of that as well. People have even used e-commerce more than they do before. E-commerce, that's why we also have those 321 freighters now in Europe. Not always global, it's sometimes intra-Europe, you need to be faster nowadays to deliver your product. These things, I think, are structurally in the right way. Can I promise you EUR 1.5 billion now every year? Probably not. I don't think cargo will go back down to where it was before. I could spend hours on this, as you can tell. Many, many old freighters have been revived for this COVID crisis. You cannot do that forever. Some of these 747s, even 742s, you know, will not be flown too long.
At the same time, we all know Boeing only builds one or two freighters per month. There's no additional capacity coming to the market. It'll take a few years before Airbus starts with the A350 and Boeing can increase their combined production capacity. This is a very nice market to be in. If you hear of any 777 freighters available, call me.
Will do.
Okay. Let me take the last question on Technik. As I said already last year, where we wanted first to do a very good review on A, the MRO market, the positioning of Technik, the value chain Technik is currently in, where do we see the opportunities in the coming years, where and what we need and want to invest, et cetera. We have done that very thoroughly. We've also done a review, hey, what would it mean with a partial sale or partial IPO? Would it create value we believe? Wouldn't that create value? We have done that also partly with external help, and we came clearly to the conclusion that we think it's beneficial to proceed. We're currently at that stage. We had, of course, a thorough review internally as well to make sure we're all aligned.
We are now going into a process to prepare ourselves for this. There is, you can imagine, quite some things to do to be ready for such a process, also to go at certain times into discussions around the partial sale. Once we're there, we can say more, of course, from commercial terms. We will not comment until there is something. In terms of timing, we're clearly looking for something in 2023. I think we need the time to well prepare, and the most logical would be to be something in 2023. We have to go through the process. We have to see that indeed our assumptions in terms of value creation, in terms of preparations are indeed sound, correct?
The only thing we can prove that is going through the process and figure that out. We're clearly convinced that there is a value-creating element for both Technik as for the Lufthansa Group.
Okay, thank you guys.
The next question is on the line of Muneeba Kayani from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, Carsten, Remco, and Dennis. Just following up on the earlier question around fares and that you're seeing good fares. Do you think that fares can increase enough to offset the spike in fuel prices and just generally cost inflation, or will there be pressure on margins? A second question is around CapEx of EUR 2.5 billion, which I think previous guidance was EUR 2.2 billion, so why is it higher? Can you talk about how much of it is fleet-related, and how much of this is cash CapEx versus kind of ROUs flowing into your and so the implications from a free cash flow perspective. On ATC fees, my understanding is that the increase is around mid-teens, and I think one of your slides said cost increases of 5% to 8%.
Just wanted to understand what the difference there would be. Thank you.
Let me take those questions. I think the second one to start with, correct? I'm not sure we guided on EUR 2.2 billion on the CapEx. We said we always had EUR 2.5 billion in the CapEx, and it's a combination of cash CapEx, financial leases, but also the operating leases of course from an IFRS 16 perspective, that is dealt differently. It runs also differently in the cash flow statement. In principle, that is the number. Perhaps there is a little bit of timing issue, but in general, over the coming years, we want to do EUR 2.5 billion. That may relate also that we want to generate a free cash flow above EUR 2 billion. With regard to pricing, we already see in general in the industry that there is inflation, correct?
We have seen fuel prices already going up versus last year, even before the crisis. With that regard, we have increased pricing. We have now to see with this extreme fuel prices we're currently confronted with what will now happen in the coming weeks, whether it will further come down or stay on this level. In the end, if the industry is faced with higher costs, in the end it has to come in pricing. Clearly, there could be a time lag in between those fuel price increases and the time that the fares are going up. Of course, it's also a market dynamic. Considering the amounts involved, I think it's very clear fares will go up.
With regard to the ATC, I think before and last year, we expected ATC to be more in the range of 10% to 15%. Clearly when all the negotiations and discussions happened and the final ATC rates came out, they ended up on a lower level than originally foreseen. That's why we are currently looking at more the 5% to 8%.
Muneeba, keep in mind that this also includes other fees and charges, like handling fees, for example, which moderate the overall increase. You're probably right, it all depends on how exactly the network looks like. That there is a chance that ATC will indeed reach double digit levels in terms of the year-on-year increase, yeah.
Great, thank you. On CapEx, what portion is cash of the EUR 2.5 billion?
That we will, depending on the lease rates, correct? What we can realize with JOLCO and the cash and also the timing and the phasing of when we get the planes, we will determine at the time. There's no exact number. Of course, that also determines what makes economically sense.
Thank you.
The next question is on the line of Sathish Sivakumar from Citi. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks Carsten, Remco, and Dennis for your time. I've got three questions. Firstly on the MRO business, could you actually share the outlook for the business going into 2022, especially as you see capacity ramp up from the airlines. How does it going to play out for MRO versus 2021? Secondly, on the Premium Economy, as you roll out Premium Economy in Swiss, how should one think about, first of all, CapEx spend for this refurbishment? And the second one is, what percentage of your capacity within your overall network would end up being a Premium Economy segment? And when do you plan to reach that target? Then the third one, exceptional charges. How should one think about into 2022 with regards to exceptional charges? Thank you.
Maybe I start with the second one. Remco Steenbergen will have time to prepare for number one and three. Premium Economy is a standard product for Lufthansa on our wide bodies. We'll reintroduce that on all cabins, including Eurowings Discover, including of course Swiss, which has not had it before. We do it on Austrian and Lufthansa. It's, by the way, the most profitable class of travel we have. It beats business class, it beats first class, which is not difficult, and it beats economy. We not only introduce that to all wide bodies, we'll probably see larger percentage of our floor space in the airplanes seeing Premium Economy.
The CapEx for that is included in our CapEx guidance, and like all other hardware we are buying, so there is no additional numbers to be expected from that, if I get you right. Of course, the line-fit airplanes all have it coming out of Seattle or Toulouse.
In regard to your question on MRO, let me say what I can say, correct? In general, if you look at the MRO industry, there is clearly an outlook of low- to mid-single-digit growth of the MRO industry in general, right? Technik is well-positioned in that industry and to capture as well in this growth. Let me not comment for the moment exactly what the numbers are in 2022. I don't think that is wise to do. We also don't guide on this. You can clearly see that it is a market which is still growing over the coming years. There might be further consolidation as well happening, technology changes over the coming five to 10 years, etc.
All in that, we are, I think, very well-positioned, but I cannot comment on the exact number for 2022. I'm sorry for that. With regards to the special charges in 2022, there's not much currently foreseen. As you know, I commented on perhaps the voluntary program for some restructuring. That depends what the outcome of that is going to be. For the rest, other one-off charges would come if they are one-off and exceptional. At this time, I wouldn't know any, but we have to see in the future.
Yeah, thank you. Just a quick follow-up for Carsten. Premium Economy, Carsten. What is your expectation in terms of percentage of seats that, or capacity that you wanted to achieve?
To be honest, that of course is different in every aircraft depending on the configuration. If I can give you a quick summary number in the next minute, I don't know. Look at the team here, have that available. You get it, of course, because it's pure math behind it. Of course, it's changing while we speak, yeah? Because some of the aircraft don't have it yet, so we figure them one after the other. That number we would need to give you in writing, because, again, on the 747, there's a different percentage on the 748 and 350, and so on. We'll need to give you that number a separate way. It's also dynamic because we are increasing the share of Premium Economy with every reconfiguration.
Okay. That's helpful. Yeah, thank you.
The next question is from the line of Jarrod Castle from UBS. Please go ahead.
Great. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Me as well. A very useful slide on page 22, just in terms of how bookings are progressing. Am I right that that takes us up until the end of February, in terms of things that have been progressing? I know it's very early days, but is there any change in the booking trend and, you know, amongst the different brands? Relating to the different kind of operating companies, just in terms of network, how should we be thinking about capacity kind of allocation amongst them all? Lastly, kind of linked to CapEx, I mean, you know, there's a number of airlines which are having issues with the manufacturers.
I was just wondering how the relationships are for you with the manufacturers and in terms of getting the deliveries, you know, as and when they do and any negotiations. Thanks.
Everyone looks at me, so I shall start.
All right.
I'll take the last one then. No, I think to be honest, the last two years have been good years for us in regard to the OEMs. Because remember, we had quite a few aircraft we could retire to be flexible in size, to adapt to COVID. At the same time, we knew that one day we will need additional modern wide bodies, especially. We were the ones who took advantage of very interesting purchasing prices. We were the only customer of Airbus buying A350s in 2021. Obviously, we didn't pay record prices on that in terms of high record prices. I think we had an opportunity other competitors didn't have, that we hardly had to cancel any aircraft, but rather took advantage of those canceled by others.
I think in terms of the OEMs, and I hope they would say the same, and you ask them, we were there when they needed us most. Our point of view is we got, you know, discounts we, even as Lufthansa, wouldn't have gotten otherwise. That helped probably, that's probably emotional relationship that helped the business relationship. I know there are some others out there, but leave that to them.
If I take the other question, the beginning on the bookings, correct? The bookings curve is clearly indeed shown until the end of February. We, of course, since the beginning of the crisis over the last days, we saw the bookings coming down. That's normal in this situation. I don't think you can yet conclude on any trends change, correct? We have to see how this now develops. Overall net-net, yeah, we are very positive with the booking inflow we have seen so far. In the capacity allocation, correct, we have to, I think, distinguish between long-haul and short-haul.
When you think about long-haul, of course, where the demand is, we will allocate the age of the planes, and of course, all the sort of productivity elements will play a role. But of course, the main beneficiary, of course, the main airline and our Swiss and to a lesser extent, the rest. When you think about the short-haul, it's really about those are the productivity. We will allocate where we can get most productivity. That's where we want net-net to grow, and that will really determine the allocation of the planes. We're flexible in that. We don't determine up front where the planes go. We are very flexible depending on where the demand is.
I think you've very clearly heard what Carsten Spohr was saying in terms of the AOCs in Germany, where the capacity goes. That is really driven by the productivity, but that's mainly for the short haul.
Okay. Thanks very much.
Next question is from the line of Andrew Lobbenberg from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, hi, Carsten, Remco, Dennis. Carsten, thanks so much for your very dignified remarks on the conflict at the start of the presentation. Questions. With regard to the overflight issue and the diversions to serve North Asia, is there any upside for you guys with your partnerships with Air China or with All Nippon? Sorry, not sure. I thought I saw they were pulling capacity off, but is there any upside for you on that? Second question, coming back to ITA. Are you able to say that you would, I mean, clearly you would ideally like a commercial partnership, and you're willing to consider a minority. Can we rule out a majority on your part?
A third question would come around to the talk of the new AOC, CityLine, too. When you spoke to us about the restructuring of Eurowings, it was always absolutely critical to reduce the number of AOCs to get the efficiency. You know, how much of a challenge would you foresee by having this newly created AOC set alongside Eurowings Discover as well? I guess, you know, if you don't get to do this new AOC, you know, where can the pilots go? How much disruption can they create? Or do you think they can't stop it anyway? Thanks.
Yeah. Andrew, good afternoon, and thanks for that feedback because obviously that's always a difficult topic to talk about when terrible things like that happen, appreciate you. Yes. The question is yes to your first question. As you all know, we have a joint venture both with Air China and with ANA, which, simplifying a little bit, means we are metal neutral. It doesn't matter if the passenger is on an Air China aircraft or if it's a Lufthansa aircraft, in the end, one way or another, it's a little bit more complicated as you can imagine. We share that profit at least coming out of it, even though it's a revenue joint venture. Air China can continue to fly over Siberia, so far at least, and we have to go the detour.
Let's not forget, the difference is not that much as the royalties, of course, at least in our case, were applied before, don't apply anymore. We take basically the business continuously as a joint venture, sharing that profit, that upside, as we call it, the upside. On ITA, I think, Andrew Lobbenberg, you were watching us many years. A commercial partnership only obviously is the lowest risk on our side, but it's also low synergies, right? Joint venture is the next step. We do that long range, and then ownership is the, again, next step. There's always a trade-off between risk and synergies. We probably at Lufthansa can live easily without investment in ITA because there will be some synergies for sure for us and surely some for them.
If these synergies are enough for them to be a viable business has to be decided by them. There could be some pressure on their side, let's have additional synergies. We have to decide, are these additional synergies worth the risk to own a certain part of it? In the days of Swiss and Brussels, we even one day came to the point there are so many additional synergies we want to own the majority. We are far away to answer your question from that in ITA. The answer clearly is, at this point, no majority ownership. Again, we never do it overnight in Lufthansa. It's a long way to get there. I don't even see that way in ITA yet. Last but not least, on CityLine. You're right. On Eurowings, we had too many OCs in our view.
We brought them down. Let's not forget this City Line or second City Line will have a Lufthansa branded aircraft. It will allow us to be fully commercially integrated into the hub system, whereas Eurowings is focusing on point to point, different IT, Navitaire, Amadeus, and all these things. This is really a second City Line fully commercially integrated into our hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. Indeed, the union cannot stop it because we can open AOC as much as we want. These pilots could have also joined other AOCs, both the main line or City Line, but the union didn't want that because it didn't want these pilots to bypass the seniority of the existing pilots and the existing AOCs.
It's a probably unique situation where we are saving pilots who otherwise the union probably would have maybe given up, but that's up to them to decide. For us, it's a great way to have these highly qualified people to start a new AOC because City Line has worked very well. We would love to scale up City Line. We can't do that due to scope clauses, so this new AOC will allow us to grow City Line to the second AOC, more or less. Eurowings, as you know, Jens could show that various times out of our business units in the group, the biggest advancement on overheads and restructuring costs down was Eurowings, so I think we went the right way there. These AOCs we now talk about for the mainline are just purely operational AOCs, no commercial overhead, nothing.
I think it's a way to go because in the mix of our hub system, over the years already the mainline has been reduced and lower cost airlines, including CityLine, Edelweiss have increased their share. To be honest, I see that trend continuing.
Thanks, Carson. Can I just follow up on the CityLine two? I mean, CityLine and Germanwings and Eurowings, we've often lived through scope clause problems. Now you say you can create an AOC free of scope clauses and no one can. They can't do anything. No scope clauses on CityLine two, even though you're completely tied up on CityLine one.
Yeah, Andrew, that is correct. I hope I don't bore now the others who are not as deeply involved in this. In 2005, there was a legal ruling in Germany that scope clauses from oldest CLAs can only always be applied to existing airlines during the time the scope clause was signed, which includes Lufthansa CityLine. There is a scope clause on Lufthansa CityLine, but anything we founded after Lufthansa CityLine, after that legal ruling cannot be subject to a scope clause. As I said before, I think once we are probably the only legacy airline in the world not having a scope clause anymore. I'm not saying the union likes it, so we try to stay in dialogue how we optimize this, but we also saved all pilots in the main line.
I think we are not in such a clash as some people would like to see that in the German media, which you're probably referring to. I think we have done our job to safeguard all jobs, and now we find alternative AOCs to make sure that also the last ones have a job. That is indeed why there is no scope clause applied to this. One day, maybe if you're interested, we can have a separate set up with Dennis, and of course we can also have people in Lufthansa who are more in the detail even than me, but there is a very specific situation here.
Okay, cool. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Andrew.
Yep.
There are no further questions at this time, and I'd like to hand back to Remco Steenbergen for closing comments.
No, thank you. Thank you all for joining us this afternoon for all the Q&A. As you know, over the coming weeks we will have discussions with many of you on a one-to-one basis. I'm looking forward to that. I think still to perhaps remember for the session we had today, at least that I hope you remember that during last year we promised quite a bit with regards to the transformation of the company, the cost savings, the cash, the balance sheet. I believe our balance sheet is stronger than we can say for our peers. Puts us, I think, in a very good position for the coming year.
Yes, we are in the unfortunate situation with Ukraine and Russia, which we have to deal with, but I think we're in a good position to deal with it, and we will continue on that path. Any further detailed questions, very happy to discuss over the coming weeks. If there's no appointment yet, then feel free to reach out to Dennis, and happy to talk to you, and I wish you all a good afternoon.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded. You may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day. Goodbye.