Good morning, and thank you for joining us for the presentation of our Q1 results. My name is Bogi Bogason, and here with me is Ívar Kristinsson, our CFO. As usual, after the presentation we will have a Q&A session. Please send us the questions to the email address ir@icelandair.is. But first, to the key highlights of the information we published yesterday. Despite the negative impact of the seismic activity in January, our passenger revenue generation was stronger than ever in the first quarter, and the unit cost decreased by 5%, and we saw very positive development in our cargo operations. EBIT was $7 million lower than last year, which is all explained by the deviation in January. Liquidity continues to be very strong and was, at the end of the quarter, $411 million.
So overall, we are quite pleased with the performance in the first quarter of this year. Looking at some other key metrics within our company, most of them are at a very good place now, which is a very strong platform to build on. The on-time performance has been improving a lot between years and was 89% in March. Based on our customer service, the customer satisfaction is at a very high note, and our score as the first choice carrier here in Iceland is at a very high level. And the employee satisfaction is also very high, and the trend is still upwards. But Ívar, please take us through the details within the financials.
Thank you, Bogi, and good morning, everybody. Let's start with going through the traffic figures for the quarter. Starting with the passenger traffic, that increased 20% on a similar increase in our capacity. Load factor was slightly lower, 1%, and the reason is the January load factors that were negatively impacted by the seismic activities. The load factor improved year-on-year, both in February and March. Our capacity growth this quarter was concentrated on development to destinations with strong long-term revenue potential. In North America, it included extension of a whole year to a whole year operation to Raleigh-Durham, and we added morning departure flights from Keflavík to Boston and New York that connect very well into our partner's airline networks there. On the European gateways, we added flights to Rome and Barcelona with our strong transatlantic gateways, and those flights increased the network connectivity.
We also invested in capacity to slot-constrained airports where additional slots were awarded, but at the same time we slightly decreased capacity to saturated markets such as to the UK, which did show some sign of overcapacity in the quarter. The number of passengers were 757,000, increasing 14% year-on-year. The market to Iceland was the largest market. 38% of passengers were on that market, but the number of passengers there decreased slightly year-on-year. The number of passengers on the via increased significantly, or by 48%, accounting for 35% of total passengers, and the number of passengers on the market from Iceland increased 8%. These figures, they clearly show the flexibility of our route network and how we can shift focus based on the market trends from one time to another.
Our team achieved a great improvement in on-time performance, delivering an 84% OTP for the quarter, 89% in March, as Bogi mentioned, but the quarter was we had an improvement of six percentage points from last year. The improved OTP has a positive impact on our customer experience, and at the same time it does improve operational efficiencies and reduces costs. Freight carried decreased by 9% on fewer freighter flights than last year, which was part of the measures we took to improve the profitability of the cargo operation by adjusting the capacity to the underlying demand. And number of sold block hours in the leasing operation increased 9%, and CO2 emissions per OTK decreased by 1%. To the financials, for the first quarter, EBIT was -$69 million, $7 million weaker than last year, and the negative development all being realized in January, as Bogi mentioned earlier.
The EBIT margin was the same as last year. Passenger revenue increased by $28 million, driven by the 21% capacity increase in the route network, and was at record levels. We saw very positive development in the cargo operation and the profitability there. Despite the 13% revenue decrease year-on-year, the cargo operation managed to turn a slight profit compared to a $3.8 million in operating loss at the quarter last year. Our leasing operation continued to deliver strong performance, driving important revenue and reducing seasonality that improves the utilization of our resources. Revenue in leasing segment increased by 8%, and EBIT for the leasing was positive $3.2 million.
Onto the cost side, total operating expenses increased 11%, driven by the 21% increase in the capacity in the route network, and lower fuel market price and more flying on the fuel-efficient 737 MAX had a positive impact on the cost development. Salary expenses were $95 million, increased $16 million year-over-year. The average number of FTEs, or full-time equivalents, were up 11%. But from 1st of March, we have outsourced our flight kitchen operation in Keflavík. Approximately $2 million on the salary cost due to the strengthening of the Icelandic króna. There were also many other positive signs on the operating costs in the quarter. Our maintenance unit cost was lower, as well as our handling costs, as we continue to put emphasis on more leaner operation.
The six percentage points in improvement in OTP also led to lower air ops costs, and that's costs such as EU compensation and passenger accommodation costs. Overall, our unit cost was down 5%, and ex-fuel the cost was down 2%. Finally, on the P&L, financial costs were $3.3 million, slightly higher than last year, which was driven by foreign currency loss this year versus a gain last year. And net loss after taxes amounted to $50 million. $59 million, sorry. On the fuel, $64 million for the quarter, down 4% despite the 21% capacity increase. The reduction in total cost is explained by lower fuel price and lower cost of the carbon emission allowances. In addition to, like I said before, the more flying on the 737 MAX, that increased by 4%.
In fact, comparing to 2019, then our fuel efficiency was down 17%. Fuel price, kind of the all-in fuel price for the quarter was $953, 13% lower than last year. Looking ahead on the hedges, then we have hedged around 50% of the consumption now for Q2 and Q3 at price of $844 and $832 per ton, respectively. And overall, looking at the next 12 months, we have 42% hedged at the average price of $832. Unit revenue, or RASK, in Q1 was $0.073, decreased 5% year-over-year, which is quite a good result in our opinion given the capacity increase. The revenue generation on Saga Premium was strong, and partnership revenues continued to develop in a favorable way. Average yield was $0.085, reducing by 1% year-over-year, and that was impacted by the change in the mix of to-from versus via passengers.
Load factor was down one percentage point. Turning to liquidity, then at the end of the quarter we had cash and marketable securities in the amount of $359 million, increasing by $89 million from the start of the year. In addition, we had available undrawn committed credit lines in the amount of $52 million, bringing total liquid funds to. On the cash flow, net cash from operation was strong, $147 for the quarter, and that was driven by good momentum in bookings. Net CapEx, $32 million. Majority of that was purchase of aircraft engines and investment in aircraft heavy maintenance. On that note, as we stated in our guidance that we published earlier this month, then we do expect total CapEx, or total net CapEx for the year, to be in the $130-$140 million region.
Finally, financing activities were $27 million, and that consisted of repayment of loans of $13 million and a similar amount in the repayment of lease liabilities. Total assets, $1.7 billion at the end of the quarter, increasing by $175 million from the start of the year. Non-current assets up by $35 million. The main drivers there are, in addition to the aforementioned CapEx, the addition of two leased aircraft to the fleet. That consisted of one 737 MAX for the passenger network and one 737-800 aircraft for the leasing operation. Current assets growing due to the seasonal buildup of bookings, and that increases both the trade receivables and the cash position. Equity was at $233 million, equity ratio 14% at the end of the quarter.
The equity ratio in this quarter, or in the first quarter, is negatively impacted by the seasonal buildup of the bookings, and in comparison, the equity ratio was at 13% last year compared to 14% this year. And now, and with that, over to you, Bogi, for the business update and outlook.
Thank you, Ívar. Yeah, the year 2023 was the year we returned to profitability with record revenues. It was also the last year of rebuilding the company following COVID. It took a lot of focus and effort, but now with more moderate growth into this year and going forward, the focus will definitely be on operational excellence, and we are mobilizing the whole company around that. At the same time, we continue to invest in the commercial infrastructure to increase the revenue generation further, which has been strong in recent months and year. However, even though the rebuilding of the company was a huge task, we have at the same time been working on initiatives that have and will improve our profitability. As Ívar went through, we did see a lot of positive signs in unit cost in quarter one.
For example, we have simplified the organizational structure, resulting in fewer management positions. Economy of scale has been coming through. Our capacity is growing between years on the same overhead. Our cargo operations have been profitable during the last two months after heavy losses last year, and the actions taken there are forecasted to result in a positive full-year EBIT this year, and that is a turnaround of almost $20 million. We are continuing on the path to narrow our management focus and simplify our operations. As Ívar mentioned, an international flight catering company recently took over the operations of our flight kitchen. Our people there, or the people within our catering department, have done a great job in the past, but with the continued growth, we firmly believe that a specialized company in this field can bring in best practices both from efficiency and quality standpoints.
With a new and younger fleet, we have been revising and executing a new maintenance strategy, and that among other things resulted in lower maintenance unit cost in quarter one. We will definitely continue on this path, having many initiatives on our plate that will further improve the company's profitability. We are working on reducing the seasonality of the business with actions such as increased leasing of aircraft in the low season to other operators, which will improve the performance during the quarters. We are also lowering sales and distribution costs relatively. That's done by lowering GDS fees and optimizing delivery of products and pricing across channels. We are reducing costs related to flight disruptions through better planning and effectiveness throughout the organization, and we are continuing to decrease fuel costs through optimization of operational processes.
At the same time, we are negotiating agreements with many suppliers to drive cost savings, and we've already started to prepare for renewing the collective bargaining agreements with our flight crews, with focus on increased flexibility for the benefit of the company and our employees. We can say that we are actually turning every stone within our operations. Post-COVID, the revenue generation of the company has been quite strong. However, we are working on, and we see a lot of opportunities to strengthen it even further. First of all, by continuing to develop the network with new destinations and increase connections through additional frequencies and bank structure development. On May 1st next week, we are starting flights to Faroe Islands again, and by that and other actions, further strengthening our position here in the Arctic.
After the integration of VITA with Icelandair, we are growing package sales and extracting synergies there, and our ancillary sales are growing through digital channel development and optimization of sales efforts throughout the customer journey. To the partnership network, which is a vital part of our revenue generation, and over 10% of our revenues are coming from partner airlines. Last year, we signed an agreement with Turkish Airlines, and recently we announced an upcoming code-share agreement with Emirates. Being part of the sales and distribution networks of such accomplished airlines significantly strengthens our foothold in Asia and the Middle East. With the development of our fleet and network in the near future, we have the opportunity to fly into their hubs, which will strengthen the flow between the networks further.
Our partnership strategy has proven itself, and in the near future, our plan is to strengthen the cooperation with current partner airlines and add new airlines to the partner portfolio. If we look at the whole year, 2024, in our route network, we are planning around 10% growth there compared to 80% growth in 2023. Our growth focus is mainly on opening new markets, increasing capacity to markets which are underserved, and to increase connectivity to our partner's networks both in North America and Europe. We will continue to develop the three banks in Keflavík. By that, we can offer more departure times, which improves our product. For example, we will start morning flights to Seattle this summer and by that improve connectivity with our partner there, Alaska Airlines.
And to the outlook for the year, as Ívar went through and we have been saying, we said in the press release yesterday, we are seeing a bit of a change in the booking flow compared to last year. The market to Iceland is weakening a bit, and we believe it's because of the following reasons. First of all, we have been talking about, and the tourism industry has been talking about the media coverage of these seismic activities and Reykjanes. That has negatively impacted the flow to Iceland and the demand. And due to inflation and cost increases here, Iceland has become more expensive than many other destinations that Iceland is competing with.
Post-COVID, Iceland was, we can say, one of the first destinations out of the blocks, and now other destinations are coming in more aggressively, both in our near markets and further away, and that is impacting the flow now to Iceland. But however, with the flexibility of our business and network, we have shifted our focus more to the Via Market, and that is going well, even though the change puts a little bit of pressure on the yields. At the same time, the markets from Iceland and within Iceland are performing well. The demand for our Saga product continues to be very strong, which is very positive and important for the unit revenues. We have mentioned the turnaround of the cargo operations, and the leasing business continues to perform very well.
So when we account for everything here, the guidance that we published at the beginning of this month, early April, remains unchanged. We expect total revenues to be around $1.6 billion. We expect the EBIT ratio to be in the range of 2%-4%, and we expect the net profit to be higher than last year. And so to wrap things up, all in all, we are quite pleased with the performance in the first quarter. Many of our key metrics are at a very good place, and we are expecting improved results for the full year compared to last year. We are working on a lot of initiatives to improve the profitability further in the coming years, so we definitely believe that Icelandair is firmly on the right track.
Finally, I would like to thank our great team of employees for their hard work during the quarter and our customers for choosing Icelandair. That concludes the presentation and brings us into the Q&A session. Hopefully, we have some questions.
Yes. Good morning. We have a couple of questions on capacity. In retrospect, do you think the capacity increase in the winter, 2023-2024, was a good decision? On the other hand, do you expect overcapacity on the North Atlantic routes in the summer?
First of all, regarding the hindsight, so to say, the capacity growth this winter, we are always looking at the long-term, long-term profitability of our network and the routes and the capacity that we are putting in. So in short, we firmly believe that the development of the network and the management of the network has been successful. We have mentioned some overcapacity and not sustainable capacity in mature markets. We have not been adding capacity there. As Ívar went through and mentioned briefly, we slightly did cut down capacity to the U.K., for example. So our capacity growth this winter has been very strategic. We are focusing on underserved markets. We are focusing on adding destinations like Raleigh-Durham into our full-year operations. That was seasonal operations before and has been performing very well.
All in all, we are quite pleased with what we have been doing on the network side. Regarding overcapacity in the transatlantic market this summer, we don't expect to see overcapacity there. We are seeing some growth between years, but we believe that the situation there will be, yeah, just okay, so to say.
Here's a question regarding the air controller strike in December. How is the claims case against Isavia regarding that going?
That case is just in a process. Cases like that, it just takes time. Our lawyers are handling that for us, and there are no news regarding that at this point of time, but that is just in a process.
We have a couple of questions regarding the fleet and deliveries. Are there any delivery delays regarding the Boeing quality issues and slower production process?
Yeah. I mean, I could take that. We are, I think, 3 MAXes to the fleet this spring. We have already introduced kind of one of those 3 into the fleet. There are 2 coming straight out of the Boeing factories, and we expect them to be delivered in the coming days, so to speak. So there has been slight delays, yes, but we are foreseeing that they will be delivered very shortly.
What is the current status of the entry into service of the Airbus?
Yeah. I can take that as well. The first aircraft is expected to be delivered at the end of this year, and then we will have the others coming early next year. That is the delivery plan as it stands now with Airbus. And kind of the induction as such and the preparation is going really well. We have started to train our flight crews. There are a few flight crews that will be flying Airbuses this summer for another carrier. So all in all, the Airbus implementation is on track.
How is the outlook for the cargo operation for the rest of the year? Do you expect to return to profitability after taxes for the full year?
Regarding that, as I said, February and March, we saw positive EBIT there. What we have said, we expect that the cargo company will return positive EBIT for the whole year, which is a great turnaround compared to last year, almost $20 million.
Do you believe that the goal of 8% EBIT ratio will be possible for 2025?
We have not laid out or published our plans for 2025, but we are very optimistic that in the near future, we will be reaching our long-term profitability goals, which is 8% EBIT over the cycle. Our plans and strategy are completely unchanged there. We are just very optimistic that we will quite soon reach that. It will be next year or a little bit later. That remains to be seen. We are working on our plan for 2025 now, but that's definitely still our long-term goal, and we are as optimistic to reach that goal as before.
Talking about the longer term, when do you expect flights to start to Istanbul and Dubai?
The same goes there. We have not finalized the plans regarding that. We are taking the first Airbuses into the fleet, as Ívar mentioned, at the end of this year. That gives us a lot of opportunities to develop the network. Then we get the XLRs into the fleet in 2029. Which year it will be and how we will develop the network in the next few years remains to be seen. There are a lot of opportunities both regarding new destinations and update frequencies to current destinations, and this is just an ongoing work.
That concludes the questions this morning.
Yeah. Thank you very much for great questions, and we look forward to the summer and present second quarter in July. And just Gleðilegt sumar . Happy summer, as we say here in Iceland.
[Foreign language]
Thank you.