Welcome to the Ryanair H1 FY23 results conference call. Throughout the call, all participants will be in listen-only mode, and afterwards there'll be a Q&A session. During the Q&A, in the interest of time and fairness, please limit yourself to two questions per person. Just to remind you, this call is being recorded. Today, I am pleased to present Michael O'Leary. Please begin your meeting.
Okay. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. You're all very welcome to the Ryanair half year results conference call. I'm in London with a portion of the team. Eddie Wilson is in Dublin with another portion of the team. Neil Sorahan is in New York, all joining us on the call this morning. I'm gonna take the results, and the MD&A and everything that was just read so that way I think we'll maximize time for the Q&A here. Couple of quick themes. I would point you to the slide presentation on the website. I think the two key issues coming out of the COVID, and coming out of the half year is slide four, which shows the unit cost, ex-fuel gap widening considerably between us and every other airline in Europe.
We went into COVID with a unit cost, ex-fuel of EUR 31. We come out of COVID, that number has slipped down to just under 30 EUR, whereas almost all of our EU competitors have emerged out of COVID with significantly higher ex-fuel unit costs, rising. That gap is widening. I think that's one of the reasons why we're seeing such a strong recovery in Ryanair this summer. We were fully staffed into the summer. We operated 115% of pre-COVID capacity. Fares in the first quarter were under pressure because of the Ukrainian invasion, which damaged Easter. Into the second quarter, the September quarter, we've seen traffic growth of 11%, 12%. Capacity growth of 15% for the airfares. Average fares were up 14% in the second quarter.
We don't expect that to continue into the winter, but we have been quite surprised at the strength of forward bookings into the third quarter. We had a very strong October midterm. Christmas looks strong, both at volume and at the average fare level. You know, this weekend's bookings were stronger than the previous weekend's bookings, which is remarkable, given all of the kinda coverage of recession, inflation, consumer price pressures. I think we're seeing something at the moment. I don't know how long it continues, but we are seeing one, and I would point you to slide 10, which is competitors cutting capacity as Ryanair grows. We're going into the second half of the year, the December and March quarter, operating at 110% of pre-COVID capacity. All of our competitors are still running at less than their pre-COVID capacity.
The one exception being the smaller Hungarian Airline. Our experience with them in recent quarters has been that they talk about offering capacity, but then they cut frequently and close in, so they actually operate probably only 10%-15% more than pre-COVID, but off a much smaller base than us. What we're seeing at the moment, I think is a combination of three things. One, a lot of people booking with Ryanair because we had delivered a very reliable service this summer, and they know they can trust us to not cancel the flights, and they get the baggage and the flight there, more on time without risk of cancellation. Two, we're adding capacity.
We're taking big market shares across Europe in all markets because we have new aircraft, fuel-efficient aircraft, and we are still growing at a time when others are cutting capacity. Three, we have significantly lower airfares than the competition. I think if that continues through this winter, we could have a very strong winter. Now, we're still forecasting we could lose something between EUR 100 million and EUR 200 million this winter. You know, we still have challenges out there. We've had a very strong first half of the year. I think if we get through the winter with strong growth, 10% pre-COVID, with a reasonably strong pricing performance, and we have no disruptions from COVID or Ukraine, then I would hope we'll be at the lower end of that EUR 100 million-EUR 200 million loss in the second half of the year.
It will still be a loss. That would leave us in a very strong position going into December 2023, when we think, with the likely recovery of Asian traffic coming to Europe, the transatlantic traffic is very strong given the strength of the dollar. The strength of the dollar will keep more families at home holidaying in Europe next year because they can't go transatlantic given the strength of the dollar. I think we're looking at a year, if the Asian traffic returns to Europe next summer, 2023 could well be quite strong, and we would hope to see a second year of mid- to high single-digit fare growth, which would help us pay for the higher oil prices. We're seeing continuing strong recovery.
We're cautious that the second half of the year. Remember this time last year, we were looking at a very strong Christmas and Omicron emerged out of South Africa in the last week in November and canceled Christmas. We were looking at a very strong Easter and then Putin invaded Ukraine, and that kinda crushed Easter and also damaged our Central Eastern European traffic for a couple of months. We have recovered very strongly out of that in a marketplace where most of our competitors were challenged on the staffing side this summer. They still haven't restored their pre-COVID capacity. Most of them are not as well hedged as we are on fuel or on the dollar. I think the dollar, the strength of the dollar is going to be a key challenge for EU airlines for the next couple of years.
Whereas Ryanair has fully hedged our CapEx on all the new aircraft deliveries out to 2026. We're well hedged on our OpEx for this year and into next year, and we have in a market where we've a widening cost leadership over everybody else. I think we've reasons to be proud of our recovery in the first half of the year. I think we want to recognize the contribution our people have played in that. We've been in communication with all of our union partners over the weekend, confirming that we're going to restore or bring forward the pay restoration from April 2023 to December 2022. Over 90% of our pilots and cabin crew are covered by those pay restoration and pay agreements, which run out to 2026 and 2027.
By bringing it forward, it means they will all go back to their pre-COVID fully pay restored in the Christmas payroll. There's a couple of smaller unions out there, the Belgian pilots, the Irish pilots, who we have invited to return to pay restoration negotiations for various different reasons, none of which are really explicable. They are continuing to deny their members the pay restoration that over 90% of our pilots and cabin crew have agreed elsewhere in Europe. That's a matter for them. We would like to see the pay of our Belgian and Irish pilots restored pre-Christmas. It can't be done unless the unions agree a medium-term pay agreement like everybody else. With that said, I think the only other kind of blemish on the horizon is Boeing.
We're due to get 51 aircraft from them maybe before the end of April next year. We do not think we'll get those 51 aircraft. Having come back from Seattle two weeks ago, I'm hopeful that we get between 40-45 aircraft by the end of June. We will not take aircraft deliveries after the end of June because we can't put them on sale for the peak period. If we get between 40-45 aircraft by the end of June, I think that still puts us on track to hit our 185 million passenger target for FY 2024. There is some concern out there that we have higher oil prices into next year. We've hedged 50% of our fuel bill at $93 a barrel.
I think there's a reasonable prospect if there's no negative news flow out of COVID in Ukraine this winter that actually fares will be modestly up into the summer of next year because we will still be short. European short-haul will still be short capacity compared to pre-COVID, but there will be stronger demand because of the strength of the dollar and the return of Asian traffic. All in all, that leads us this year to restore guidance. We're cautiously guiding our return to full-year PAT of EUR 1 million-EUR 1.2 billion, which is just about where we were pre-COVID. That's given us the confidence to restore pay this side of Christmas. It could still be derailed if there's negative news flow on COVID or Ukraine this winter.
Therefore, I'd like everybody to keep their feet on the ground and remain cautious. There's no doubt that Ryanair, the management team and our people have recovered faster, stronger and better than any other airline in Europe, and we would expect that outperformance to continue. Neil, do you want to add something and maybe touch briefly on the, I think particularly currency, dollar hedging and CapEx, please?
Yeah, balance sheet as well.
Yeah.
Just before I get into lunch. The balance sheet has performed very well. We finished the quarter with EUR 4.6 billion in cash, and importantly, net debt dropped from EUR 1.5 billion to just over half a billion. That was despite nearly EUR 1.9 billion in CapEx in the first half of the year. As Michael has already said, hedging, we're in a very strong position there, particularly on the CapEx, hedged out to the end of the order book at EUR/USD 1.24, which compares very favorably to 0.98 spot this morning.
Equally, Jet, for the second half of the year we're 87% hedged at just under $70 a barrel, and on a well hedged 1.15 on the Euro Dollar for the second half of this financial year and about 20% hedged on the Euro Dollar at 1.08, into next year, with 50% of our Jet hedged away at approximately $93 a barrel. I think it's important as well to note that, we own all of our 737 aircraft. They're unencumbered and in a rising interest rate environment and lease rates are going up. We won't have the challenges of other airlines out there, which again, will help, from a cost perspective over the next, number of years. Michael, that's about all I want to add.
Okay. That's fine. Eddie, maybe I don't know whether you want to give us a quick couple of lines on the outlook for growth into this winter and into next summer.
Yeah. We, unlike our competitors, we plan to grow close to 10% this winter. Plenty of opportunities out there. We've done long-term low cost deals with our major hubs in Stansted, Charleroi, Bergamo, and we continue to leverage lower costs at airports. Those airports, which are an increasingly smaller proportion of the spread of airports that we have there. If you've got cost increases, well then you won't be rewarded with any capacity growth whatsoever. We have an excellent pipeline of people joining from pilots and cabin crew to support that growth over the next number of years. You know, Michael was saying there about like fares being strong this weekend.
I think that really it's a function of less capacity with our competitors. Also I wouldn't underestimate the story of reliability. I was in the UK the last week and extending our deal to Birmingham. The background over there is that we're the most reliable airline and I think that's feeding into bookings.
Okay. Eddie, do you want to touch briefly or maybe ask Darrell, give us a quick brief on how the gist of the flavor of the discussions with the unions over the weekend went on the pay restoration?
Yeah, I mean, they've gone quite well. We briefed the unions, and we have what essentially we have is that we got into discussions from April last, or April just gone, whereby we pushed out the pay deals for the next two to three years at 2024 out to 2026 and in some cases 2027. We were able to restore pay earlier. That was going to come in in April, where there was normally going to be a review clause. As of now today on the back of A strong operational performance.
We think it's the right thing to do at the right time, even though there is uncertainty over the winter to get pay fully restored for all of our people. Michael's already referred to the two countries where we still need to do that. I'm pretty reasonably confident that we can do it at the same level and get that up to 100%, but that is a matter for the two unions there. There is predictability on pay over the next three to four years.
Yeah. I mean, it was positive. Generally speaking, the unions came back very positively and the idea that it was actually brought forward from April into the Christmas payroll, I think was welcomed.
Good. Okay. All right. With that, let's open up to Q&A please. We're tight for time, so we're limited until about 11 or just after 11 o'clock when various people have to go to meetings. Let's run, we keep it as tight as we can, please.
Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Jaime Rowbotham at Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Morning, guys. Two from me. Firstly, on the non-fuel unit costs. The move on pay restoration is clearly a commendable one. Can you give us a rough estimate of the incremental cost to Ryanair of bringing that forward? Clearly you've had to bake something into your full year guidance for this, and perhaps you could tell us where you think it leaves you on non-fuel unit costs for the year to March 2024. Second question. Michael, you mentioned fares could still be up next summer, potentially offsetting fuel if that stays high. Do you mean, you know, fares up YoY next summer or still up versus pre-crisis? And within that, any areas where the supply-demand imbalance is giving you particular confidence or areas where you're less confident? Thanks.
I'll do the fares, Neil, and maybe you do the non-fuel unit costs.
Sure, yeah.
In terms of fares, thanks. Look, an awful lot. We're in the realms of speculation here, but, you know, there's no doubt in my mind that we. And again, I would. I'll point you to slide 10, where you see what we're competitively cutting capacity this winter. You've got Lufthansa operating at 80% pre-COVID, IAG 87%, AF 85%, and easyJet at 90%. I mean, people are unhedged or significantly unhedged for fuel this winter. Oil is an increasing cost, and people are, I think, sensibly cutting capacity into the winter. You know, the days of land grabs and, you know, fighting for growth are over. People are much more sensible. I think managements of European airlines are much more sensible now.
Even Wizz, who are diverting all of their growth out into the Middle East and further away to avoid competition with Ryanair, is a good, sensible strategy. I think that's likely to lead to. If we go through a winter where there is we are meaningfully shorter capacity in short-haul Europe is operating at 80%-85% of pre-COVID. Ryanair is operating at 110% of pre-COVID with load factors in the low 90%. That creates, I think, a space into next summer where I think, I'm reasonably optimistic that fares will rise. It's year-on-year, not on pre-crisis. We're already up on pre-COVID fares. I think fares will rise year-on-year by another, I would say, mid to high single digits through next summer.
That's driven by two things. One, Easter is in Q1 next year, so that gives you a very strong springboard through Q1. I can see no other alternative that there will still be very strong demand for holidays, families traveling abroad next summer within Europe. Asian travel traffic will hopefully recover, and that will underpin short-haul connecting traffic on the legacy carriers. The transatlantic market is incredibly strong. You know, and while there's some short-term concern about inflation, recession and I mean, try booking or getting a restaurant booking or hotel in London, Dublin, most of the European cities. Like, we're still in full employment, and people are still spending, and certainly this Christmas is going to be very strong.
If we have Easter in Q1, a reasonably strong or robust Q2, I think it's very reasonable to predict that, certainly for the first half of next year, especially if oil prices spot jet stays up at around $110 a barrel, that there will be significant upward pressure on airfares with less than pre-COVID capacity recovery across Europe into the summer of 2023. That's my view. I think, as long as there is no adverse developments on COVID or Ukraine this winter, then I think the trends we're seeing this summer and into the third quarter will continue into the fourth quarter and the first two quarters of next year. Neil, maybe you want to comment on the non-fuel unit cost development?
Yeah, sure, Jamie, I'm not gonna give exact figures around what the payroll is gonna be over the second half of the year, but we've previously guided that unit cost ex fuel will be approximately EUR 31 in the current financial year. We're not deviating away from that. We'll see slightly lower load factors into the second half of the year, and we'll see that step up on the staff costs via route charges. We're sticking to that EUR 31, and then if we get the extra Gamechangers into the fleet next year, we hope to start seeing unit costs, ex fuel, coming down again.
Thanks, both.
Thanks to you. Next question, please.
Thank you. That comes from the line of Alex Irving at Bernstein. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Alex Irving.
Hi. Morning, gentlemen. Two from me, please. First of all, digging in on staff cost a little bit, I saw that your unit staff cost went up between your Q1 and your Q2, even as productivity rose. Looks like it was about EUR 5.60 a seat in Q1 and EUR 6.0 in Q2. I'm wondering what's behind this. Were you rostering extra hours this summer to handle potential ATC delays? Is it a change in pay levels? Is there something else?
My second question, please.
Yeah.
Yeah. My second question. Looks like it's starting to hit a new sort of steady state growth in the low single digits annually. Do you have the ability to accelerate this either by pricing up closer to inflation, by introducing any new products? What's the size of the opportunity here going forward? Thank you.
Sorry, Alex, just while Neil answers that one. You broke up at the start of the second half, the second question. Just repeat the second question, please.
On ancillaries, what growth opportunities do you have going forward? It looks like we're starting to normalize at a low single-digit growth per passenger per annum.
Yeah. Okay, Neil, you start and I'll do the ancillary.
Okay. Yeah, sure. On the staff, there's a number of factors there. Yes, we were ramping up as aircraft came in. We also had seen the likes of the payroll support rolling off and the start of pay restoration, which we'd agreed with people, starting to kick in over the course of the summer. It was a combination of all of that which led to the increase and obviously increased activity, increased sector pay, for people. Then, of course, we now have the full pay restoration, the balance of it coming in into the second half of the year.
On ancillaries, I think you're right. I think we expect it to normalize now, growth of low single-digit on a per passenger basis. We're still seeing conversion on the big ticket items, priority boarding, reserve seating. We are beginning to yield manage some of that with some degree of success. We are still seeing a strong recovery, but there's more to go on the in-flight sales, particularly with duty-free on 40% of the flights operating to and from the U.K.. We are still struggling with kind of supply issues or, you know, some of the bar providers or the duty-free providers. You know, the supply is a bit hit and miss.
We will spend, I think, this winter trying to sort out the labor staffing at our the in-flight suppliers and having a much more reliable delivery of duty-free supply and product. We're having a lot of sellouts and in some cases stock outs on some of that. I think there's more to go, but I think it's reasonable for the next two or three years to expect modest, low single-digit growth in ancillaries per passenger.
Excellent.
Thanks, Alex. Next question, please.
Thank you. That comes from the line of Savi Syth at Raymond James. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Savi, go ahead.
Hey, good morning. Just quickly on the fiscal year 2024 capacity growth, I'm just wondering if you could talk about what your expectations there. I know you mentioned, you know, you think you can hit that 185 even if there are 5-10 MAX delays. Does that mean you have a range for next year or you can hit utilization of something like that to get there? Then just a second question. Just beyond strong demand, are you seeing any new booking patterns that are showing up in your numbers, or is this the environment strong, just as you pointed out, capacity is low and demand is strong?
Let me start with the second one first and give you. There's a couple of new trends, but how sustainable they are, we're not sure. Firstly, we have a much bigger market share in a lot of European markets, so we're seeing much more with a much bigger position in the Spanish domestic, Italy domestic, Ireland, U.K. to Europe. We're growing strongly, particularly in the provinces. We're seeing, I think, stronger off-peak demand and pricing in those domestic markets where, you know, it's not subject to leisure, it's not leisure, it's just kind of continuous year-round traffic, particularly in markets like Italy, where Alitalia are in retreat, Wizz are in retreat. Vienna we're growing strongly again. Level, Wizz have all retreated out of Vienna. We think that will continue.
We are undoubtedly then benefiting but, you know, certainly in the short term from a very strong reliability this summer giving us a kind of glow of being a more reliable provider. Competitors cutting capacity strongly this winter at a time when we're expanding capacity. I would suspect maybe we're seeing the beginning of people becoming nervous about recession, consumer price index, inflation, et cetera. That maybe more and more people are beginning to turn to the lowest cost provider, which in air travel is Ryanair in Europe, the kind of IKEA, Lidl or Aldi effect. I think that will continue. Now, how they play out, we don't really know. Certainly I think it's fair.
We have been surprised by the strength of bookings and pricing coming out of the peak summer period through. We expected to tail off a little bit or have to get more aggressive on pricing through September. We didn't through October, we didn't and into November at the moment. We still haven't done any great seat promotions, and we don't have to. Again, I would argue that's fragile and if we have an Omicron or a Ukraine or some negative development, that could fall over very quickly. I think we're right to be cautious. If we get through to the spring without any negative developments, then we could have a reasonable second half of the year. We should be cautious rather than optimistic. Summer 2024 capacity.
If Boeing delivers 40-45 aircraft instead of the 51, we will still just about hit the 185 million passengers. We will get a little bit more aircraft utilization. We are opportunistic. We've done a deal for 1 additional NG that's being offered back to us that we used to operate on operating lease. We've got a long-term low cost lease rate on that. The load factor will probably go up maybe 1% next summer. So there's a combination of different things. We won't kill ourselves to get to 185. If Boeing leave us short of aircraft and we have to come back to market and say, "Look, it'll be 183, 184, 182 million passengers," that's what it will be.
We would be more mindful next year that, you know, we continue to recover our business, that we continue to carry people across Europe, particularly during the peak period Q1 with Easter and Q2. You know, airfares that are up mid- to high-single-digit. I don't think we'll get a second year of double digits, but certainly single digit, I mean, mid- to high-single-digit is, I think, entirely rational and reasonable next year as long as there's no outside or adverse factors. With a mixture of aircraft deliveries from Boeing, timing of those deliveries, aircraft utilization, a bit more on load factor, we could still get from 168 million this year to 185 million next year. Thanks, Savi. Next question, please.
That's from James Hollins at BNP Paribas.
James, hi.
Hey, Michael, how are you doing? Yeah, one for you, one for Neil. One for Neil is on your little video there earlier. It seemed to be very clear that you plan on just using cash to repay the bonds in the next nine months. Just wondering thoughts, Neil, on what's the right liquidity level for Ryanair going forward as we come out of COVID, and am I right in thinking it looks like cash rather than refi? Then the second one, probably for you, Michael. Again, on your video, you're talking about 110% capacity this winter, but you sort of hinted at a bit of scheduling and productivity improvements around higher weekend capacity, maybe flattish on the weekdays. Just let us know what you're doing on that please. Thanks.
Okay. Neil, if you do the first one. Eddie, I'll ask you rather to take the second one on the winter. I might get Jason McGuinness, who's here as well, to give some commentary on that as well. Neil, use of the cash.
Okay. James, thanks. The use of cash for the next 12-18 months is paying down those bonds and peak CapEx. If there is an opportunity in the market to do something at very low levels, we look at it. The working assumption is very much that we will use the cash and we want to get down to that net zero debt position by the end of next year. We still like holding a fair bit of cash on the balance sheet, you know, EUR 4.6 billion at the end of September.
Not sure if it needs to be EUR 4.6 billion at infinitum, but it's important to have somewhere between kind of EUR 3.5 billion or EUR 4 billion on a long-term basis in case you get hit by further shocks over the next number of years.
It's important to.
Yeah.
Just to point out, you know, of that EUR 4.6 billion, like EUR 1.6 of that is for debt repayment next year. You know, we're in peak CapEx, so we're spending about EUR 2 billion a year. Like it's we don't have EUR 4.6 billion spare lying around. We have uses for that. The opportunity that we will pay down bonds next year that are funded at 1.2%, 1.5%. If we were to refinance at the moment, even for us, we're looking at 5%, 6%. I think it's in our interest as an airline to pay down debt while our competitors will either be looking at additional equity raises or refinancing bonds and debt markets that have moved materially adverse.
It's more sensible for us to use the cash to pay down debt. Eddie.
I think there's two points there just on the utilization. While we made some strides this summer on utilization, given the backdrop of ATC, a lot of that was just eaten up into longer hours, which are crew, as we know, but in certain bases. While we were able to do that in the winter to tweak up the utilization, use of those aircraft, and also we've moved a couple of percentage points. If you look back to where we were back in particularly 2018 on the proportion of flying, moving out of the Tuesdays and Wednesdays and maximizing the number of aircraft at the weekends on higher yielding flights. Nothing radical there, but just sort of that shift to the left on higher.
The ability to be able to do higher utilization in the wintertime and then that shift into from midweek into weekend flying.
Maybe I have Jason McGuinness here, Head of Commercial. You want to just comment on the kind of profile of the winter schedule, lighter midweek, heavier weekends?
Yeah, James. We spent a lot of time, the schedule team spent a lot of time this summer preparing for winter in terms of focusing the growth on weekend traffic. Historically, we would have flown about 40% of our winter capacity on midweek. That's down to 35% this year. Weekend traffic is up to 65%. That's been hugely beneficial in terms of yields and load factors and contributing to a strong Q3, and that continues on through the rest of the winter as well. It's been hugely beneficial this winter and something we're gonna try and improve across next winter as well.
It also helps crew utilization. You know, we're still getting good crew utilization by flying people, you know, over four or five days and duties across weekends rather than having them sitting around on Tuesdays and Wednesdays rostered on home standby. Generally speaking, more efficient. We couldn't do that if we were having a big land grab or capacity wars with other airlines. The fact is, as all the others cut back this winter and we grow, it gives us the latitude to kind of target our growth on the days of the week or the weekends when people wanna fly, rather than just having to be very aggressive on capacity and pricing in the middle of the week.
Again, we would hope that will translate into a better than forecast performance in the third and fourth quarters. Again, caution, fourth quarter's no Easter and the third and fourth quarter are hugely exposed to any adverse negativity on COVID or Ukraine. Next question, please.
Thank you. That's from Stephen Furlong at Davy.
Stephen, hi.
Yeah. Hi, Michael. Just go through again, slide four there in terms of the ex-fuel costs, in terms of where you see, I mean, the big theme, of course, inflation of the cost base across not just this sector but other sectors. That's not happening in Ryanair. Just go through that again. Then secondly, on Boeing, just talk again about your relationship there. How is it going? What they're doing? Or is there U.S. airlines, for example, calling for some resolution on the MAX- 10 in terms of what's happening there? Thanks.
Thanks very much. Okay. I mean, very briefly, if you run through slide four, you know, what we've seen compared to pre-COVID, you know, we've done an update on based on the half year results or disclosures of the main competitor airlines. There's been a huge widening of the gap, our unit costs. Historically, we've been significantly more efficient than other airlines. Airport and handling costs are materially lower. Our ownership and maintenance costs are, you know, very materially lower than with easyJet, even the Southwest in the States. That gap seems to have widened quite dramatically during COVID. As we emerged out of COVID, we had the benefit of, you know, the sensible kind of pay cuts that we agreed in return for keeping people current and employed during COVID.
Some of our competitors were understaffed this year and went out with panicked pay increases and, you know, desperate deals, sign-on bonus to get people to join. We have negotiated sensible extensions of long-term growth and traffic recovery deals at airports. We're not exposed as many of our competitors are to kind of monopoly airports at Gatwick, Charles de Gaulle, Switzerland, some of the Eastern European capital city airports where, you know, they are price takers. We are very aggressive. You know, we've closed bases this summer. We've closed Frankfurt Main. We have, what's the other?
Brussels.
Brussels, Amsterdam we've closed this winter again in the face of cost increases at a time when those airports were facing traffic declines. We continue to be very disciplined. That means, you know, if you take most of our biggest bases, Stansted, Bergamo, Charleroi, we've extended our traffic growth deals there over the medium to long term. Many of them now run out to 2028, 2029, 2030. Ownership and maintenance costs, I think that was going to be the seismic difference post-COVID. We own all of our fleet, 90% unencumbered. We could sit the aircraft on the ground during COVID. We didn't have to pay lease rentals. Most of our competitors who went into COVID owning a significant proportion of their fleet have come out of COVID now with owning very little of their fleet.
Most, if not all, of the fleet now on operating leases, therefore, I think subject to ongoing cash drains in terms of monthly operating leases, much more expensive cost than we have maintenance provisions. As interest rates rising, I think challenge on some of their operating lease costs will rise as well. I think the gap between us and that competition is widening, and I expect that. I'm not sure we'll stay under EUR 30 a passenger ex-fuel unit cost. I think the next three or four years, that cost, our EUR 30 might go, you know, it'll stay below EUR 30, EUR 31, EUR 32, EUR 33.
A time when our competitors will all go above EUR 50 or in some cases above EUR 60 or EUR 70 ex-fuel, they will be under much more pressure to get airfares up and therefore to control capacity growth. That will give us, I think, quite a significant headroom for us to expand our capacity, but see fares rise modestly to cover our unit cost. In fact, we'll have much more headroom than any of our competitors will. Boeing relationship. Look, it's challenged at the moment. It is very difficult. But you know, we've come to the realization we have to work with Boeing. They are, you know, and they are challenged with production in Seattle. We accept now we won't get the 51 aircraft that they had originally contracted to deliver to us by the end of April.
I think if we get to 40 or 45 aircraft by the end of June, that still allows us to maintain our ambitious traffic projection or traffic growth projections out to FY 2024. I think over that period of time, their production blockages will work their way out of the system. We are back having discussions with them about sort of new aircraft. I think we would be very strong supporters of Boeing and the other American airlines kind of campaigns with Congress that Boeing do have to get an extension on the MAX- 10 certification. It is not in anybody's interest that you have two different cockpits on the MAX, the existing MAX aircraft and the new MAX- 10s. We need to have similar cockpits.
We do not want to have pilots trying to learn two different type of cockpits. I think we would very strongly supportive of Boeing's calls to Congress to extend the certification program for the Max 10s out to maybe the end of 2023. We are not anywhere. We're nowhere close to agreements on pricing. I think we're not at anywhere in terms of new aircraft discussions, but we don't need new aircraft until 2026 anyway. We're very comfortable where we are at the moment. We are receiving some modest compensation from Boeing for these delivery delays, but really compensation is not that attractive to us. We take compensation payments through the balance sheet.
It does help to reduce CapEx, but we would much prefer to take the aircraft and be able to deliver headline growth in scheduled revenues and ancillary revenues. I think the Boeing relationship is what is fraught at the moment. It is difficult because they are continuously failing to meet their delivery obligations to us. I think we're at a stage where, you know, we recognize we have to work with Boeing as best we can. We have to help them get those aircraft delivered to us. In some cases, we're going to provide them with some of our spares so they can deliver some of our aircraft.
We're both working towards getting 40-45 aircraft to Ryanair by the end of June of 2023, which would be sufficient for us to at least try to hit our 185 traffic target for FY 2024. We might finish 1-2 million passengers short of that. To the extent we finish short on traffic, I think we'll see some uplift or benefit on fares and yields. Next question, please.
Got it, Michael.
Thanks, Stephen.
Thanks. That comes from the line of Sathish Sivakumar at Citigroup.
Sathish, hi.
Hi, Michael. Yeah, I got two questions here. First one maybe on the working capital into Q3 and Q4. Is it fair to say that we go back to the similar seasonality levels that we've seen in pre-pandemic, or is there anything that we should think about into H2? Second one is around the Italian market. Given your market share gains there, are you seeing better pricing power, i.e., that the pricing within both domestic and intra-Europe out of Italy is outperforming your entire network? Any color on that would be helpful. Thank you.
Maybe I'll give the working capital question to Neil Sorahan. We might have one of the treasury team, John Hurley, maybe add a word or two on it. The Italian market, again, Eddie, I might ask you to lead off on that, and I'll get Jason here to add a couple of words at the end of yours. Neil.
Okay. Sathish, how you doing? On the working capital, bookings are still a bit closer in than they would've been pre-COVID, which means at this time of year when our cash would normally be dropping back, it's not dropping back as extremely. In fact, as Michael has said, booking's very strong up into Christmas. Very limited visibility into Q4, but barring any COVID shocks or untoward geopolitical events, we would hope that we start to see a more normalized booking curve at that stage, with people starting to come back in January and February and booking their Easter and their summer holidays at that point in time. It's a little bit too soon to say that we're seeing that yet, with limited visibility to Q4 at this point in time.
John Hurley, you wanna add anything on that, on working capital?
Yeah, no. Just liquidity is still proving to be very strong, Sathish. You know, as we build into Q1, during the January period, we start seeing the bookings for the summer and the cash starting to come back as part of the cycle for Q3.
Okay. Eddie, maybe followed by Jason on the Italian market share and pricing power.
Yeah. I think like on the Italian market, you know, particularly like post-COVID, we had a sort of a rush of Italian airports who it dawned on them there was nobody else gonna fill those capacity gaps except Ryanair. We were the sort of go-to airline on that. That has reflected itself in, you know, higher frequencies, you know, better schedules. That does sort of lead into, you know, some pricing power on certain routes. Domestics are still very competitive. We have seen that on those where we've come up against competition that, like in the first instance we've seen over the last couple of years where easyJet have sort of melted away from a lot of those core routes.
More recently, we have seen Wizz come on some of the routes and now pulling back out of places like Malpensa, Naples and Palermo on those domestic routes. That then with less competition on that's gonna reflect into higher pricing in the medium term.
Jason, wanna add anything on that?
Yeah. We're very happy with the Italian market. Load factors are very strong across this summer and into winter. We're operating well over 600 routes. 100 of those are domestic routes. Our overall market share is 40%, but we're probably closer to 60% on the domestic market. We're by far and away the number one airline in Italy. The number two airline in Italy is easyJet on 12%. We're by far and away the dominant carrier in Italy. I'm very happy with how the market is performing at the moment.
In particular, I think it's safe to say in off season and winter.
Yeah
We see that very strong domestic traffic continues.
We're continuing to see competitors cut capacity be it Wizz on the likes of Rome and Catania, canceling that route, easyJet pulling back in Venice and Naples. We're very happy with the Italian market and the growth that we've put in there over the last two years.
We plan to grow there again next year.
We do.
Okay. Next question, please.
Thanks. That's from the line of Muneeba Kayani at Bank of America.
Muneeba, hi.
Hi. Good morning. Just a clarification on fares, mid-single-digit to high-single-digit in the year. How much of that is based on the bookings you're seeing? Or is that what you're seeing in bookings right now, or is that your kind of assumption for the year? That's my first question. Secondly, fuel hedging on slide 18. The disclosure is different from what you had before, which had caps and slots broken out. Have you changed your strategy here?
You do the fuel hedging, Neil. I'll do.
Yeah.
I'm not going to give any more guidance or breakout, you know, what we're seeing at the moment. We think it's reasonable for the full year to expect mid- to high-single-digit fare and yield growth. It's fair to say at the moment we're seeing better than that, but we're not sure whether this will continue through to Christmas and into Q4. You know that we continue to be very wary of the risk that this will get derailed by an adverse COVID or Ukraine development. You know, we're scarred by the experience of last November and last February, which derailed at very short notice what seemed to be a very strong post-COVID recovery. Mid- to high-single-digit for the full year, I think, is optimistic enough.
We don't want to be any more optimistic than that realistically. If there's a risk, I think there's a risk to the upside. Neil, the fuel slide.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Muneeba, there's been no real change. We haven't added meaningfully, in fact, we haven't added to caps at all, and a lot of them have been exercised at this stage. It felt more meaningful to give the blended jet figure on the understanding that we will be exercising what's left of the caps, which is why you're seeing 87 at approximately $700 a metric ton. We continue to hedge jet as the key item. Then into next year, we're only using jet swaps at this point in time, so $993 a metric ton. To make life easier for yourself and other analysts who've struggled on some of the splits between the caps and the jet in the past.
It's reasonable. Some people have asked me this morning, why are we not more hedged for next year? I think we're genuinely concerned into next year. I think 50% hedging is the sensible place to be. We think there's as much risk to the downside or the upside on oil into next summer. You know, if recession is as deep and dark as predicted by the Bank of England, if China continues to struggle with COVID and economic demand, if the shale guys who are materially increasing rigs, you know, there's a risk that oil prices could fall into next spring, next summer if Ukraine situation resolves itself. We want to kind of stay where we are at the moment. 50% into next year is enough, and then see which way fuel is.
If it rises into next summer because of the geopolitical situation, fine. We'll be facing higher oil, but we'll have hedged 50%. If it falls, and again, one of the challenges there is that our competitors are have inferior hedges to us. We don't want to be hedged 100% or 90% at $92 a barrel and see them pick up lower oil prices than us into a declining market place. I think we're sensibly hedged with the risk, as much risk to the upside as to the downside on oil into next year.
Thank you.
The difference is that we're one of the few airlines that has the balance sheet to be able to hedge fully, both on the dollar and on oil. Thanks, David. Next question, please.
Thank you. That comes from the line of Mark Simpson at Goodbody.
Mark, hi.
Yeah. Hi, good morning. Two questions. One, I'm just wondering within the target for zero net debt by March 2024, what's the assumption of the unearned revenues within that? Obviously back in, say, 2019, it was at one point EUR 9 billion. I'm wondering if there's any sort of guidance around that. On the ancillary, one of the good things we saw Q-on-Q was another step up in the ancillary per pax number. With better loads anticipated over the next 18 months, can we expect further leverage on that ancillary per pax performance?
Okay. I'm disappointed on both answers here. I mean, you know, look, I think it's enough there that we say we set a target that by the end of FY 2024, we'll be back at zero net debt, and we will be. We will have paid down EUR 1.6 billion worth of bonds. We will still have funded most of next year's CapEx out of our own cash flows. We're not gonna break down guidance on what's been unearned. I mean, I think by the, as long as we're back in normal, we haven't had a negative COVID or Ukraine, you would expect there to be a normal build of unearned back to where it was similar to pre-COVID levels. Ancillaries per pax, again, I've already answered. I think I've answered the question.
We expect there to be very modest, low single-digit growth in ancillary per pax for the next year or two. Some increase. I don't think higher load factor. I mean, if we're talking about a load factor maybe going up by 1% in the peak of next summer, it's not material. We still think we get a little bit of upside on conversions, a little bit of upside in yield management. Certainly the duty-free sales on routes to and from the U.K. will be a feature of our ancillary revenue next year. It's certainly a very prominent, I mean, in the discussion we're having at airports at the moment, a number of airports are reporting a very significant rebound in their airport retailing and commercial income, as a result of the restoration of duty-free on U.K. services.
I mean, as the U.K. government is struggling to find, be able to identify any benefits of Brexit. Certainly the return of duty-free sales to and on duty-free sales both for airports and airlines on flights to and from the U.K. has been one of the very few and singular benefits of Brexit. Next question, please.
Yeah.
Mark, hi.
Yeah, probably just want to just follow up. The reason I'm asking that is just the application of dynamic pricing on ancillary. I'm wondering if there's anything you can tell us about that within the labs projects.
Not really. I mean, you know, it's we're working on it, but, you know, I don't want to kind of overpromise here. You know, it's we're continuing to work on conversion, yield management, and there's a little bit of dynamic pricing. But unlike many of our competitors who were promising that data would provide everything, that the future lay in data, we'd rather deliver first, and we'll talk about it later.
Fair enough.
Next question, please.
Thank you. That comes from the line of Jarrod Castle at UBS.
Jarrod, hi.
Hi. Hi, everyone. Just some clarification of the first question, if you don't mind. I mean, the question was asked about, you know, the pricing that you're seeing, but you did say, I think in the release that you got most of summer on sale, at the moment. Any color relating to the summer. But also, is there a concern that you might be in a situation where it's a mismatch rather between what you're currently selling now for summer versus what you've hedged on fuel? You know, what happens if the reverse happens, the fuel price spikes and you've sold, you know, based on, you know, today's prices for the summer?
The second question, you know, for someone or at least a company which historically hasn't done much M&A, you know, there was a lot of conversation during this results season about M&A. So be interested to get your view on how you see the landscape currently, Michael. Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks, Jarrod. I mean, look, at this point, however, we have most available. We've got what, at 80% or 80%-90% of summer 2023 on sale. You know, forward bookings would be down at low single digits. You're talking through the summer months of next year, 1%-2% of seats sold. Fuel could move against us, but to the extent that fuel moves against us, remember, we've already hedged 50% to $93 a barrel. Current jet fuel spot is about $110. So we're still saving money there, and fuel will move against our competitors much more violently than it will against us because we have the balance sheet to be able to take very long-term fuel hedge positions.
I think our concern is more the opposite, is that we don't wanna get caught having hedged 80% or 90% of fuel next year at $92 a barrel and then find the spot has fallen to $75 or $80 a barrel. I think we have plenty of insurance there with half of our fuel bill next year hedged, and if it goes up, we're covered on the hedges we have, and if it falls, we pick it up on the gain so that we might you know, we're never going to beat the market with hedging, but we should certainly be able to eliminate the volatility, and that's as much as we want to do.
I think fares next year will be driven much more, I think, by rational capacity discipline this winter, and there's every sign that that's continuing through the winter period. We want to emphasize again, Q4 will be challenging because there's no Easter in it. Q1 next year will be all the better for having a full Easter in the middle of Q1 leading into what I think will be a strong Q2 because of transatlantic visitors coming to Europe with a strong dollar, Asian visitors returning, and Europeans continuing to holiday. Even in a recession and with their price inflation, you know, you try booking, look, getting accommodation. The tour operators are reporting very strong booking into next summer.
Flights into and accommodation next summer in Europe I think will be materially higher than they were this year, despite whether this year was forward. I mean, certainly in our case, 14%-15% ahead of where it was pre-COVID. There may be a mismatch, but I think on balance, I like where we're positioned, and I think that the prospect is, you know, if there's going to be a mismatch, it'll be to our upside. M&A, you know, we have more than sufficient organic growth the next five years to grow to 225 million passengers a year.
We do not see ourselves participating in M&A, although we may work with others, you know, where I think others will be challenged in M&A, that they may need to find kind of somebody to work with them for, to cope with competitive, what's the phrase, Juliusz? Competition remedies or pre-competition remedies. We could help assist some M&A in there. I have no doubt. I thought this results season was interesting, that both IAG, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM were all beginning to talk about M&A again. Not none of them or all of them putting their hat in the ring for TAP, Alitalia, even extending the discussion or not denying an interest in Wizz or easyJet, both of which we think would be candidates for M&A over the next couple of years because they're not a you know.
They're both well-run airlines, but they are stuck in a space where they are mid-airfare, mid cost. They're not able to compete with us on cost or on pricing. easyJet have built a very good business where they have a very much a fortress position in expensive airports like Gatwick, Charles de Gaulle, or in Switzerland, but really retreating in airports in Italy, Portugal, and others and in Berlin where, you know, they're largely not able to compete with us. Wizz Air increasingly under threat from us in Central and Eastern Europe. I think they have shown in the last year or two with their expansions in Vienna and Italy that they're not able to compete or enter markets where Ryanair or the Ryanair group of airlines have a lower cost and lower fares.
I think with a sensible strategy of expanding into the Middle East, I like the idea that they're going to grow the market in Saudi Arabia, in Dubai. They may well find some additional equity or debt out of those markets as well as they build their presence out in those markets. I think everybody's behaving rationally. I think it is inevitable in the next three-five years that Europe will consolidate further. Alitalia and TAP will get taken out because, you know, they can't continue with the state aid that they presently have.
I think there's it's a much more likelier rational outcome that Wizz and easyJet will participate in some way in that M&A process, and that Europe is inexorably moving towards a similar outturn as North America, where you will have three very large, somewhat higher cost, high fare connecting carriers and one very large low-cost carrier. Except in Europe, that low-cost carrier is going to mean materially lower cost and lower fare than Southwest in the United States. It's I think we're now in that inexorable process. People may say otherwise, but you know and I have been predicting this for a number of years, and COVID and certainly the tsunami of state aid has postponed the timing of that, but I think it's an inevitable consequence.
Great. Thanks, Michael.
Thanks, Jarrod. Next question, please.
Thank you. That comes from the line of Johannes Braun at Stifel. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Johannes, hi.
Yes. Hi, good morning. Two questions from me also. Firstly, if I did the math right, I think free cash flow was slightly negative in Q2, which I think it would also explain why net debt is slightly up to EUR 0.5 billion from the EUR 0.4 billion that you reported at the end of Q1. I think that's a little bit at odds with other European carriers that still reported positive free cash flow for the quarter. I can see your CapEx was EUR 500 million in Q2, slightly higher than Q1, but any other reason why free cash flow was negative for you? Is it maybe the working capital impact from the slightly weaker yield growth that you expect for the winter versus the last quarter?
Secondly, the pay deals that you mentioned, which were prolonged until I think 2026 or even 2027. Can you just remind us what the pay deals imply? My last information was that it's 2%-3% wage increase per annum, but is this still the case? Thank you.
Yeah. I mean, that's the correct on the pay deals. There was restoration in April and April 2023 and 2024, brought forward to April 2023, now brought forward to December 2022, followed by multiyear kind of secured pay increases of 2%-3% a year. Neil, negative cash flow, I mean, I assume most of that is CapEx. I mean, I don't get where you're-
Well, the prime reason for the difference that Johannes referred to there is we've extended Johannes' A320 leases out to 2028. Under accounting rules, IFRS 16, we have to capitalize or take the extra years of the deemed debt onto the balance sheet. It's that kind of notional debt on leases that makes up the delta that you're trying to reconcile there.
Okay. Thank you.
You know, I would say, you know, it, I think the strength of the balance sheet is that we've reduced the net debt from EUR 1.45 billion to EUR 0.5 billion over the half year. I mean, I would not recognize your presentation there in terms of negative cash flow or declining yields. If anything, it's the opposite, but it is what it is. Next question, please.
Thank you. That's from the line of Harry Gowers at JP Morgan.
Harry.
Yeah. Morning. Just two quick ones if I can.
Yeah.
I mean, first one, just on the visibility post-Christmas. Maybe you can give us an insight into what percentage of January to March is booked currently and is that very different to what you'd have expected at this point pre-COVID? Just second quick one. Any difference in bookings between the U.K. in terms of point of sale versus continental Europe currently or pretty equal patterns in terms of demand? Thanks.
Yeah, I'll do the forward. Eddie, you can do the U.K..
Yeah.
At the moment, January to March, as of today, we are sitting with just under 10% of the seats sold January through to March. That would be marginally behind where we would have been in previous years. Again, some of that was because we've no Easter in March. You know, the fact that Easter has moved, it's in April or Q1 of the following year. Very limited visibility into Q4, limited bookings and the profile is slightly behind where it would've been pre-COVID. U.K. market at the moment is remarkably strong. U.K. outbound is strong, to Europe, short-haul weekends and business travel. Eddie, anything you want to add on that?
No, there's like no difference. I mean, as you've seen, like we've been putting extra capacity in for next summer into the U.K.. You know, nothing to add to what you've said there.
Particularly in provincial U.K., like we've already had very strong growth in Stansted, but we're adding capacity in Birmingham, in Bristol, in Manchester, Liverpool. We've a new base, Edinburgh. We've a new base coming in Belfast as well. It's a marketplace. Despite the challenges of Brexit, it is a marketplace where there's still significant growth. It's one of the markets where there's been a lot of capacity that's been taken out of the system. You know, the failure of Thomas Cook, Flybe, easyJet cutting back their capacity or trimming their capacity and BA, a significant certainly on the short-haul side, capacity cuts. Next question, please.
Thank you. We have one further question in the queue. That's from the line of Duane Pfennigwerth at Evercore ISI.
Duane, hi.
Hey. Hey, good morning. Just one for me. Could you talk a little bit? Does the MAX situation change your thinking about, you know, the pace of retirements or actually going into the market and acquiring used 737s? You know, are you investing in maintenance overhauls on aircraft that you'd otherwise be kissing goodbye?
No. I mean, I think, well, the answer to that question is, we have so much growth at the moment. I think we had a. We had thought we would be using some of our, the Gamechanger deliveries to retire older aircraft, but actually we have so much growth opportunity out there. We're growing faster than we originally thought we would at this time because we're not retiring older aircraft. In fact, as I use the example, one of the aircraft we returned off an operating lease two years ago has now been offered back to us at a very significant discount. We will opportunistically add, you know, aircraft in ones and twos where, you know, 737 sort of NGs, where there's a kind of a financial incentive to do so.
We're not looking to the secondhand market, though. There isn't much of a secondhand market out there at the moment on NGs. A lot of those aircraft have gone back into cargo conversion programs, et cetera, et cetera. You know, we have another 150-160 aircraft deliveries to take from Boeing over the next three years. We are that gives us plenty of headline growth. These aircraft, remember, one of the key efficiencies of these aircraft, they have 4% more seats, but burning 16% less fuel. Not only are they much more financially from an operating point cost of view, much more efficient to fly, but they're also environmentally much more efficient as well.
I would continue to focus on those aircraft. I think it's inevitable by the time we get to sometime in 2024, 2025, we would like to be back in discussions with Boeing on a new aircraft deal. You know, Boeing have to sort out their own kind of manufacturing challenges at the moment, and they've got to deliver what they've committed to first before we can actually start negotiating new aircraft orders with any sense of confidence with Boeing. In the meantime, Airbus are mopping up huge amounts of Boeing's market share. They're now grabbing, converting a lot of Boeing customers in China. In the U.K., Jet2 has gone to Airbus from Boeing.
You know, I have no doubt that, you know, once they sort out the current production problems, Boeing will want to recapture market share. When that timing comes about, they know we'll be there working with them, but only on pricing that makes it economic for us to continue to grow as Boeing's principal kind of standard bearer here in Europe.
Thanks for the thoughts.
Thanks, Duane Pfennigwerth. Any other questions before we wrap it up?
No, that was the final question.
Okay. Neil, instead of me wrapping up, why don't you give us a couple of closing thoughts on balance sheets, cash flows, pay down of debt, and then I might ask Eddie Wilson give us a couple of closing thoughts on summer 2023.
Okay. On the balance sheet itself, as I previously said, it's performing very well. We've recovered quite significantly, but we do have two big years of CapEx ahead of us. While we spent EUR 900 million in the first half of this year, we do a EUR 2.3 billion CapEx program in the current year. That will drop to somewhere in the region of about EUR 2.1 billion-EUR 2.2 billion next year. I think the strength of the balance sheet is core, and it's enabling us, you know, to pay at a time when interest rates are rising, to pay off maturing debt and to fund ourselves from our own resources. That's hugely important.
It's also giving us the ability to have a rock solid BBB rating, which enables us to put hedging in place for both the dollar and for the fuel, particularly on the CapEx, where we're extremely well hedged out at $1.24 to the end of the Boeing order book, which means we're locking in aircraft in euro terms at very attractive levels, which enables us to grow over the next number of years. Costs in great shape, as Michael's already said as well. Unit costs having come down quite significantly in the first half. Guiding full year unit cost of EUR 31 ex fuel, and then we'd hope to start seeing some reductions as we take more Gamechangers into the fleet over the next couple of years. Pass over to Eddie now.
Great. Thanks, Neil. Eddie, maybe you can give us a last.
Yeah.
Last thought on summer 2023 and kind of generally commercial development.
Yeah. I think I started off on just talking about the operational level. I mean, from what we've learned, this summer is about being prepared for next summer as well. You know, we've had the backdrop of ATC this summer, which really ate into sort of crew hours, and we were ahead of everyone else. You know, we've got to ensure that we're fully prepared, particularly with third-party providers in advance of next summer so that we can deliver what we promised. I would always like to be able to say that we've got the people, the airports and the aircraft, and the only one that has, you know, a slowdown to that is the aircraft.
That, we believe, will be temporary in nature. We look at where we've got on fares, particularly the strong Q2 fares. We look at the capacity that's coming out. I mean, you looked at places like Germany this summer where the market shrunk by about 25% in July and August. You know, those gaps will be filled by next summer. I think that's gonna reflect itself hopefully in higher fares. Let's get the operation right and make sure we got all our partners at the airport ready to go for next summer. We're not gonna solve ATC by next year. I think it's a good environment in terms of capacity reductions in the market for fares in summer 2023.
Thanks, Eddie. Okay, I'll just leave you one final thought to be the party pooper. You know, we have recovered very strongly. We've had a very good first half of the year. We are still, though, forecasting a loss for the second half of the year. We're looking at something up to about a EUR 200 million loss between Q3 and Q4. The absence of Easter will hit Q4. That could be worse if there is, I mean, and again, I wanna keep re-emphasizing the risks we face as we experienced last year with an adverse COVID development in November and with the Ukraine invasion of February. This recovery is strong, but it is fragile, and it could still fall over. If it doesn't fall over, I would be reasonably optimistic that we're heading into a strong summer of 2023.
Our first priority will be to restore the pay arrays, to restore the pay of our people, recruit another 2,000 pilots and cabin crew to service the summer 2023 growth. The next priority will be to use the cash to pay down EUR 1.6 billion worth of debt next summer. We need another EUR 2 billion just to continue to fund the CapEx. These are challenging times, but I think the management team at Ryanair and our unions and the people and our people have demonstrated, you know, a resilience through COVID, a flexibility through COVID that leaves us very well positioned coming out of COVID to grow strongly. If there is a recession, it will be good for our business.
We will continue to grow much stronger into a recession than any other airline in Europe because of the widening cost and fare gap we have over every other European airline. With that, can I say thank you to everybody who joined in this morning. We have extensive roadshows on the road all week here in the U.K., in Europe, in the U.S.. If anybody wants a meeting or a one-on-one, please contact Davy or Citi, and we'd be happy to fit one in. In the meantime, I hope we'll see you all individually at some stage during the week. If not, feel free to come to Dublin in November or December and boost the load factor all on your own. Thank you very much, everybody. Good to talk to you. God bless. Bye-bye.
This now concludes the conference. Thank you all very much for attending. You can now disconnect your lines.