Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the third quarter 2021 International Airlines Group conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Luis Gallego, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to IAG's third quarter 2021 results call. I'm joined today by Steve Gunning, our CFO, and our OPCO CEOs, Lynne Embleton, Sean Doyle, Javier Sánchez-Prieto, Marco Sansavini, and Alan Lewis. This morning, we reported an exceptional operating loss of EUR 485 million. Even though we are not satisfied, as you can imagine, we made a loss, but this third quarter loss was less than half operating losses of over EUR 1 billion in the previous two quarters this year. For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, operating cash flow was positive as a result of the reduced operating loss and a strong forward bookings.
We operated a more meaningful level of capacity in the quarter at around 43% of 2019, which was more than double the level of operation in the first half of the year and enabled by a gradual loosening of travel restrictions in Europe, especially in Spain. Liquidity in terms of cash and undrawn facilities is higher than it has ever been, standing at EUR 12.1 billion pro forma as of the end of October, including the GBP 1 billion UKEF facility for BA that was announced earlier this week.
In terms of the outlook, we expect the operating loss to narrow further in the fourth quarter, driven by a higher level of capacity around 60% of 2019 levels and a significant recovering in demand that we have seen since the announcement of looser travel restrictions in the U.K., U.S., and elsewhere. For the full year, we expect a pre-exceptional operating loss of approximately EUR 3 billion . We expect to continue to restore capacity throughout the winter and into next summer as pent-up demand recovers, both leisure and corporate. At the same time, the group is implementing a number of initiatives to transform our business for the long term, some of which we will talk about in this presentation today. In this next slide, we summarize the situation at each of our operating companies.
All of them, they have made financial progress during the quarter, and all of our airlines are focused on restoring their networks as pent-up demand is unlocked. Aer Lingus has been the most challenged as a result of the tougher travel restrictions in Ireland, which only started to be relaxed from mid-July. Nevertheless, it reduced its operating loss compared to previous quarters. Aer Lingus' focus is now on the launch of its long-haul Manchester base in October and negotiating new employee agreements from when government furlough support ends next year. British Airways significantly reduced its operating loss in the quarter. It is focused on restoring as much as 90% of its normal capacity by next summer. BA is also negotiating to develop a competitive platform for the group's London Gatwick operation.
Iberia generated a positive operating result in the quarter, mainly because it was able to operate more of its normal capacity than BA due to facing far fewer travel restrictions on its routes. It is leveraging the Madrid hub to boost connectivity, particularly on domestic and Latin American routes. Regarding the situation with Air Europa, we have submitted a package of remedies to the European Commission last week, and we await the outcome of its phase two process by 4 of January 2022. Vueling managed to break even in the quarter. It flew the most capacity and generated the highest load factor in the group. It has been capitalizing on the strength of the domestic Spanish market. Having won the competition for the state aid remedy slots of Air France at Paris Orly, Vueling started operating 32 new routes there earlier this week.
Finally, IAG Loyalty. It had its best quarter since 2019, with continued growth in customer acquisition, profitability, and cash generation for the benefit of the whole group. Before I hand over to Steve, I will give you also an update on our climate change strategy, which is particularly topical given the U.K. hosting COP26 this week. Both BA and IAG are actively supporting this event. IAG continues to lead the global aviation industry towards net zero emissions by 2050. You know that we were the first airline group worldwide to commit to this goal two years ago. In 2020, oneworld became the first global alliance of airlines and so far the only alliance to commit to net zero. IATA committed to net zero at its recent annual general meeting in October this year.
The next major milestone for global aviation is to seek a net zero commitment from ICAO and its general assembly in October 2022. This will align all aviation governing bodies in the world to the net zero objective. We have also made progress on extending our commitment to uplift at least 10% of our fuel requirements in the form of sustainable aviation fuel by 2030 by obtaining similar commitments from the World Economic Forum, the oneworld alliance, and the U.K. government. The U.K. has also committed to provide GBP 180 million in funding to support the development of sustainable aviation fuel plants in the U.K.
As well as leading the industry in developing and seeking commitment to climate change targets, we are also innovating and investing in solutions such as Velocys SAF plant in the U.K., ZeroAvia hydrogen propulsion project, and Mosaic Materials carbon capture technology, which we have shown in the previous capital market days. We will provide an update of these projects and investments at future investor and analyst events. I will hand over to Steve for the financial presentation. Before that, as you know, Steve has decided to leave the group, and I am very sorry to see him go. He has done a great job during these years. Steve will be here with us and fully engaged until March 2022 after the 2021 year results. Please, Steve.
Thanks, Luis. Good morning, everybody. I'll now take you through the key points on the Q3 financial results. Turning to slide seven, overall, our quarter three results showed a marked improvement in performance, and it appears that Q3 represents an inflection point for the group as it stopped burning cash from its operations and began to generate it. This slide shows some of the key performance metrics for the business. If we start with the top left graph, we doubled the capacity we operated in Q3 compared to Q2, so it was 43% of 2019 levels compared to 22% of 2019 levels in Q2. Our planes were 17% fuller on average. It was a significant increase in volumes compared to the first six months of the year, albeit still below 2019 levels.
During Q3, a number of our key markets continued to be constrained by government travel restrictions, particularly the U.S., which was closed for European and U.K. travelers during the quarter, and Ireland, which didn't relax its ban on non-essential travel until the nineteenth of July. The U.K. removed this restriction at the end of Q2, but even then, there was a large number of countries included on the U.K.'s red list, and the stringent traffic light system remained in place, as did complex and expensive testing requirements. These restrictions were not overhauled before quarter three was ended. If you turn now to the top right and look at the operating result, in Q3, we more than halved the losses we reported in the previous quarters. The Q3 loss was EUR -485 million.
It's also worth noting that the EBITDA was broadly neutral for the quarter at -EUR 8 million. On the bottom left, touching on debt, gross debt has increased EUR 4.3 billion compared to the end of December 2020 to just under EUR 20 billion. This is due largely to the liquidity-raising actions we've mentioned in previous quarters, such as the IAG unsecured bond, the IAG convertible, and the EUR 2 billion UKEF loan facility for BA. Net debt has risen EUR 2.6 billion in the first nine months to EUR 12.4 billion. However, the increase compared to the position at the end of June was only an increase of EUR 250 million, and this was primarily due to the retranslation of US dollar debt.
In fact, the net cash flow from operating activities in the quarter was actually positive for the first time since the pandemic ensued, and it was positive to the tune of EUR 219 million. On the bottom right, turning to liquidity, you can see that the impact of the liquidity actions we have taken in the chart, which for September included the addition of the BA sustainability-linked EETC, which was for $785 million. Additionally, just a few days ago, we announced that British Airways had reached an agreement for a five-year credit facility, partially guaranteed by the U.K. Export Finance of GBP 1 billion, which has further bolstered liquidity. All of these actions, together with the positive evolution of our recent operating performance, has increased our total liquidity position to EUR 12.1 billion at the end of October.
That's the highest level of liquidity that we've ever had and represents 47% of 2019 revenues. If we now move to slide eight, we can look at the operating results. On this slide, we have provided two comparators, but I will primarily focus on V2Y, i.e., compared with Q3 2019, because I think it's more meaningful. I'll also reference the progression from the previous quarter, i.e., quarter 2, 2021. Compared to the same quarter in 2019, capacity was down 57%. In absolute terms, we've doubled the level of ASKs we operated in Q3 compared to Q2. This increased capacity drove the quarter-on-quarter revenue increase of EUR 1.3 billion. Despite the increase in capacity, it was good to see that passenger unit revenues were materially better in Q3, although still 29% below 2019 levels.
If we look at the cargo business, during Q3, air cargo industry volumes continued to exceed pre-pandemic levels, driven by the strong demand in North America and Europe. We saw a similar performance in Q2. Demand for air cargo continues to be boosted by disruption in supply chains, including port congestion and container shortages in sea freight. Cargo continued to play an important role in the passenger business again this quarter, allowing us to operate long-haul passenger routes to North America and Asia, thanks to cargo demand, which offset lower passenger load factors. Cargo revenue was up 51% compared to Q3 2019. The quarter's revenue of EUR 405 million represented a record third quarter. Whilst we operated a smaller number of cargo-only flights, the lower number was offset by additional co-sponsored passenger and cargo flights.
Turning to our other revenue, this increased significantly in the quarter, both compared to last year and the previous quarter, driven mainly by the very good performance of BA Holidays, as pent-up demand materialized into bookings, and by IAG Loyalty that has continued to be resilient throughout the pandemic. If we look at costs, the overall costs increased quarter-on-quarter as we ramped up capacity, as you would expect. Employee costs continued benefiting from the restructuring undertaken in 2020 and the different government job support schemes, although to a lesser extent than previous quarters as we brought back capacity. While the overall increase in fuel costs was driven by the higher capacity we operated in Q3, fuel unit costs were down 22% compared to Q2. This reduction was due to two factors.
Firstly, the level of profit realized on fuel hedging instruments matched against the Q3 fuel consumption, and two, there were far less cargo-only flights in Q3. Just by way of note, cargo-only flights contribute to the fuel bill, but not the number of ASKs, and hence have an adverse impact on fuel unit costs. Turning to supply costs, they increased 62% compared to the increase in capacity of 108%. The increase in depreciation was simply due to a number of aircraft deliveries. In terms of exceptional items, the exceptional credit in the quarter consisted of two items.
First, as in previous quarters, we had a fuel over-hedging credit of EUR 13 million because of increased fuel prices, and secondly, there was a reversal of EUR 20 million of impairment of four Vueling aircraft, which we are now going to need to operate to meet the additional Orly slots that Vueling has recently won. Turning now to Slide nine, we'll look at the performance of the airline operating companies. These numbers provide evidence for what we've seen on what we've said in previous results meeting, that there is a strong pent-up demand for air travel and people will fly when government restrictions are lifted. This additional flying clearly leads to an improved financial performance. This can be seen particularly for the performance of our Spanish airlines, with Iberia making an operating profit in the quarter and Vueling reaching break even.
If I look at each of the operating companies in turn, Iberia's performance swung from an operating loss of EUR 144 million in Q2 to an operating profit of EUR 20 million in Q3. Domestic demand in Spain remained strong during the summer following the cancellation of the state of alarm on May 9th. Likewise, non-Spanish resident, fully vaccinated U.S. citizens were allowed to enter Spain from May 21st following the relaxation of EU restrictions. Also, premium leisure has been strong, especially in the Spanish domestic and Central American long-haul markets. In terms of Vueling, the turnaround in Vueling's performance was also notable, moving from an operating loss of EUR 99 million in Q2 to break even in Q3.
During the summer, Vueling took advantage of relaxation in restrictions in the Spanish domestic market that began in May, despite the Delta variant outbreak that had a significant impact in July, by reorienting its network towards domestic flying. Indeed, Spanish domestic capacity for Vueling was at 112% of 2019 levels during Q3. Vueling was also able to adjust its costs to the level of activity, which further helped the results. The lifting of the restrictions impacting British Airways and Aer Lingus has been slower, and hence their recovery lags the Spanish airlines in the group. That said, both companies improved their performance. Whilst Aer Lingus has experienced the most onerous restrictions of all our home markets, the ban on non-essential travel in the Republic of Ireland was finally lifted on July 19th.
Aer Lingus was able to operate a capacity level that was 165% greater than Q2. As a result, we saw a material improvement in passenger revenue, and for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, it was significantly higher than the cargo revenue generated in the quarter. As a result, the pre-exceptional operating loss and margin improved compared to the previous quarter. In terms of British Airways, Q3 performance reflects the U.K. travel restrictions in effect during the quarter. The ban on non-essential travel was lifted in May, which had a beneficial impact on the quarter's performance. We also welcome the changes made by the U.K. government to the traffic light system, the reduction of the number of countries included in the red list, down from 47 to seven, and other significant changes.
These only came into effect from October onwards, and hence many of these easements were too late to have a positive impact on the third quarter results. We've highlighted the passenger revenue performance on the slide because not only was it up on Q2, but it was also ahead of the cargo number for the first time. To conclude, this slide shows that there is pent-up demand, and when travel restrictions allow us to satisfy that demand, our financial performance improves markedly. We now turn to liquidity on slide 10. The environment in Q3 remained uncertain due to new variants of the virus and many travel restrictions remaining in place, in our core markets. As a consequence, we continued focusing on strengthening our liquidity position.
We think the list of successful transactions on the right-hand side of the slide continues to demonstrate our good access to capital markets. The main transaction completed in Q3 was a $785 million EETC for British Airways, of which $100 million has been drawn. Subsequent to Q3, we finalized an additional one billion sterling permitted five-year credit facility for British Airways with U.K. Export Finance. I'd stress this facility remains undrawn. As I said earlier, our total liquidity position at the end of October is higher than it's ever been at EUR 12.1 billion. We now turn to look at debt levels, slide 11. As I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, net debt was broadly unchanged compared to the end of Q2 if we exclude the foreign exchange movements.
In terms of gross debt, the asset-related liabilities increased about EUR 170 million due to the addition of fleet two A320s from British Airways and some small other financing transactions. The cash balance was broadly flat quarter-over-quarter, a marked improvement from previous quarters. In fact, as mentioned earlier, the net cash flow from operating activities was positive in Q3 because EBITDA was broadly neutral and overall working capital movements were positive. We expect EBITDA to be significantly positive in Q4. It's also worth mentioning that CapEx in the nine months to September was only E UR 500 million, and our current estimate is that full-year CapEx for 2021 will be about EUR 1.3 billion .
This compares to our previous guidance of about EUR 1.7 billion and is primarily due to aircraft delays that we've brought it down by EUR 400 million. There is still potential for further aircraft delays, which would reduce the 2021 CapEx guidance further. Any delays to the original 2021 CapEx guidance will have the effect of increasing 2022 CapEx. We're not providing CapEx guidance for 2022 at this point, as there's still uncertainty around the delivery schedule and our capacity needs as the business recovers. As a reminder, we haven't canceled any deliveries during the pandemic, only reshifted, rescheduled the aircraft. Also, we are planning for a major restoration of our network for the summer next year.
You can assume that we would take delivery of as many aircraft as possible to satisfy the pent-up demand that we continue to see. We will also start to make some meaningful PD, PDP payments in 2022 as well. Moving on now to slide 12 and fuel. Looking ahead, we're no longer over-hedged. Therefore, we've included some information in this slide regarding our current hedging position for the next five quarters. Our current level of hedging is 70% of consumption for Q4, and we're estimating we've got about 40% coverage for next year. The scenario we've used is based on $700 per metric ton at a 1.17 cable rate.
As you can see, the blended prices range between $615-$680 per metric ton based on this scenario. Overall, just to conclude, as I said at the beginning of my slides, we seem to have passed through an inflection point in Q3. We've stopped burning cash and began to generate it. We expect the improvement to continue in Q4, where we expect EBITDA to improve and be significantly positive. I'll now hand back to Luis.
Thanks, Steve. Next, we have a few slides on developments at each operating company. As I said before, all the OpCo CEOs are on the call, so you are free to ask them questions on specific initiatives in the Q&A session. First, we'll start with Aer Lingus. Aer Lingus is focused on restoring its North Atlantic network to have its normal operation this winter with the lifting of the ban on entry to the U.S. from 8 of November and then going to over 90% next summer on routes from Ireland. It launched its Manchester subsidiary on twentieth of October with the inauguration of flights to Barbados. Services to New York and Orlando will begin in December, and a service to Boston is planned for next year.
The Shannon cabin crew base has been shut as part of its ongoing restructuring. Aer Lingus continues to negotiate new employee agreements for after Ireland's government furlough scheme ends in April 2022. A structural change agreement has been reached with the pilots, and talks are ongoing with other employees group. BA is also focused on restoring all of its North Atlantic network and almost all of its North Atlantic capacity by the third quarter of next year, as well as capitalizing on the strength of premium leisure currently. However, it will not be able to restore all of its long-haul network because of likely travel restrictions continuing for longer in the Asia Pacific region.
BA is also working on options to develop a competitive platform with a lower cost base for its short-haul operations at Gatwick for next summer. BA long-haul operation at Gatwick is not going to be affected in any case for this development. BA has agreement for a lower cost operation with its pilots, but it still requires agreement from other employee groups. The plan, as you know, is to retain the British Airways brand name at Gatwick. For the rest of BA, all employees on furlough have returned or are in the process of returning in order to prepare for a ramp-up of operations to next summer. Hiring of additional cabin and ground crew is also taking place in order to prepare for next summer. BA has sufficient pilots, although there will be a significant amount of retraining required.
Iberia continues to operate at much higher capacity levels than BA and Aer Lingus because of the fewer travel restrictions in the domestic EU and Latin American markets. Iberia is also flying more than most competitors in all regions that it serves. It has been successful at leveraging its Madrid hub to capture connected traffic to Latin America and domestic destinations from the rest of Europe. Iberia is now focused on restoring its North Atlantic network fully and 85% of its Latin American network by next summer. Both Iberia and Vueling have benefited from an effective ERTE force majeure government furlough scheme in Spain since the start of the pandemic. When the scheme ends in February 2022, Iberia plans to bring back employees from furlough in preparation for a ramp-up to around 90% of 2019 capacity by the summer. Vueling.
Vueling is also making use of the ERTE furlough scheme until next February in preparation for a full operation this summer. Most of Vueling's recent growth has been in the domestic market, but recovery is now switching to the rest of Europe from this winter. Vueling's main focus currently is on expanding its Paris Orly base by around 50%, starting this week. As you know, as part of the remedies for receiving a state aid, Air France had to release 18 daily peak times slots at the airport. Vueling made the most attractive proposal, as assessed by the European Commission. As a result, Vueling increase its relevance at Orly by becoming the number two operator after Air France and ahead of easyJet and Transavia.
Vueling is increasing the size of the Orly operation from nine to 13 aircraft, of which eight will be based at Orly. The route network from Orly is being expanded from 22 routes previously, mainly to Spain and Italy, to 54 routes, including 32 new destinations throughout Europe, and thus increasing Vueling's European presence. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Marco and the team at Vueling for winning the Best European Low Cost Airline Skytrax award in September for the first time. IAG Loyalty continues to be profitable and cash generative, and it has been throughout the pandemic. September was its best ever month for Avios collections by customers through non-airline partners, and the relaunch of BA's co-branded American Express card has attracted 17% more customers than before the pandemic.
Vueling's co-branded card with CaixaBank in Spain was also launched successfully, and we have a new partnership with BP in the U.K. We continue to see more and more evidence of pent-up demand when travel restrictions are lifted. We have been showing this booking chart in every quarter since early in the pandemic. This one is from 31st of October. They indicate a significant increase in bookings since we last presented this slide as of 25th of July. As you can see, long-haul bookings have seen the most significant increase, rising from around 50% of 2019 levels in July to over 90% in the last few weeks.
Long-haul strength reflects multiple announcements of the loosening of travel restrictions, including the expansion of the U.K.'s green list of countries in June, the EU relaxing restrictions for U.S. travelers in July, simplification of the U.K. traffic light system, the U.K.'s allowance of fully vaccinating U.S. travelers in September, the U.S. relaxation announcement in September, and the U.K.'s elimination of red countries and hotel quarantine in October. Bookings on North American routes were almost at 100% of 2019 levels last week, and bookings on Latin American and Caribbean routes were well over 100%. Long-haul strength is being driven not only by North American travel, but also by winter sun destinations and newly reopening large markets such as Argentina, India, and South Africa, which are large markets for leisure and VFR demand, especially in the winter.
International short-haul has also strengthened since July, rising from 50% - 70% of 2019 levels. Spanish domestic bookings intakes have continued strongly, rising to well over 100% of 2019 levels in August and currently running at around 90%. Overall, intakes are currently averaging 80% of 2019 levels compared to 60% in July. As we can see in the slide 20, we continue to be confident about the outlook for long-haul revenue, especially as travel restrictions start to be relaxed around the world. Long-haul has been the main contributor to passenger revenue for BA and Iberia, despite travel restrictions in place. For each airline, this chart shows the revenue contribution from North America, other long-haul and short-haul by month since July 2020.
Long-haul accounted for around 60% of passenger revenue in the third quarter for both BA and Iberia, including 30% for BA and 10% for Iberia on North American routes. Short-haul revenue for both airlines contributed 40% of the total in the third quarter. As we saw in the winter months of the last year and earlier this year, long-haul is an even more important contributor in the winter, especially for BA, because of leisure travelers seeking for winter sun. VFR traffic on long-haul routes such as to Latin America, India, and West Africa has also proven more resilient in winter months. These charts show revenue up to September 2021. In other words, before the opening up of the U.S. in November and some Latin American markets, such as Argentina in October.
I would expect total long-haul contribution to revenue, and therefore profitability, to become even more important as we move to the winter months and as other long-haul markets reopen, such as South Africa. The other advantages of long-haul over short-haul are significant cargo revenue, as Steve explained before, and premium revenue, especially premium leisure. In the next slide, you have some detail of our premium revenue performance. This slide shows premium leisure and premium business revenue as a proportion of 2019 levels for BA and Iberia by month since April 2020. By September, BA's premium leisure revenue had reached over 40% of its 2019 level, while Iberia has reached 80%. Even though not on the slide, we now have an update for October that shows BA's premium leisure revenue increasing further to 47%.
Premium leisure is currently exceeding 100% of the 2019 level for BA on Caribbean routes and for Iberia on domestic routes, the two best performing route areas. European and Central American routes were also quite strong from premium leisure. Premium leisure on North American routes have only reached 30% for both airlines, but I will expect this proportion to grow substantially after the reopening of Canada in September and when the US reopens on 8th of November. Premium business revenue show early signs of recovery in the third quarter, rising from almost nothing to 15% of pre-pandemic levels for BA and to 40% for Iberia by September.
Our corporate bookings intake have continued to increase since the end of the quarter, and we expect this to increase meaningfully as offices reopen and government restrictions are relaxed, especially the U.S., from next week. The banking and the finance sector have been particularly strong recently, especially with the reopen of the U.S. Next slide, as we have already mentioned, our operating companies are focused on restoring a significant proportion of their pre-pandemic route networks by next summer. For the group as a whole, the most important route network is to North America, which represented around 30% of total route capacity before the pandemic. We are currently planning to restore around 100% of North American capacity by the third quarter, compared to around 60% this winter and only 30% in the recent third quarter.
The number of routes to be operated to North America will increase from 23 in the third quarter to 49 this winter and 60 next summer. The same number as in summer 2019. Aer Lingus will operate more than 100% of 2019 levels, but this reflects also the new Manchester base. The network from Ireland will be around 93% of 2019 levels by next summer. Iberia will operate 105% of 2019 capacity because of the introduction of new routes to Dallas and Washington, D.C. BA will operate 96% of 2019 capacity. They will not arrive to 100%, mainly because of the absence of some routes from Gatwick.
About the planned capacity for the fourth quarter this year, we are planning on a little capacity of around 60% of 2019 levels. In terms of absolute ASKs, the level of capacity in the fourth quarter will be more than 20% higher than the ASKs in the third quarter. The largest step-up in capacity will be in December, where we plan to operate 70% of the pre-pandemic levels. By next summer, the group will be operating as much as 90% of normal capacity, although this for sure will be subject to further planning, training, and hiring of crews. We will provide an update of our 2022 capacity plans at the full year results at the end of February. Now the outlook.
We are experiencing a clear recovery in demand as travel restrictions have been removed. It has started with fewer restrictions, testing and quarantine requirements on domestic and short-haul routes in the summer, plus selected long-haul routes such as the Caribbean. On Monday, 8 of November, the U.S. will finally reopen to EU, U.K., and other nationals, as long as they are fully vaccinated and have a lateral flow test within three days of departure. This will be a very important day for IAG, given our position as the largest airline group operating on the North Atlantic. It's not just the U.S. and Canada being important markets that are reopening. Other large markets that are reopening include Argentina and Brazil, which are important to Iberia, and India, South Africa and Singapore, which are important to British Airways.
Most long-haul markets in Asia Pacific are likely to take longer to reopen due to stricter quarantine requirements. Our focus on restoring our networks to meet significant pent-up demand. We plan to operate around 60% of normal capacity in the fourth quarter, with Iberia and Vueling operating at around 75%, BA at 55%, and Aer Lingus at 40%. We still expect to be loss-making in the fourth quarter, but at a lesser rate than in the third quarter, and we expect to be EBITDA positive. Consequently, we expect to report a pre-exceptional operating loss of approximately EUR 3 billion for the full year. For the next year, we are very confident we can return to profitability based on our current plans and assuming there are no further negative developments in relation to COVID and travel restrictions.
Finally, the conclusions. First of all, we continue to lead the aviation industry's effort to make flying sustainable. Even though we are not satisfied making a loss in the third quarter, it was a significant improvement on previous quarter, and as Steve said before, an inflection point. Operating cash flow in the quarter was positive for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. Liquidity of EUR 12.1 billion pro forma as of the end of October is stronger than ever. The evidence of a strong pent-up demand continues every time travel restrictions are relaxed, the latest being on U.K. and U.S. routes, two of the group's largest markets in which we are only just starting to reopen.
As a result, we are planning to increase capacity to as much as 90% by next summer, with the North Atlantic as much as 100%. At the same time as restoring our route networks and capacity, we are taking multiple initiatives to transform our business so that we can emerge from COVID stronger and more competitive than pre-pandemic. Now we are ready for the Q&A.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone. To withdraw your question, press the pound hash key. To ensure everyone has the opportunity to ask a question today, please limit yourselves to just two questions. Please also ensure that you are close to your microphone and not on loudspeaker. This will help with ensuring that your audio is clear and your question is understood. Thank you. Your first question today comes from the line of Savi Syth from Raymond James. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Hey, good morning, everyone. Steve, I echo Luis' comments. Disappointed to see you go, but best wishes there. Just on the first kinda question around, I appreciate the color around the North Atlantic kinda capacity restoration. Could you provide kind of a similar view on your short-haul network? I'm a little surprised that LATAM is only getting to 85%, and I wonder if that's kind of related to maybe kind of your view on South America. Then for my second question, just as it, you know, as you commented that you could maybe restore as much as 90% by next summer, is it fair to assume we should think of kinda getting to 2019 non-fuel unit cost by then? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. I think as we explained before the U.S. reopening is working very well and I think we are very optimistic. New bookings rates have increased by 167% since the announcement. New bookings on North Atlantic are now close to 100% of the bookings that we had in 2019. Having said that, as you say, we have other important markets for us. Latin America, we still have some restrictions there, but what we see also is, where we can fly, there is a lot of pent-up demand. VFR traffic is working very well. As soon as we don't have more restrictions, we will put more capacity there.
It's important how the competition is performing there. You know that LATAM and Avianca, and they are in Chapter 11, and also the situation of other competitors is weak. Iberia, I think they are doing very well trying to capture market share in these circumstances. About the short haul, I think we are again coming back to the network that we had in 2019. Vueling is doing an extraordinary job there competing with the other low-cost carriers. Also taking all the opportunities that they have, and we explained before the Orly opportunities where Vueling is going to be the second most important operator.
We are very optimistic, because what we see is, in all the markets we have the right vehicles, and we have the right cost structure, to compete, and even to be a stronger capturing market share.
Just picking up on the unit cost question. Albeit we're not giving capacity guidance for 2022, as we say, you know, we've got the ability to get up to 100% on the North Atlantic next year. Overall for the business, we won't be at the same level of capacity as we were in 2019 next year, partly due to the amount of aircraft we have, and partly due to the fact that some of the regions of the world will still need to undergo further recovery. If I look at Asia Pacific, for example, it's one of the regions that's still lagging behind in terms of travel restrictions and getting on top of the virus and the way it's developing.
I wouldn't expect us to be back at fuel unit cost or non-fuel unit cost performance that we saw in 2019 next year. But I think the thing for us that's very exciting is the North Atlantic booking levels are very strong, and we can get to 100% of capacity next year. Clearly that market's been a key driver of our profitability in the past.
Helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Stephen Furlong from Davy Research. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah. Good morning. Just two questions from me. Air Europa, you might just obviously were waiting on the EU decision on the 4 of January, but you might just reiterate your the strategic rationale for that business. Presumably it still holds from when you looked at it first in 2019. The second question, very helpful in terms of the transatlantic, that you'd be back to circa 100% of 2019 levels. Can you just have a talk about where you see the competitor set for next summer? Would you expect that to be back broadly to 2019 levels or not? Thank you very much.
Okay. At Air Europa, as you know, we submitted a remedy package to the commission, and they are analyzing right now. I think we are in the middle of a conversation with three parties, the Spanish government and Globalia, the owner of Air Europa, and also the competition authorities. We always said that if we can find a place that is good for all of us, we will do the deal, and if not, we don't do the deal. That's as we have done in other occasions when we had deals that we consider didn't make sense for us. To be honest, today I am less optimistic as I was before.
We are working hard and Iberia people also, they are trying to close this agreement because I think it has an important strategic value for the group and not only for the group, for Madrid hub. If Spain and Madrid wants to have a hub to compete with the strongest hubs in Europe, a consolidation is needed. That's the reason I think this operation is critical also to develop Madrid hub and to fly not only to South America, but to have a 360-degree hub. About the transatlantic, I think not all the airlines are going to back to 90%-100% of the capacity that they have in 2019.
Several airlines have reduced their capacity or they left the market. I think it's unlikely they will come back near where they were in 2019, like Norwegian or Virgin Atlantic. I think we are going to have an opportunity there. Also high fuel prices usually bring discipline to the industry about pricing and capacity, but I am sure that Sean, you can give more color about this.
Yeah. I think if you look at the London market in particular, you know, Norwegian were about 8% of the market and, you know, that capacity won't be reinstated fully. I think if you look at generally, the shape over summer that we see in published schedules, it shows capacity contracting over next summer. Albeit I think that will scale as you get into Q3, but certainly Q2, Q3, I think you see less premium and non-premium seats at the minute based on what people have published in and out of the London market.
Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Alex Irving from Bernstein. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi. Good morning, gentlemen. First, you mentioned today you started generating cash, operating cash flow again in Q3. In that context, just on working capital movements into the recovery, please.
Obviously, you've had a working capital inflow since the start of 2020. How much risk is there to that reversing as the environment returns to normal? Is there anything that would indicate DPOs and DSOs as being materially different pre and post-crisis? Then second on Vueling, just kind of looking at your route map here when you're expanding the size of Orly, a lot of the new routes are into Northern Europe, so U.K., Germany, Nordics. Does this signal the start of a network extension further into Europe, or are you thinking about Vueling's future growth as more focused principally on routes kind of in and out of Spain and the markets you've been in historically? Thank you.
On the first question on the working capital. No, I'm not expecting significant working capital reversals. We've seen in Q3 the business starting to ramp up, and so you will have seen trade receivables grow, trade payables grow, et c. No, I'm not expecting that to reverse. Clearly, one of the benefits of the airline industry is as bookings start to grow, you bring cash into the business ahead of the actual departures. No, I wouldn't expect a sort of headwind on working capital. Furthermore, as I mentioned on the presentation, you know, we're no longer overhedged. The outflow due to the sort of overhedge position is also pretty much over now, at the end of Q3 as well, which will be helpful.
No, I see the positive cash generation continuing into 2022.
On the second question, Marco, you can-
Yeah, in terms of the Vueling expansion in Orly, that responds specifically to the fact that Orly was a market that was with a slot constraint, limiting the number of destinations it was able to offer. The opportunity of having these slots open up the opportunity for us to serve destinations that in fact are not served by anybody, but they have significant potential. Therefore, we will find the opportunity for us to serve them as alone carriers. That doesn't respond therefore with the view that is a general expansion of Vueling. It's more specifically related to the Orly opportunity of these 18 slots. Now, that said, it's true that also through the pandemic, we spotted similar opportunities in the north of Europe, in particular in the areas where Norwegian was withdrawing.
Like for instance, the Danish flows to Spain. There are a number of opportunities that are emerging in this COVID context, but that are, yes, also pushing and expanding the network of Vueling beyond the original footprint. We just do it as opportunities emerge.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of James Hollins from Exane BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
[Buenas.] Two for me. First on staff levels. It looks like you've maintained around 50-51,000 through this year. Just wondering, you know, against the 66,000-ish you had before COVID, what's the right number as you ramp up closer to 90%, maybe 100%, the latter end of next year? Maybe just run us through a number if you can, as well as what recruiting needs to be done, and actually the cost of U.K. furlough ending. That was one question. The second's on Heathrow charges. Just wondering what the next steps were on that to try to limit the impact of the CAA proposals. Is the £29.50 or 34% increase for 2022 now locked in, or is that still negotiable? Thank you.
Think about the staff levels, as I said, in my presentation, we will need to hire people for next summer. In the case of VA, Sean has launched a process to hire a cabin crew. Maybe, Sean, you can explain more about that, where we are.
We're looking to rebuild both ground and cabin crew at British Airways. We're looking at sort of between, you know, 4,000-5,000 more people coming in. That's the process that we've kicked off already, and that supports the expansion that we plan. That process is ongoing. In terms of Heathrow, do you want me-
Yeah. You can answer it.
Yeah. In terms of Heathrow, I think the 29.50 was an interim sort of position that the CAA published that has not been adopted yet. You know, we wouldn't support that position because you're looking at an airport that is already 44% higher than most of its European peers. Even with that CAA position, you know, increasing charges by another 54% we think doesn't make sense, and it doesn't stack up when you look at the building blocks that would shape an appropriate price point through the consultation. I think what we'll carry on is the H7 consultation process. Our view is if you look at the H7 process and look at the way that should take shape, the prices should definitely not go up next year.
that if you look at both the volumes, the OpEx, the revenues, and the cost of capital, there's a very strong case that prices should fall over the regulatory period. That's the case that we will continue to make. But that price point hasn't been published or adopted yet.
Okay. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Muneeba Kayani from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning. First question is around kind of what sort of fares are you seeing in your bookings right now across long-haul, short-haul, international, and domestic? We've heard from some of the LCCs that fares are strong during holiday periods and then drop off during off-peak. Clearly, there's less seasonality for your business. If you could talk about what sort of fares you're seeing on your current bookings.
Secondly, going back to the question earlier on transatlantic and competition next year. What have you seen so far with JetBlue starting flying? Just generally, how are you thinking about competition from kind of narrow body on transatlantic as the demand returns? Thank you.
About the first question about the bookings and how do we see the yield. If we see the evolution in the last week of the booking intakes, we see that in North America we are close to 100% if we compare to 2019. LACAR, we are close to 120%. The problem, the main problem is the rest of the world, because as I said before, we still have some restrictions mainly to fly to Asia. Rest of the world is around 70%. On average, we are close to 90% of the bookings that we had in 2019.
As you have seen in the presentation, passenger revenue in the third quarter declined 10% versus third quarter of 2019. Load factor also declined by -18%. The output of that is the passenger revenue per ASK declined by 29%. What we are seeing now is that we are having an improvement and the load factor is improving, and we consider that we are going to have more possibilities in some way to do the traditional revenue management. About the second question, JetBlue. As I said before, I think we are going to have an opportunity in the North Atlantic because some competitors are going to be weaker.
It's true that we have, for example, JetBlue with a new model, but we have that model in the group. At Aer Lingus, you know, that they have started flying from Manchester, also with an A321LR. Iberia also, they will fly in the future. When we see the size of the operation of JetBlue, to be honest, we consider that is not going to be a threat for us, but maybe Sean you can expand on that.
Yeah. I think, you know, if you look at JetBlue coming into the market, it's four services using A321LRs. There are about 135 seats on each plane. I think when you look at it in the broader context of the market next year, you still see capacity contraction in and out of London, both in premium seats and non-premium seats. So against that context, I think, at a macro level, it's not something that we see as being a big variable in the revenue or the unit revenue development. You know, it's kind of out of Boston and out of JFK, we think it'll primarily serve the U.S. point of sale, with that A320-A321LR operation.
Adding to the point on yields. What we are seeing is, you know, very strong booking levels. You know, we've talked about the current intakes for North America are pretty much 100% levels that we saw for 2019, where we're also seeing in other regions such as LACAR, Latin America at 117%. Given the strong level of booking intakes at the moment and the fact that I think there will be some degree of capacity constraint next summer, I think there will be sort of strong pricing opportunities for next year. We are seeing that in some of the held RASK positions that we have already. We do expect there to be, you know, a positive development on RASK looking forward.
Thank you.
Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Neil Glynn from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Well, good morning, everybody. I'll also ask too, please. Steve, you've actually just touched on the first question I was gonna ask there, possibly. I was just interested in your view to what extent is there a risk that some parts of the transatlantic market prioritize cash flow contribution by maximizing volume next summer, given obviously the cash starvation over the last eighteen months or so? Does the early yield management that you're observing across the market suggest that isn't a material risk? I just know that obviously you guys are focusing on full transatlantic capacity restoration. United's obviously planning a record schedule, and I'm sure others may well follow similarly from a capacity perspective.
Then the second question on the Spanish labor situation, I guess going back to the post GFC era, we had a multiyear standoff between Iberia and its pilots in particular, which resulted in very heavy capacity cuts until a deal was ultimately agreed after Vueling was purchased. With the ERTE running until February, how do you think about the risk of something comparable arising again? How do you avoid that and secure a future labor deal pretty soon after that ERTE ends? Thank you.
On the first question, I think it's an interesting point. I think one of the things we're trying to manage very carefully in terms of our inventory is to not sell all of it too quickly in terms of you know seeing how the pricing develops. The other thing that sort of is different for IAG than most of the North Atlantic operators is the amount of premium mix that we have over the North Atlantic. I'm sure Sean can talk to this more eloquently than I, but I think that's one of the reasons why I would expect yields to hold up better and recover better because of our strong premium mix. Sean, I don't know whether you-
I think, look, it's early stages in terms of the amount of revenue held on the flights. At the minute, we're seeing revenue held ahead of capacity on the North Atlantic over the summer. I think that's driven by, you know, strong pent-up demand. Also what we are seeing is premium leisure intakes have been, you know, ahead of 2019 over the last three weeks since the North Atlantic opened up. That, that's the booking trend, and that's very encouraging. We're seeing corporates book as well, that corporate trend begins to increase week-on-week. You know, we're looking at both the U.K. and the U.S. end of the North Atlantic routes. We see the bookings increase from the corporate segment. What's interesting about the corporate segment is they're booking more into premium cabins than non-premium.
In fact, the mix of premium travel that corporates are booking is higher than it was in 2019. I think all of those three trends are encouraging about one, the level of pent-up demand, and two, I think, the early evolution of the RASK over summer in both premium and non-premium is encouraging.
I think about the second question about the situation in Spain, Iberia. Maybe Javier, you can explain. Yeah.
Yes, sure. Thank you, Luis. Well, at the end of the day, just to give a bit of context on the furlough scheme and the staff evolution. First of all, we need to acknowledge that when the pandemic started, and Iberia in particular, we had, like, 1,600 people on temporary contracts. So that was another lever that we used to adapt our capacity. Of course, we needed to put the rest of the people under the furlough scheme.
This just as a context because as Luis was saying before, what we are expecting is to recover near to 90% of our capacity over summer and the current furlough scheme, force majeure, ends at the end of February. From February onwards, our base plan is actually to start recovering the capacity and to start to recover the people from the furlough scheme. That's the base plan. If, as you were suggesting, there is for whatever reason I don't know, a delay or something like that, we need to also remember that the furlough scheme force majeure is something that was put in place by the government for the pandemic.
There is a furlough scheme for production needs or for economic needs that we can also put in place. It's relatively easy to put that mechanism in place. You need to have an agreement with the unions. We have had a continuous dialogue with the unions. In the case the force majeure scheme is not valid anymore, and for whatever reason, we need to adjust our capacity and our staff further, we will use that other furlough scheme that is available under the Spanish labor law.
Thanks, Javier. I guess the assumption underlying the question was partially that you'll look towards perhaps replicating what's being achieved at British Airways on unit labor cost resets lower. Maybe that isn't quite your top ambition.
Well, at the end of the day, if we think about it, the starting point for Iberia was pretty good after the seven years and after the restructuring took place back in 2013 and 2014. Over the course of this period, also as Luis has said, we have been also in agreement with the unions taking some specific measures. We understand that by the end of the pandemic, we will have a unit cost also for staff that will be slightly better than it was before.
Great. Thank you, all.
That's important, Javier, because I think maybe we need to explain a little bit better because the situation of the airlines was different at the beginning of the pandemic. I think what we needed to do in the different places also because we have different support schemes from the government, we needed to do different things. In the case of Iberia, during the last seven years, they have reduced the labor cost around 35%. They arrived to this crisis with new collective bargaining agreements and with a competitive cost base.
It's true that they need to do more because we are going to have the uncertainty and the pressure of the yields in the future, mainly linked to the corporate traffic. In this period, Iberia they have reduced the size in 2,400 people. It's a 13% headcount reduction. I think in Vueling reduced around 300 people. I think all of the different operating companies they have done different things to be more competitive at the end of this crisis.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Jarrod Castle from UBS. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. I think, Steve, you mentioned positive cash flow continuing. You've got over EUR 12 billion now of liquidity, and assuming you've reached or close to peak debt levels, just in terms of de-gearing profile, you happy to do this now through internally generated funds, or you wanna de-gear quicker through maybe a hybrid or equity issuance at some point? And then, just, secondly, you know, obviously you've got Aer Lingus flying the A321LR at Manchester. I mean, are you thinking any differently now about potential MAX orders further down the line? Thanks.
Okay. Hi, Jarrod. Thanks. In terms of equity issuances, no plans for that at the moment. As you rightly say, the liquidity is very, very strong at the moment, which puts us in a good place. It's gonna be interesting to see how fast the recovery is during 2022. What we're seeing at the moment is it does seem to be accelerating, which is encouraging. Clearly, you know, when we went into the pandemic, our 2019 EBITDAL was EUR 5.5 billion. We're a heavily cash generative business, and I expect us to return to being heavily cash generative. There is the ability to naturally de-lever. The speed of recovery is interesting. If you look at our debt maturity profile, there's no significant spikes.
I think there's a big increase in 2026, but that's quite a way away. Then the other question or factor that you sort of throw into the pot when you're answering that question is, how necessary is it for you to get to an investment-grade credit rating? As I've mentioned on previous calls, BA didn't get to investment grade till 2016, IAG not till 2019. Quite frankly, you know, we've shown this throughout the pandemic, we can finance the business in terms of aircraft deliveries even through the pandemic. We'd be able to finance aircraft deliveries through asset-backed financing. No plans for an equity issuance at the moment. It'll be interesting to see how fast the business recovers.
I think we're in a very strong position given our liquidity.
The second one was about the MAX orders.
In terms of the MAX orders, you know, clearly we took the letter of intent out with Boeing mid-2019. Seems a long time ago now. Clearly, we will, as we look out into the sort of 2024, 2025s, you know, we are gonna need some additional short-haul aircraft. We think it's important to have strong competition between Airbus and Boeing, and we think the MAX is a very good aircraft. You know, clearly it's one of the things in our sights as we go through processes to determine what's the right fleet composition going forward.
Okay. Thanks very much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Carolina Dores from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Hi, good morning. Two quick questions. I think in BA reaching 90% of capacity in the summer, I guess, if you could update on your thoughts on the Gatwick strategy on short-haul. And specifically on short-haul, your thoughts on transatlantic was super helpful. I guess, how do you see capacity and competition on inter-European travel into summer 2022? Thank you.
Okay. About Gatwick. In Gatwick, what is clear is that we cannot continue with the model that we had in the past, because in the last 10 years, only in one of them we made a profit. We need a different model because also competition is going to be tough. BA, Sean, is trying to reach an agreement to develop an efficient platform there and to create a new AOC with the BA brand. Sean can explain now better than me, but they have reached an agreement with the pilots, and they have supported the agreement, and now they are closing the agreement with the cabin crew, and you will continue.
Yeah. I think we're close to finalizing our crewing agreements with cabin crew. We're working on our ground staff, and also we're in the final stages of negotiation with Gatwick Airport. I think that will come to a conclusion in the coming weeks. As Luis said, I think what we want and need at Gatwick is a flexible operation and a competitive cost base to compete with in primarily a point-to-point leisure market. We will have a platform that will enable us to do that going forward, and that would lead to restoration of services at Gatwick, and to you know a better competitive platform, if we conclude in the coming weeks.
About the short-haul landscape, if we can develop this new company in Gatwick, I am sure we will have there the profitability levels that we have in other low costs in the group. For example, Iberia Express, you know that they are doing an extraordinary job in Madrid. Also, Vueling. You can explain better than me, Marco, but they are coming back, as I said before, to the capacity that we had in 2019. They have the right cost structure, and they are competing well with even the ultra low cost carriers. Marco, you can explain.
The scenario that we see for 2022 is one where there are-
Some operators that are increasing and developing, but others that are coming back. That generates a number of opportunities that we're really targeting at the moment. I mentioned the one of Orly, of course, but also in Northern Europe, also I mentioned the one related to Norwegian. I think that the total industry capacity at the moment, if we look at the preliminary indicators that we have, might be close to what it was in 2019, but with a very significant shift between operators that are going to gain ground and others that are going to reduce.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Jaime Rowbotham from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Morning, everyone. I have four, I'm afraid. I'll try and go quickly. Steve, no one can accuse you of leaving the group underfunded. EUR 12.1 billion of liquidity is an awfully big number. With that in mind, what was the specific rationale behind taking the additional GBP 1 billion UKEF facility at BA, please? Just interested in how and why that came about. Second, when you return to 100% capacity on the transatlantic, will the mix of the offering be a bit different in terms of cabin class due to fleet and configuration changes? Third, good to see Vueling back to break even. Obviously, however, competitors Transavia Eurowings were quite profitable in Q3. Are there any aspects of the Vueling recovery that prevent it keeping up in this particular quarter?
Finally, it was just the answer to Savi's question on non-fuel unit costs that I found interesting. I appreciate you won't be back to full utilization or full productivity next year, but does not some of the cost restructuring you've done, in particular at BA, give you a fighting chance of a return to close to pre-crisis levels? Thanks very much.
Maybe if I take the first and the last, and then, I'll leave Luis to allocate the other two. In terms of, firstly, thank you. I'm not leaving the group underfunded. I'm pleased to hear that. So thank you. What was the rationale for it? You know, clearly with these kinds of transactions, you know, they take quite a longer time. They have a quite long gestation period. If you recall, throughout the summer, there was a lot of concern and worry about new variants and how the variants were developing. Also it wasn't clear how quickly the travel restrictions were gonna be lifted.
As I said in my presentation earlier, you know, most of the big removals of the travel restrictions haven't happened in Q3, they've happened sort of effective in Q4. Because of those dynamics and those uncertainties, I think it was right to put more liquidity in place. Although, you know, we're in a very sort of positive mindset now, we think the business is accelerating, and we can see booking levels good, and we can see real momentum, you know, we also have to plan and be cautious of the potential downside. If there's some new twist with the virus, et cetera, I'd rather be sitting there with more liquidity than be under-funded.
You know, clearly, we have the opportunity to review the situation maybe in the summer of next year and decide what we want to do. The benefit, if I pick on the UKEF transaction, the benefit of that transaction is we can terminate that at any point at no charge. If we come to the conclusion that we don't need it in the future and we don't need that level of liquidity, we have the option of terminating it. I think for all of those reasons, it gives us good protection in a downside scenario, and you know, we've got the flexibility to remove it if we don't need it.
In terms of non-fuel unit costs, you know, as you rightly say, there's a lot of good work that's been done and is being done to improve the cost base. Clearly that will come through, particularly as we start to ramp up capacity. I think at the heart of your question is, you know, just how much capacity will we overall be flying in 2022? Clearly, we're not guiding that at the moment. Clearly, you know, we're on a road to improve our non-fuel unit costs. We've touched on some of the headwinds with regards to the likes of some of the airport charges, but there's a lot of transformation work being done at the same time.
I think it would be premature for us, particularly 'cause we don't know what the capacity will be for next year yet, to try and give a sort of predictor as what we think non-fuel unit cost performance will be next year.
Okay. About your question about the fleet. I would say that the early retirement of the BA 747s of BA. They had the most premium seats. Because of that, we have a reduction in long-haul premium seats by 33% if we compare to the -22% that we are going to reduce in the long-haul non-premium seats. The A350-1000 on the 777-300 that they are going to replace the 747 have around 25%-30% fewer premium seats. I think IAG will have around 15% fewer long-haul premium class seats, and I think that's going to be consistent with the expected decline in business traffic.
In any case, what we want to have is the flexibility.
To flex up in case we see that the corporate demand comes stronger. Also one important thing that we always say and explain is that the profitability of the premium economy class in some situations is even better than the profitability of the business class. Maybe, Sean Doyle, if you want those parts.
Yeah. I think you're gonna see, you know, three developments in the configurations of our long-haul aircraft. One is a chunk of the reduction that you will see in premium seats will come from the rationalization of first-class. You'll have more planes with eight first-class cabins than 14, and some planes actually won't have first-class because there's a number of markets that don't have the level of demand for that product. That in turn will actually fund, I think, the redevelopment of the business class cabin through the implementation of the Club World suite, which is a very high standard product. We will be taking, you know, less of a reduction in Club World seats than we will in first-class. At the same time, you'll see an increase in premium economy configurations on board all our aircraft.
We'll be aiming for, you know, cabin configurations of over 40 compared to maybe, you know, 28-30 previously. That's important because one, it's very profitable in terms of profit per square foot occupied. Two, it's a very high growth opportunity for us in terms of the premium leisure market. I think the configurations work well considering the shift in demand. We have flexibility from 2024, 2025 onwards in terms of how we configure future deliveries, and that gives us an opportunity to think about the way, you know, premium leisure corporate and other trends that are emerging and make some calls then.
Maybe to comment on the weighting element in terms of profitability. I think looking at the weighting results, you have to consider there are two very different components there. It's the domestic traffic and it's the international traffic. Clearly, domestic traffic has been the first one to recuperate and has given very, very strong results throughout the recuperation, as Steve mentioned, as from the ninth of May, when the state of alarm was lifted. We could have decided basically to just focus on the domestic, and certainly that would have led to stronger results.
Nevertheless, we saw through crisis opportunities that led, for instance, to the 40 Ks or the 42 new routes that we opened in international markets that were related to the fact that our competitors were giving us space or leaving space in the market. Of course, that is an investment, and clearly there are restrictions that we have lived through during the summer in international markets, in particular, if you look at the U.K. or Italy, have impacted that. When you compare operators, you need also to consider what is the weight of these two different businesses, the domestic or the international. Consider that for weighting 55% of our Q3 capacity was international.
It's an investment that we made because we believe that we have the right cost structure to pursue that in the long run when these markets will completely open up and recuperate.
Very helpful answers. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Lobbenberg from HSBC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Oh, hi there. Can I ask back on the new plan for Gatwick and on the issue of timing, really? I mean, I appreciate that bookings are coming much, much later than they normally do, but at what stage do you start getting anxious about, you know, how long it's gonna take to set up a completely new AOC and get it out in the market for summer 2022? You know, partly that question revolves or gets linked to what on earth is gonna happen with the slot rules for summer 2022 in the U.K. I mean, how soon do you need to get this set up before you're kind of terrified about putting your slots at risk or indeed the commercial viability of it if it's too late? A second question, you know, somewhat simple really.
You, and indeed all your peers are enthusing about the strength of booking trends at the moment. Just, you know, for a bit of color maybe, you know, to what extent, what are the booked load factors at the moment for the next couple of quarters? Thanks.
Okay. I think that, Sean, you can answer the first-
Yeah. On Gatwick, look, I think we'd be looking to publish our commercial schedule for summer, you know, when you get towards the end of November. That's the time when people finalize slots, and that's the time when you really begin to go on sale for the promotional periods over Christmas. That's the timeline we're aiming for. You know, we have been working a number of streams in parallel alongside our negotiations, so we're confident that we will have a robust plan to get ready for next summer.
Okay. I think about the load factors that you say, what we see now is the outbound load factors on November 8 around 100% of most of the routes. Premium load factors for November, December are building very strong and are ahead of the ones that we had in 2019. For summer 2022, travel is led mainly by U.K. point of sale. We see a strong demand for leisure destinations. I don't know, Sean, you want to add anything else also about that?
Yeah. I think, you know, if you look even at December now, North Atlantic load factors are very strong and we see revenue, you know, begin to converge more in line with capacity, which is very different to what we've seen in previous, sort of months during COVID. If we look ahead at, you know, premium intake, I spoke about the RASK position being favorable looking forward. I think the premium cabins, both premium leisure and corporate, is very encouraging in terms of near term trends relative to capacity. We think that that begins to gain further momentum as we open up on the 8 of November.
I spoke earlier about the fact that corporates are booking more in premium than non-premium as well, which is a better mix than we saw in 2019. Every week we see that trend continue.
Thanks. I've got to say that wasn't really the question I was groping for. I was trying to understand, you've got this positive evidence which you reiterated, and thank you. You know, on how much evidence is that? That's kind of what I was groping for. How many... You know, the booked load factor is X%, it's Y% for Q4, it's X% for Q1. That's kind of what I was asking.
Okay. That we are not providing that information so.
Evidently. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now take our final question, and the final question comes from the line of Alex Paterson from Peel Hunt. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Morning, everyone. Can I ask two questions and a reminder, please? Firstly, the emphasis on leisure is a bit greater than it has been before, and business a little bit less. Do you think you need to do anything on the holiday side there to help stimulate demand for leisure or, you know, would you just carry on as you have done? And then the second question is, in the U.K., the CAA is looking at use of clients' or passenger funds and whether that should go into escrow and so on. Do you know when that's likely to conclude? And if it did conclude in that way, would there be any changes that you needed to make? The reminder is, I think you quantified the operating cash flow in Q3, but I didn't write it down.
Could you just say what that was again, please?
Alex, I'll take the one that last one. The net cash flow from operating activities in Q3 was EUR 219 million. So that was the figure. EBITDA was - EUR 8 million in the quarter.
In relation to holidays, we have a very strong holidays business here in the U.K., BA Holidays. It's the sixth biggest tour operator in the U.K. market. That's been a very important lever in terms of driving the premium leisure market. The other thing we have been doing is obviously positioning our network to serve the destinations that work for that segment. In fact, we flew to more premium leisure, not premium, but leisure destinations and short-haul this summer than we did in 2019, and that's something that we continue to plan dynamically. When we were talking about the strength of premium leisure bookings, you know, we see Orlando, we see Las Vegas, we see South Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean.
You know, they're some of the strongest performers on our network at the minute, and we continue to build capacity into those markets in a very responsive and flexible way. In relation to the CAA and customer funds in escrow, I'm not aware of an imminent decision on that. I think we can kind of provide further detail, but at the minute we're not aware of a pending decision.
Thank you.
Thank you. I will now hand the call back for closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you very much everybody for being here today. I hope the next time we can do this event face-to-face, finally. I think the most important takeaway is what Steve said, that Q3 has been the inflection quarter for us. We have positive operating cash flow for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. We have reduced our operating loss in more than half. All this we have done with one of our main markets closed. The opening of North Atlantic on the 8 of November is going to be crucial for us. Now, the bookings that we see make us very optimistic about the future.
Now, I think, for the first time, we are thinking about how we can fly the capacity that we expect to fly during the summer, and we are not talking about how many aircraft we run. I think it's an important point of inflection. I am sure and we hope that from now on we are going to talk about more positive numbers. Thank you very much, everybody, and see you next time.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.