Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Today's call is being recorded and will be accessible for future playback on our investor center website, which you can find at www.airnewzealand.co.nz/investor-center. Also on the website, you can find our interim results presentation, financial report, and media release. Speaking on the call today will be Chief Executive Officer, Gre Foran, and Chief Financial Officer, Richard Thomson. I'd like to take a moment to remind you our comments today will include certain forward-looking statements regarding our future expectations, which may differ from actual results. We ask you read through the disclaimer, and in particular, the forward-looking cautionary statement provided on slide two of the presentation. I will now hand the call over to Greg.
Thank you, Leila. Kia ora, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on today's call. Earlier this morning, we released Air New Zealand's interim financial results for the 2022 financial year. We reported a loss before other significant items and taxation of NZD 367 million. The statutory loss before taxation was NZD 376 million, and the statutory loss after taxation was NZD 272 million. These results are a reflection of the substantial impact the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have on the airline. As we reflect on the past 24 months of COVID, it would be easy to believe those first 12 months would be the hardest on the airline financially. However, when you look at the figures and timing, only the final quarter of the 2020 financial year was impacted.
During the 2021 financial year, lockdowns were more sporadic, and we had the advantage of the Trans-Tasman and Cook Islands bubbles. The domestic network was also making a strong recovery, and we had significant relief support from government. This financial year has and will continue to be different again, with the effect of COVID impacting across all quarters, suppressing domestic demand. This first half saw the airline's operating revenue decline 9% to NZD 1.1 billion as passenger flying was substantially reduced by 26% compared to the same period last year. Our cargo operation has continued to play an essential role in connecting New Zealand to the world with revenue increasing by 29%, supported in part by the continued government air freight connectivity schemes in New Zealand and Australia.
We're now in the early stages of our battle with the Omicron outbreak, something we knew was coming and have prepared as much as we can for. It's led to softening of domestic demand. The government's announcements of border openings to allow Kiwis to come home and travel again later this year is a solid step towards our revive stage as we start to build back. We are very excited about welcoming home our fellow Kiwis from next week and have already started bringing back cabin crew and airport employees and pilots to scale up the operation. We've also continued making great strides with our strategic priorities, setting us on the right path for the future. Kiwis love traveling, and the recent holiday period was no different, with more than 1.3 million of them taking to the skies to explore New Zealand.
A number have also taken the opportunity to visit the Cook Islands since its reopening on the fourteenth of January. The resilience, agility, and dedication of our people continues to be our key to success as we face into these challenges, and I'm acutely aware of the sacrifices they have made. We wouldn't be here without them, and I couldn't be prouder of all they have achieved. Thank you, Air New Zealanders, for your exceptional efforts. Richard will talk more about liquidity later on, but top line, we have liquidity of approximately NZD 1.4 billion, which includes NZD 500 million of additional liquidity support from the New Zealand government, which was announced late last year. To date, we've drawn down NZD 760 million from the Crown Standby Loan Facility.
As you are aware, the decision was made to postpone our capital raise until early in the 2022 calendar year due to the continued uncertainty in Australia with the Delta variant of COVID-19. The Crown has a long-standing commitment to maintaining a majority shareholding in the airline, and as such, subject to Cabinet approval, will participate in the capital raise planned to be launched by the end of March 2022 or shortly thereafter, subject to market conditions. The national alert level restrictions and subsequent extended Auckland lockdown had a huge impact on our domestic performance following high levels of demand early in the financial year. The graph on this slide paints a vivid picture. It highlights domestic passenger revenue numbers from pre-COVID-19 to now.
You can see the drastic drop when COVID first hit in March 2020, followed by more dips with the next lockdowns, and then another more significant drop last August, covering an almost four-month period. As you can see, the first half of 2022 performed lower than the same time last year and was around half of what we would experience pre-COVID. However, it was fantastic to see the holiday period pick up quickly once Auckland opened up. I'm particularly proud of the way our teams in record time developed the vaccine pass and seamlessly integrated it into the Air New Zealand app, enabling these customers to travel safely.
We also reinstated our domestic credit flexibility for customers in anticipation of the Omicron variant and the likely impact on people's travel plans. We are starting to see a softening of travel demand as Omicron is becoming more widely spread in the community and people are having to self-isolate. Bookings have seen a reduction in business purpose travel as well as leisure. Although I would note that we are seeing demand for travel into the April period, which is encouraging. Cargo has continued to achieve strong results for the airline, contributing NZD 482 million of revenue. This represents nearly half of our total revenue for the half year. It's been a privilege to continue moving essential exports and imports around the globe, keeping our economy running and our country connected.
Our cargo team has gone above and beyond, and I wanna thank them for their incredible effort and the outcomes they have achieved for the business. It is amazing to think about the many thousands of tons of food we carry in our cargo holds, including 12,200 tons of fresh produce, 6,300 tons of chilled meat, and 10,700 tons of seafood in the 2021 calendar year. We still have support through the government air freight support schemes, including the New Zealand Maintaining International Air Connectivity or MIAC scheme, and the Australian International Freight Assistance Mechanism scheme. Through these schemes, we've been able to add new cargo routes, including direct flights from Australia to North America. The MIAC support scheme, as it is currently structured, concludes at the end of March.
Rest assured, we haven't wasted any time while we have been flying less. We've spent our time preparing for the future and laid out a clear path for our recovery. From a health and safety perspective, we've been proactive in our approach to protecting our customers and Air New Zealanders. This includes taking a leadership position with our vaccine mandates for customer-facing employees and the no jab, no fly policy for international travelers, which came into effect on the first of February. We have made rapid antigen tests available for our frontline teams, so they feel confident to come to work. This also supports our ability to keep flying by removing the requirement for isolation for close contacts of those with COVID, as agreed with the government.
In addition to recalling approximately 250 crew and pilots, we've brought a Boeing 777-300ER back into service to support our cargo business and started reactivating some of our overseas airport operations, so we're ready to welcome customers. In the customer service space, investments continue to enhance the customer experience. The improvements made last year to our customer proposition were an exciting start, and we've continued to build on this. As mentioned, we updated the Air New Zealand app, so customers can easily upload vaccine passes for domestic travel and also put mobile devices in our people's hands to enable them to support customers better. We introduced a new tool for our customer service team to make it quicker and easier for customers to connect with them. We've also reinstated our credit flexibility for domestic customers and extended it for international customers.
These are just a few of the many preparations we've been making over the past six months to get us in good shape to recover. It is heartening to see that in other regions where travel restrictions have been reduced or removed, demand is picking up. This gives me confidence that once the Asia-Pacific region sees restrictions relaxed, people will choose to travel again. Albeit we might see that demand build back slowly as travelers navigate how to travel again in the post-COVID environment where rules and restrictions differ and are changing in various markets. We would expect to see, based on the experience from overseas, the domestic and short-haul markets to recover first as our customers look to reconnect with family and friends. Our Kia Mau strategy has continued to guide us. We're focused on delivering our three profit drivers, growing domestic, optimizing international, and lifting loyalty.
These are underpinned by our enablers of brilliant basics being serious about sustainability, digital dexterity, and prioritizing people and safety. Some great work has taken place to bring this to life and head us in the right direction. We've trialed working in new ways to drive and speed up innovation. You will have seen some of this in our trials with the new food and beverage offerings on domestic flights. Our digital team has been making great strides, starting with getting digital tools in the hands of our crew and employees on the ground. We have a number of new platforms to streamline processes and improve the customer experience, including our new customer service tool and supply chain system, as well as the latest cybersecurity tool to protect our data and systems.
We're introducing FlightKeys, a new way to route an aircraft that saves time, money, and reduces carbon emissions. Don't forget the vaccine pass that was developed at pace and integrated into the Air New Zealand app. All amazing digital advancements to take us into the future. We are investing in our hangars and airport properties. We're confident about our future, so we'll continue investing capital in and for our people. We announced late last year we're launching our own Airpoints credit card. We've also had record sales on our Airpoints store as we introduce new partners in Flexipay. We've optimized our long-haul networks, focusing on the routes that make the most sense, working closely with our alliance partners for when borders open. We are lucky we have had a head start on this with our cargo flights, keeping our international connections warm.
We're looking forward to reintroducing more flights to the USA, and most excitingly, commencing flights to New York City later this year. From our top-secret bunker in Auckland, we're putting the finishing touches on a new plane fit-out that I'm sure customers will love. It's incredibly exciting. We've entered into partnerships to look at how we introduce sustainable aviation fuels and next-generation aircraft into New Zealand. This will go a long way with our net zero emissions by 2050 goal. We were pleased with the government's recent announcement highlighting its commitment to border reopenings. As I mentioned, we're thrilled to be able to welcome Kiwis home MIQ-free from next week. Although we're not expecting a swift recovery of pre-COVID international demand in the near term, we are confident that when demand returns, Air New Zealand is well-positioned with the right strategy to succeed.
I'll now hand over to Richard to go through the financial results.
Thank you, Greg, and kia ora to everyone on the call. As Greg mentioned, operating revenue for the first half was NZD 1.1 billion, down 8.8% on the prior year, reflecting the impact COVID-19 continues to have on the airline. Passenger flights were significantly reduced, down 26% on the prior year and down 84% compared to pre-COVID-19 levels. Overall, we're reporting a loss before other significant items and taxation of NZD 367 million and a statutory loss before taxation of NZD 376 million. The statutory net loss after taxation for the period was NZD 272 million. Due to the ongoing financial impact from COVID-19 and the restrictions of the Crown facility, there will be no interim dividend for the 2022 financial year. Turning now to Slide 12.
Looking at the profitability waterfall chart on this slide, and I won't go into each of these, you can see quite clearly that the decline in profitability this year is driven by the reduction in revenue, increased labor cost, and reduced levels of support from the government versus the prior period. Sales and marketing and fuel costs also increased during the period. We had some gains with reductions in aircraft operational costs, maintenance, and passenger services costs, reflecting the reduced flying. Ownership costs decreased due to the impairment in the prior year of some triple seven aircraft and reduced utilization of engine maintenance assets due to less flying during the period. Turning now to slide 13.
A series of government support programs, including wage subsidies and the government's MIAC, Maintaining International Air Connectivity scheme, contributed to the 2022 interim result, although not at the same levels received in the corresponding 2021 period. In this first half, the support from these schemes was NZD 241 million across both revenue and cost line items, compared to NZD 259 million in the previous corresponding period. This support is expected to reduce as borders start to reopen. Overall reported CASK on the next slide increased by 3.7%, driven largely by higher fuel prices, the absence of aviation support packages, and diseconomies of scale as we re-maintained operational readiness through the national and Auckland lockdown.
Excluding the impact of fuel price movements, foreign exchange, third-party maintenance, and the discontinuation of the aviation support subsidy, CASK increased marginally by 0.2%. While we have traditionally reported CASK in the current COVID environment, we have seen some significant effects on CASK in the domestic network, and also a distortionary effect caused by a pivot towards long-haul cargo flying, which comes at an inherently lower CASK. In the domestic network over the past six months, we've carried surplus capacity to enable a return to more normal operations. The effect of this is around a 9% cost increase on a per ASK basis at the group-wide level. However, this has largely been offset by the change in the mix of flying toward cargo, as I mentioned earlier.
As we look forward to the second half, we expect the level of flying on the domestic network to increase, which will utilize that surplus capacity. At the same time, the proportion of cargo flying will reduce as the international passenger network is expected to start ramping up, which will reverse much of the effect on CASK of the change in flying mix. Turning now to slide 15. The first half cash burn increased compared with the second half of financial year 2021. This is due to reduced bookings related to the suspension of the Trans-Tasman bubble and the recent domestic lockdown, as well as recommencement of PAYE and fringe benefit tax payments. I'd also note that includes approximately NZD 280 million in debt amortization repayments on our secured aircraft and lease payments on operating leased aircraft and property.
This level is not dissimilar from prior period financing payments, which we have estimated in other results calls as being approximately NZD 45 million per month on average. While it is difficult to provide guidance on expected levels of cash burn in the second half of the year, I would remind people that we will have repaid approximately NZD 300 million between January and March of this year related to deferred PAYE and fringe benefit tax payments. While we are seeing domestic bookings currently impacted by the Omicron outbreak in New Zealand, we are encouraged with the increase in international bookings that have occurred following the government's five-phase announcement on the third of February. Turning now to page 16. Assessment of our capital structure and funding needs is well advanced, as Greg already has touched upon.
As at 23 February, NZD 760 million of the Crown Standby Facility has been drawn down, resulting in approximately NZD 1.4 billion in cash and available liquidity. This includes NZD 240 million remaining from the NZD 1 billion Crown Standby Facility and NZD 1 billion from non-voting redeemable shares negotiated with the Crown in December 2021, as well as current cash balances. We have continued to engage with the Crown, and it remains committed to maintaining its majority shareholding in Air New Zealand and has indicated it will participate in the equity capital raise. As mentioned earlier, the interim dividend remains suspended due to the financial performance of the airline, as well as restrictions of the Crown Standby Facility. As such, there will be no interim dividend for the 2022 financial year.
Our fuel hedging approach remains the same, where we continue to assess the best way of managing fuel price risk using a mix of fixed prices and optionality. The amount we have hedged has reduced compared with pre-COVID levels as we have based it on cargo and domestic uplift only. Essentially, we're at around one-third of our pre-COVID hedging levels. It is difficult with the current environment to provide specifics on what percentage of fuel consumption is hedged. Based on our current expectations, we're approximately 60%-70% hedged over the next few months. The increased fuel prices we are seeing have been mitigated somewhat by our hedge position, but we expect to see fuel costs rise in the second half, although the level will depend on our flying schedule, which remains somewhat uncertain in the current environment.
Our hedge portfolio has been structured to allow full participation to downward pricing movements through to June 2022. Turning now to Slide 18, and looking at our expected fleet CapEx. You can see that the expected phasing of our aircraft capital expenditures through to 2028, with no commitment at this stage beyond then. We welcome two A320neos for Tasman and Pacific Island operations, along with our final ATR 72-600 in the first half. We also entered into an arrangement to sell our four owned Boeing 777-200s, which you may recall were permanently grounded and impaired in the fourth quarter of the 2020 financial year with the onset of the pandemic. We have managed to maintain a degree of flexibility over the timing of our aircraft capital expenditure with a minor deferral of one A321neo domestic airplane from 2022 to 2023.
Given the young age of our fleet compared to our peers, we have the ability to allow the fleet age to grow. We anticipate an interiors refit program for our existing 14 Boeing 787 aircraft will take place beyond 2023, but the timing has not been confirmed as we consider our longer-term maintenance schedule. The additional CapEx required for this program is therefore not reflected here. Turning now to Slide 19. We've shared this slide in the past, but it's a good reminder of the journey we've been on to strategically simplify our fleet, moving from eight aircraft types with 10 different engines in the 2011 financial year to four types with six engines expected in the 2028 financial year. Our fleet will comprise the best and currently available technology and allow us to significantly simplify our operations.
We're well on track with this and already starting to see the benefits and economies of scale generated by this. I'll now pass you back over to Greg, who's going to discuss the outlook and leave you with some closing remarks.
Thanks, Richard. We have some clear areas of focus in the second half to ensure we stay on track to build back better once those borders open and tourists start visiting our shores again. First and foremost is protecting the safety and well-being of our people and customers. We've proven we are leaders in this space with our international no jab, no fly policy, our domestic jab or test policy, as well as the many processes we have in place to maintain onboard safety and support the well-being of our team.
Maintaining and strengthening our operational agility and flexibility will allow us to continue adapting to changes. From a resilience and readiness perspective, we've started recalling some cabin crew and pilots to strengthen our domestic network and prepare for international borders to reopen. Our modern, fuel-efficient fleet, optimized network that leverages the strengths of our cargo business, enhanced loyalty program, and right-sized cost base will support our long-term ability to generate sustainable levels of earnings. We've talked about our intention to launch a capital raise shortly, and the Crown's commitment to participating in this to maintain its majority shareholding in the airline. Once complete, this will give us financial strength and flexibility as we head into 2023. Over the past six months, we've continued to refine and deepen our strategy.
We will continue executing our strategic priorities, controlling what we can to speed up our recovery and be ready to face the future. I believe we're in a strong position to compete and win once travel opens up again. Thank you again to our customers and shareholders for sticking with us through these turbulent times. Thank you also to our people, who remain resilient and dedicated to our customers. As we head into the second half, I'm optimistic about our future and believe we will have a clearer picture of how borders and international demand is looking by the end of the financial year. We know COVID-19 will run its course, and we are ready to welcome back customers and crew when it does. Looking now to our outlook for the financial year 2022.
There remains a large degree of uncertainty on the impact of the Omicron variant on demand for domestic travel for the remainder of the financial year. Additionally, while recent clarity on the phasing of border openings for New Zealand is very helpful, the timing of reduced or removed self-isolation restrictions remains unclear, driving continued uncertainty in the level of demand for international air travel. The airline does not expect international demand to recover substantially until self-isolation restrictions are removed. Air New Zealand's current expectations are that the 2022 financial year will incur a loss before taxation and other significant items for the full year that exceeds NZD 800 million. Thank you for your time today and listening as we shared our results. I know you will have questions. Operator, please open up the line.
Thank you very much. We now begin the question- and- answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press the pound or hash key. Once again, it is star one, and wait for your name to be announced. Thank you. We have multiple questions in the queue. Our first telephone question comes from the line of Andy Bowley from Forsyth Barr. Andy, please ask your question.
Thanks operator, and good morning, Greg, Richard, Leila. I'll kick off with a couple of questions here. The first of which is around cargo income, which was clearly the standout of the result, as government support increased the volumes that you managed. With both the MIQ and MIAC schemes ending at least 31st March at this stage, and Richard, your comment that overall government support will fall as the recovery continues. Now, how do you see cargo income evolving from both a volume and pricing perspective over the next year or two?
Hi, Andy. Thanks very much for the question. Richard here. So, you know, the current MIQ arrangements are in place until the end of March. Cargo airfreight capacity into and out of New Zealand has clearly been sort of constrained through the COVID period. That is likely to remain the case until we see self-isolation restrictions lifted and, as Greg mentioned in his opening comments, a sort of resurgence or a recovery in international passenger travel. Our sense, and it is just a sense at the moment, is that it will take the remainder of this calendar year for the passenger recovery to start to emerge.
We are unclear currently on when self-isolation requirements might be lifted, albeit the government has put out their sort of five-step border reopening plan, which sees the New Zealand residents and non-residents from visa-waiver countries allowed to leave and enter the country without MIQ from July. It'll be a relatively long, slow recovery. I think maintaining air connectivity, particularly air freight, is very important to the government. I suspect what we'll see is a sort of a tapering of that arrangement as air passenger services start to recover. I don't know whether that answers your question adequately, Andy, or not. We would be surprised, I think, if the MIQ arrangements or current air cargo connectivity arrangements sort of stop dead in their tracks in March.
I think that's right, Richard. Hi, Andy. Greg here. The bits that I would add into that is that, for sure, the subsidy scheme has been a massive tailwind for us and our business, and we acknowledge that. I agree with you, Richard, that it will be a tapering effect, most likely. I'd have to say it's also renewed, I guess our thoughts around cargo, and we've built that into our strategy and Kia Mau. Looking at investment in this area in time, and that would be a combination of facilities and digital capability.
You know, as recently as last weekend, I was out around the business, spent quite a bit of time in cargo and these opportunities that we can take and are taking and continue to take to ensure that cargo continues to be a good addition to the business. You know, even today with our Dreamliners operating, doing cargo, and we've obviously got the triple seven back doing a bit at the moment, we still have capacity to do more. Not every single plane that's going out is full, and there's an ability for us to grow this business. I think as the subsidy comes off, we'll see that impact. I don't wanna go back to where we were in 2019. I want us to actually have cargo as a good additional revenue source into the business.
Obviously, some of that will depend on the competitors that come back, but some of it also rests in our hands in terms of how good we are at improving our business, so we get more.
Great. Thanks. I appreciate that very thorough. From a pricing point of view, though, can you provide any sense of, you know, how it may evolve and how, you know, market rates come into play with the government subsidies?
Yeah, you know, it is like a lot of things. Averages can be quite misleading on this one, Andy. You know, look, as I say, averages are misleading, but on average, you know, people are paying sort of circa 50% more at the moment. Some people are paying 100%, some people are paying nothing. You know, there's no doubt that if you are exporting at the moment, you're paying more generally. As the subsidy waves works its way out, we'll have to see what happens with pricing. You know, there are moving parts here. It depends on what happens with shipping lines. Are they going to open up capacity as COVID winds its way out? The ships are there, but they're not necessarily all sailing.
You know, obviously, I keep across what's happening with little brown boxes in terms of e-commerce and retail that are moving around the world. Increasingly, customers are demanding things quicker. We're bearing that in mind as we think about our cargo business and the role that we can play in that. It's really hard to look into the crystal ball and say all of those moving pieces, what happens with pricing? But I would expect that over a period of years, the pricing will come back a bit, but it may not come back to the extent that it was in 2019. There's lots of assumptions upon assumptions.
Yeah, I think just.
Yeah. A clear message.
Yeah. It's the sort of classic high prices cure high prices, I think. Over the medium term, to Greg's point, I just reiterate the point that Greg made on that.
The message being that, you know, come to a sustainable place and time in the point in time in the future, cargo will be a bigger proportion of overall business than what it was pre-COVID.
Correct. Yep. You know, look at a high level, and I can't remember whether I said this, about 60% of the planes go out not full. Now, that doesn't mean that there's 40% extra capacity, but there is plenty of opportunity for us to grow our cargo, the cargo business, both domestically and internationally by filling the bellies of our planes. It also plays completely into the sustainability piece, because one of the prizes to get to 2050 is not just going to be doing SAF, which is half the equation or doing hydrogen, green hydrogen or hydrogen electric planes. It's also how do you fly efficiently, which is a combination of having a reasonably young fleet internationally with really efficient engines, but most importantly, having those things full with passengers and with cargo. It is-
Yeah.
It is integral to the way that we think about Air New Zealand and what we wanna do going forward.
Great. Time to move on to next question. We've got a pretty tight labor market in New Zealand at the moment. You're a pretty big employer, and I recognize that a large part of your workforce is unionized. What are you experiencing currently in terms of, you know, one, churn, and two, labor inflation?
Yeah. Churn at the moment, and I was just looking at this last week, actually, at the board meeting with our PRDC. It's actually almost exactly the same as what it was pre-COVID. It had dropped during effectively the last two years, and it's now come back a bit. You know, it varies a bit across the business. We get literally no churn in pilots. It's like 1%, and we've got higher churn in digital. The average, averages can be misleading, is we're about where we were. We're seeing pressure just like every other business, by the way, in the world is seeing in terms of the labor market. You know, inflation is putting pressure on us in terms of labor costs and also input costs and fuel no doubt will come up some point during the discussion.
All of that means is that we've got a really interesting pricing matrix in front of us. We're not going to sit on our hands here and say, "There are no increases for our staff.
We're in the middle of negotiating nine CEAs at the moment, our Collective Employment Agreements, and we're being very sensible about how we negotiate that. We're trying to thread the needle of doing what's right for our people and keeping them engaged in the business, ensuring that we've got good productivity. At the same time, we recognize that we're gonna lose over NZD 800 million this year, and next year is also going to have a period of bumpiness. You know, we're trying to thread this needle of ensuring we've got a great business going forward, but we keep our costs relatively in control. You're seeing our costs increase at the moment because we've got to begin to get organized to open to fly.
There's, you know, 600-700 people that have come back since we took a significant head count reduction two years ago, you know, and 300 of those are sort of cabin crew and a couple of hundred plus sitting in airports and 50 pilots, and there'll be a few people in head office positions. But we're trying to meter it in. It will be ahead of when revenue comes back, but hopefully not too far ahead. We'll have to deal with inflation. We'll have to deal with the labor market. We'll have to deal with what's going to happen with the mix in our planes. You know, I can't predict accurately what's going to happen with business travel.
As we start to see that evolve, we'll have to include all of these things into our pricing matrix and work out how we ensure that we get a return on the investment. Interesting times ahead for us.
Great. Thanks much. Appreciate it.
Our next telephone question is from Andrew Steele from Jarden. Andrew, please ask your question.
Good morning, everyone. Just the first one for me is on your comment in the outlook statement about the ongoing impact of self-isolation, and I take that this might be quite difficult to answer. I mean, could you give us a sense of how you are thinking about the impact of ongoing self-isolation requirements for international travel? If you could provide some sort of numbers, if that's possible. Are you thinking sort of down 90%, down 80% versus pre-19 for Tasman and Long- haul?
Hi, Andrew. Richard here. That is a very complicated question to answer. I'll say up front, you know, we're not in the business of sort of speculating when those self-isolation restrictions will be lifted and exactly what the pace of the recovery will be beyond there. What I would say is that we find ourselves in a slightly different situation to where we were in at the very beginning of the half in July, where we essentially had a domestic business without Omicron and a sort of cargo business that was largely sort of unimpacted by the pandemic. It was largely international travel that was affected.
The challenge we've had in the first half, as Greg mentioned, is we've had sort of Auckland, which is about 60% of our domestic flying in lockdown. And the remaining 40% of the domestic business, sort of south of the Bombay Hills, was running at sort of 90% of pre-COVID capacity. It was quite strong. I guess the advantage of the traffic light setting, if you wanna call it an advantage, is that we've got the whole of the network operating. As opposed to having 90% of 40% going and 0% of 100 in the first half, it will be better than that in the second half under the red light because we have got the Auckland domestic network running.
Of course, over the next month or two, there's a lot of uncertainty about the extent to which, you know, either the red light setting prohibits people from traveling because they're obliged under the rules to self-isolate, or actually people just choose to act more cautiously regardless of the setting over the next couple of months. Very hard to predict domestically quite how the next sort of six to eight weeks is going to play out. Internationally, to my earlier point, we don't know when those self-isolation restrictions are going to lift. And until they do, we will get an influx probably of VFR travel initially, as Kiwi residents that have been stuck overseas in particular look to come home.
The precise timing of that self-isolation requirement lifting is not yet known, and the recovery profile from there, we will have to sort of wait and see what happens. What I would say is that, you know, based on what we've seen in the northern hemisphere and based on what IATA sort of has observed, is they are expecting international travel to get back to sort of pre-COVID levels by as early as 2024. That's not our view necessarily, but it is an independent view, based on, you know, what's been seen in other markets on the sort of road to recovery. We're 2022 now. IATA thinks it's two years before you're back at pre-COVID. Quite what the path looks like between now and then remains to be seen. Yeah, I think that's right, Richard.
You know, like we've done right through this, we have a look at what we think is a base plan, and then we will run sort of scenarios or sensitivity analysis on either side. We can see when we look at the data that countries can sort of broadly fall into three buckets. It can be countries that have very low friction, countries that are medium friction, and countries that are high friction. We're in the high friction bucket at the moment, and you don't really get up and operating until you get in the low friction bucket. The low friction bucket is effectively, you've got to do a COVID test before you go and when you come back.
As soon as you start putting more things on the customer, and importantly, any concerns that maybe the rules could change while you're away, you begin to stifle demand. We're looking forward to a point which we think will happen, where that friction is removed. Sure, there might be some COVID testing, but maybe it's as simple as a rapid antigen test you buy at a supermarket. Then we really will start to open up. As Richard said, you know, when we talk to people overseas in the U.S. and Australia and even IATA themselves, it varies a bit by country. We're pretty confident that, you know, and I'm not sure exactly on timelines, that give or take, you know, 70%-80% is a realistic figure at some point that we get back to.
As I said, we run sensitivities on when those sort of things can occur.
Sorry, I think, just for clarity.
Great.
Greg was referring to demand being impacted 70%-80% decline while self-isolation.
Yeah.
remains in place, and that's obviously just an estimate.
Thanks, team. Just a couple of questions on balance sheet. Your lease liabilities on balance sheet have shrunk over the last six months. Shall we be expecting, you know, a similar decline through to the end of the year? In terms of revenue in advance liability, I would have thought just a modest tick up from here. How are you thinking about that balance sheet item as well by year-end?
Yeah, I think just on. I'll answer your second point first, Andrew, which is the TSA balance. Look, I think that will creep up clearly as the five-point plan for reopening the borders is implemented. The first stage of which I think we're leaning into on the twenty-eighth of February, from memory. I think you'll see TSA drift up. In the short dates, that will be sort of tickets purchased in anticipation of travel later in the year. The TSA will be coming in, but we won't be operating the flights for a period so that, you know, that will be or should be supportive of sort of working capital tailwinds in the short dates.
In terms of the lease liabilities, and sort of the reduction in that, I think the sort of primary, contributor to that was a reduction in the right of use assets. We had a 777-300ER, that was part of a Japanese operating lease structure, that came to its natural conclusion during the course of the first half, which involves us effectively, buying, that aircraft out of the JOLCO structure. That comes out of right of use assets, but goes into sort of fixed assets. I think that is the question you're asking and the answer to that. It was very transaction specific.
Okay. In terms of the lease liability through to the year-end, that should remain relatively stable?
Correct.
Yeah.
Just in terms of the balance sheet more generally, other than the well-flagged capital raise, there should be no sort of particularly unusual changes to any of the other line items?
No, I don't believe so, Andrew. We took delivery of three new aircraft, or four new aircraft, in fact, in the first half. We're not anticipating taking delivery of anything else in the second half of the year.
Great. That's all for me. Thank you.
Once again, if you do wish to ask a question, it is star one. Our next telephone question is from Marcus Curley from UBS. Marcus, please ask your question.
Good morning. I just, again, wanted to go back to, you know, the demand or capacity outlook. I just wondered, Richard, if you can give us some color on, you know, what capacity you've committed for the winter schedule at this stage. You know, I know that obviously it could be subject to change, but just to give us a feel in terms of, you know, what you have budgeted.
Sorry, Marcus, are you referring to northern winter 2022, the next peak season?
Oh, no, I'm talking about, yeah, I suppose our winter, I suppose.
Our winter. Yeah, okay. Good.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes. Yeah.
Yeah.
Specifically, I'm obviously referring to international here. Just some sort of reference in terms of how much capacity you're planning on bringing back.
Sure. I'll start and then Richard will probably flesh it out because he's the network's expert. I think the schedule that's probably for sale now, if you were looking at it, Marcus, would show, maybe about 50%-60% of our pre-COVID capacity for Australia and Pacific Islands. The long-haul markets, probably more in the 15%-20% of pre-COVID levels.
I think that's right. I can see the only thing I'd add to there. I know you're focused on international, but just to sort of complete the circle, domestically, certainly for the next three months, we're running at sort of 65%-70% of normal capacity domestically. I just support the comments Leila made on international. It is somewhat fluid, clearly, and will be influenced, as we've said many times on this call, ultimately by the sort of timing of any self-isolation restrictions being lifted.
Sure. When do you have to make a call on, you know, our summer?
Well, we're evaluating that currently. The slots conference, if you like, not that we sort of design the business necessarily around that, but when our team, our network team goes cap in hand to the sort of slot committee internationally asking for sort of landing rights at the various airports, that activity typically happens in May each year. It's two or three months away. We're selling a schedule at any particular point in time, you know, out to 12 months. At the, you know, the pointy end of the assumptions we're making that dictates the slots and frequency timing of which we're asking for is typically a decision we make around May each year.
Obviously you have some color from the government on home isolation before May would be pretty important for you.
It'd be very helpful indeed.
Secondly, I just, you know, with regard to, you know, probably the Tasman, can you talk a little bit about, you know, your approach to airfare pricing? You know, I suppose maybe even just directionally in terms of, you know, I suppose would we be expecting to see airfares start significantly above what we used to have pre-COVID, you know, to cover potential, you know, additional costs?
Yeah. Well, I was gonna say, you can't tell until actually everyone gets up and operating to get a sense of what's going on. You know, I was looking at pricing in Australia yesterday, and Jetstar a couple of days ago decided to run a whole bunch of flights for AUD 22. You know, initially, as Qantas were trying to get capacity up on international routes, they dropped the heck out of their pricing. Equally, today, there's people in there bitterly complaining about the price to get from Longreach down to Brisbane. I think it's hard to tell exactly how this will play out. Generally, what happens is that as the flights go on, there'll be some capacity to be met, so probably pricing will come down.
Then over a period of months, you'll get some, you know, adjustment of pricing to reflect the fact that a lot of the input prices have gone up. I think it's gonna be bumpy for a period. Of course, fuel is, you know, about $107 or something at the moment. We'll just have to see what happens there. Yeah. Marcus, so what do you think? Two other comments. I think sort of when the Tasman bubble was operating, feels like a distant memory now, but some nine months ago, what we did see in the recovery there is that pricing or yields are very similar to what we'd experienced in a pre-COVID environment.
You know, I think the starting point is to expect that as the sort of starting point for the resumption. Just picking up on the comment Greg made, and it's been asked about twice this morning, fuel prices, at least in the short term, are high, and there's inflationary cost pressure running across not just our business, but sort of many businesses around the world. We have reflected the impact of those cost increases in a modest increase across our international fare structure, which we've put in the market relatively recently. That's a modest increase. On average, it's, you know, around 5%. Just in an attempt to ensure that we, you know, have a fair structure that reflects the realities of the current fuel price and inflationary environment.
One of the differences that I think we'll see this time as we open up is that back in April, I think it was the 19th last year that we opened up to Australia, that was the only destination you could go to for a few weeks, and then there followed a couple of weeks later with Rarotonga. You only had a choice of two. Not likely to occur like that this time, probably. Therefore, I think that some of the experiences we saw as the green travel lane opened up to Australia won't necessarily play out quite the same. But who knows? It'll be an interesting period as people think about what they do. One of the things that crosses my mind consistently is China remains shut. China is such a big market for many carriers.
is there some capacity that other people have got that they may say, "Well, if China's not gonna open, do I, you know, use planes elsewhere?" Hard to tell.
Okay, thanks. Just finally from me, you know, you've given earnings guidance or I suppose, you know, I suppose the NZD 800 million number, but you haven't given cash burn guidance. You know, I suppose again, for you, Richard, you know, what's the moving piece in there that, you know, stops you from giving, you know, a cash burn number for the second half?
I think there were these sort of two or three elements to it, Marcus. You would've noticed in the first half, operating cash flow or statutory operating cash flow, and it was positive NZD 40 million. That benefit, so it was marginally positive. That did benefit from a NZD 46 million-NZD 47 million wage subsidy. If you normalize for the wage subsidy, which we're not expecting to sort of see any of in the second half, you've got operating cash flow at or around breakeven. We expect that to improve certainly by the sort of tail end of the first half. Over the next couple of months, it'll remain, likely remain around that level, 0.1.
Point two is we are now two-thirds of the way through a NZD 300 million PAYE deferral repayment program. It's the three equal installments of just under a hundred million. We made the first of those on the fourteenth of January, second of those on the fourteenth of February. We've got one to go. That is a sort of a one-off, if you like, hundred million dollar drag on cash flow that we'll experience in the second half that we saw the benefit of, you know, back at the beginning of the pandemic when we were offered that relief. Then the third point I'd make, or reiterate, in fact, we've got no sort of aircraft-related CapEx in the second half of the year.
There'll be some PDPs through that period, and then non-aircraft related CapEx around digital and property and infrastructure. It'll be the usual sort of non-aircraft related CapEx through the second half. Three elements to it. Operating cash flow, you know, bouncing around breakeven, adjusted for NZD 300 million of PAYE. That's obviously a significant albeit one-off drain. The sort of a very typical run rate on non-aircraft related CapEx. Hope that answers your question.
Yeah, I think it does, yes. Like if I put all that, if I add all that up, Richard, it sort of sounds like, yeah, NZD 300 million.
Plus non-aircraft related CapEx.
CapEx.
Correct.
Yeah. Which will be relatively small?
We don't typically split it out, Leila. I don't know whether you wanna make any comments on that, but.
It'd probably be a bit less in the second half than in the first half in terms of investing cash flows, Marcus. That's just normal phasing for us in terms of our properties and infrastructure, and digital spend is typically skewed to the second half. I'll just add on the last bit I would say is in terms of the lack of cash burn guidances. Previously, when we do provide it is when we have a somewhat stable domestic operating environment, and I would say that we are, in this period, most certainly not in that situation. That's what's forgoing the cash burn guidance. We've tried to give you some sense of elements that are gonna be moving in and out of the cash flow in the half.
There are some chunky ones, notwithstanding, of course, the capital raise that we've discussed in our release announcement. Happy to take any of those offline with you if you need.
Sure. Thank you.
Our next telephone question is from the line of Jason Hamilton from ACC. Jason, please ask your question.
Morning, guys. I'll just focus back on the cargo business if I can, just two or three questions. The first one, can you just give a little bit more detail and perhaps it'd be great to see some increased disclosure with the greater strategic focus on cargo. Can you just talk about volumes and price in this half perhaps versus last half, what the volumes are from price up? Just trying to get a little bit more detail
I mean, the volumes were significantly up, Jason. As we mentioned, the flights in the at least the second quarter of the half almost doubled. So I don't have the particular ton volume at hand, but can get that for you. As Richard and Greg both said, the pricing, the yields did increase. I can take that up with you offline. I just don't have those numbers at my fingertips.
Went from about 55 flights a week up to basically around 100.
Okay. Specifically, just how are you thinking about competition in that cargo space? I'm thinking to and from New Zealand.
I think it will depend highly.
Over that period.
I think it's going to depend entirely on how the border, you know, home isolation piece plays out and
You know, what competitors are seeing and how what sort of routes they're going to fly back to New Zealand. You know, it's a little bit unknown at the moment, to be honest with you. Clearly, we intend to be up and running, and clearly we will continue to be competitive on our pricing. If we see a lot of competitors re-enter New Zealand with passenger flying, and they're looking to fill their bellies up with some cargo, then we're gonna have to review pricing. Equally, if there's not going to be quite so many come back so quickly, then there could be a period where, you know, we're allowed to keep pricing a little bit, you know, heavier than what might otherwise be the case.
Until we see what actually eventuates, and so much of that's going to be driven on, A, home isolation, and B, how quickly airlines might pivot to come back, it's hard to tell.
Okay. Certainly just from my understanding, can you just talk to, I guess, the relative attractiveness from a cargo perspective of 777s versus the 787 fleet decisions you've made? Just thinking from a longer-term strategic perspective.
You know, very good question. The 777-300ER is a fantastic cargo airplane. You've got sort of below the wing, you know, 40 tons of cargo typically with a full passenger load. The 787-9 is a smaller airplane than that. It's still got significant cargo capacity, and we're very comfortable with it. I think just to reiterate or underscore some of the comments Leila and Greg have made on cargo. We can offer cargo, particularly when, well, especially when the passenger business is operating normally at very effective rates. You know, it's a by-product of our operation. So, both the 787 and 777 offer very competitive cargo CASK, you know, which we're able to offer to our customers. I think we're comfortable going forward continuing to be a below-the-wing cargo operator.
We've got no intention of operating dedicated cargo freighters. Back to the comment I made earlier, high prices will cure high prices, and certainly we're aware internationally of a lot of some of the 777 aircraft and others that have been retired early, through COVID going through cargo conversions. We remain very comfortable. I don't know if it answers your question, but very comfortable continuing to offer cargo as a sort of a below-the-wing cost-competitive product to New Zealand importers and exporters.
We also see some benefits of going to a single fleet. All these things become trade-offs. 777 is great for cargo, but is it good enough for cargo versus taking a fleet to a single fleet? Our view is we see our business as being a mix of passengers and cargo, and the benefit of heading to a single fleet outweighs the benefit that you get out of a 777 just on its own in terms of cargo.
Okay. Thanks for that. That's all I had today.
Thank you, Jason.
Great. There's no further questions at this time. I'll now like to hand the call back to today's presenters for closing remarks. Please continue.
Well, thank you everyone again for joining us today, and we appreciate you listening in, for your time and interest and all your support of Air New Zealand. If you'd like to schedule a call or a meeting for any follow-up questions, please direct those requests through to Leila and the investor relations team. Thank you again, everyone. Have a great day.