Well, good morning, and welcome to the presentation of the results or the report for the third quarter of 2021. The presentation will take approximately 20 minutes and will be followed by the short Q&A session afterwards. The presentation will be held by our CEO and CFO, Geir Karlsen. Please, Geir, floor is yours.
Thank you, Tore, and welcome to everyone. I think the quarter that we have behind us has been a much better quarter than what we have been seeing over the last quarters, that's for sure. We have seen a strong uptick in bookings. It started back in June, I would say. Relatively flat in July, and then we have seen a pretty steep increase over the last months. We came out of the quarter with a load in the area of 30%-73% for the quarter as a whole, and up from 57% as we had back in the second quarter. We are coming out in this quarter with an EBT of + NOK 169 million.
I'll come back to the details on that. I would certainly say that we have a very strong position financially in Norwegian as per today. In Q2, we promised that we could more or less be cash neutral for the quarter. Very happy to say that we have actually a higher position on cash today than what we had back in June. As also guided in the second quarter, we have an increase in the equity ratio due to the fact that we have converted some debt to equity. We have continued the work to work on the, let's say, on the operational structure in the company, and as well on the legal structure.
We have, you know, we are very close now to having a very much simplified structure compared to what we had back in 2019. We are also working on the growth for the company. As you know, we have 51 aircraft in the air today, and we are planning to increase that fleet with, I would say, up to 15, 20 aircraft already into the summer season of 2022. If you look at the bookings we have seen over the last months, I mean, we carried 2.5 million passengers in the quarter, an increase of, you know, in the load to 73%, up from 57%. We have seen a steady increase, I would say, over the last months.
We have been running a few campaigns, as you can see on the right-hand side there, and they have certainly given you know the results that we have been looking for. I think it's fair to say that we are still not happy with you know the bookings and the yield, of course, but it's definitely you know going in the right direction. I think it's important for all of us to realize that the market is, to some extent, back, but it's not really fully back in compared to what we saw, for example, in 2019.
If you look at the statistics in Norway, for example, today, and Avinor's numbers, you could say that in September, we had only, I would say only 55% of the capacity back compared to what we saw in 2019. Slightly higher on, let's say, domestic, and obviously then lower on international, but it at least shows that, you know, the market is not really back. We also met with the with our friends in Kastrup a few weeks back, and they are currently running in the area of 55% as well of the capacity that they saw in the airport in 2019.
Even if we are seeing, you know, definitely an increase in bookings and more people starting to travel, the market is not really back, and we are still affected by the pandemic, as such. Reward. As you know, we were forced, I would say, to put some restrictions in the Reward program earlier. I'm very happy to see that, you know, we have lifted all those restrictions, and the Reward program is back to its normal and where it should be. We have in the Nordics, or at least in the Nordics and Finland, approximately 4.3 million members, and we are seeing that these members are really starting to get back into the air.
If you look at the bookings today, it's, I would say, only 35% that are booked through, you know, or by our members, which also tells us that there is a huge, you know, possibility or a capacity, you know, in order to increase those numbers of capacity of members. We are seeing that on a week-to-week basis now we are getting between, I would say, 6,000 and 8,000 new members in the Reward program as we go, and that is an increasing number. We have extended, you know, the CashPoints that were supposed to be voided in 2021 into 2022. Again, the Reward program is now fully open and back to where it should be.
On the legal structure, this is, you know, a work that actually started back in 2019. We have simplified the structure now massively, I would say. As per today, we have kind of three boxes here. We have on the left side Arctic Aviation Assets. That is the company that owns and leases in all our aircraft. We have the two airlines, one in Sweden and one in Norway. We have reduced the AOCs, the so-called AOCs, from six to two. I would say for all practical purposes, we have now one airline in the company instead of six, and which also is very much more cost efficient, I would say. Then you have, you know, the people, the crew, on the third box.
We have now the legal structure and the operational structure that we want. This is the structure that we have been kind of fighting for and working for for so long now, and I'm very happy that we are now you know, finally there, and we can start to take the efficient gains out of this structure. This gives us massively more flexibility in order to have you know, the needed crew efficiency, the needed efficiency on the aircraft that are rotating you know, in the market. Then I think you will see the effects of this starting now, and then we will see the full effect of it through 2022.
We have also in-sourced all the whole crewing section of the company and we are now working very hard to make sure that we will get efficiency gains out of the crew in 2022. I'm very optimistic in how this is going to be done and the effects that we will see in the financial results in 2022. A little bit on the numbers. The top line is coming in close to NOK 2 billion. I would say that it is okay. It's not fantastic, but it's okay. I'm happy to see that ancillaries is now in the area of 25% of the ticket revenues. It's a little bit, you know. That's okay.
It's still a little bit low, if you divide it by ASKs. It's also going in the right direction. We're coming out with EBITDAR, excluding other gains and losses with NOK 305, but a positive EBITDAR of NOK 21. You know, obviously, we are affected by the increased fuel prices as the other guys around are also seeing. I think it is worth to mention that, you know, we have a positive FX gain in the NOK 326.
I think it's fair to say that we have due to, i f you look at the correlation between the fuel price and the Norwegian krone against dollars, we have a kind of a natural hedge, I would say, in the area of 30%-40%. That is, you could say, reflected in the NOK 326 million, and that you have to see that in combination than to take us down to the EBITDAR of NOK 21 million plus. We have a few more restructuring effects coming into the NOK 464 million, which gives us a positive EBT for the quarter.
I think I would also like to mention that in the 305 EBITDAR we are having approximately NOK 120 million as a result of the restructuring, which is a one-off, which we will not see going forward. That has to be you know taken into consideration as well. 169 positive for the quarter, NOK 1.8 billion, close to NOK 1.8 billion year to date. On the balance sheet, a few comments. Intangible assets, that's an old one. We remember that. That's deferred tax assets, which is an asset that we will certainly use going forward, all going well. We have the aircraft side on the asset side.
Approximately NOK 5.2 billion of the NOK 5.8 billion is related to the aircraft, and that consists of the owned aircraft and as well as the leased aircraft, as you know. In addition to that, we have some properties and we have also some equipment that is listed under that. Receivables, NOK 2.9 billion. Close to NOK 1.9 billion of that is what we call holdback, meaning cash sitting with the credit card acquirers. We are still not at the levels that we would like to see. We had a higher holdback in Q2 than what we have in Q3. So the holdback in Q3 by the end of Q3 is approximately 120%, which is obviously not acceptable.
This is due, t he reason behind it, I would say, is a combination of, you know, the pandemic and the fact that, you know, even the credit card acquirers are seeing issues with regards to the legal side of the position they are sitting in, especially towards, you know, the credit card companies like Mastercard, Visa and Amex. But we are seeing now that, you know, in today, for example, we have a lower holdback in 120%, and I think we will very soon see 100%. Then we will start to see the effects coming in of the improved financial results, and then we will start to see this is going below 100%, which will also then transfer into liquidity.
We have seen in the last couple of weeks the first signs of credit card acquirers, you know, improving the terms. We have one of them, for example, coming from more than 100% holdback until today, where they have it down all the way to 35% holdback, in fact. We will see an improvement going forward. That again gives us an upside on the liquidity, and we do expect that this holdback is coming down, and then this will be transferred into liquidity. We promised in the second quarter that we will be, you know, close to cash neutral in the quarter. I think we have delivered on that. We are sitting now with NOK 7.6 billion in cash.
I think it's up NOK 160 million from Q2. I can also inform you about the fact that the cash position as per today is pretty much the same as the cash position in September. Equity is up to NOK 2.5 billion, mostly related to the fact that we have converted the so-called retained or the dividend claim into equity as also mentioned in the second quarter. By that we have also reduced the debt with close to NOK 1.927 billion to be exact from Q2 until Q3. We have the other current liabilities which is NOK 4.9 billion. Half of that is CashPoints towards our customers.
The net interest-bearing debt is still at a very low level, NOK 642 million. We are quite comfortable that we have now a very strong position financially and we are very prepared to go through the low season that is in front of us. Cash not really much, NOK 443 million from operating activities. Then we have increased the cash position, as I said, with NOK 160 million. Way forward. We know we have 51 aircraft in the fleet today. We sent out a stock exchange notice yesterday saying that we are sourcing up to 13 aircraft into the fleet. These aircraft will start to deliver already this year before Christmas.
We have the so called power by the hour on all these aircraft as well, with zero minimum, meaning that we could in theory park them and not pay anything on these aircraft, depending on the seasons. That's obviously not the plan. I think we are seeing now that we have too few aircraft. We need to grow, and we are seeing this. Based on the demand that we are seeing today, both today and into 2022, that we are very comfortable that we would need to increase the fleet. We think that the increase will generate more profitability in the company. When it comes to the lease, let's see, lease cost on these new aircraft, they are all of them below the average on the 51 aircraft.
You will take down the average lease cost by taking these 13 aircraft in. As I said during the last quarter, it's important for us that we can solve what I call the winter problem, meaning that we will have to make sure that we get more flexibility in low seasons going forward. That's why we are very happy that on these 13 aircraft, we have power by the hour also next winter. On the aircraft side, for the winter problem, as I call it, that is solved on the aircraft side. I think we're not planning to take down capacity with more than these 13 aircraft, hopefully less. That is then giving us the flexibility, exactly the flexibility that we're looking for.
That's a good thing. We have also started the same process on the crew side. I'm very optimistic that we will also be able to find solutions together with the unions and our crew that will give us the same flexibility also on that side of the business. I would say I'm much more positive today on that side than just a few weeks back. It's looking good. On the new aircraft that we have taken in, we have also built in on a few of them, or let's, I would say on half of them approximately the ability to switch into what I will say is new technology or newer technology.
That could mean that we can convert into a MAX, or we could potentially convert into an Airbus as well. That's the flexibility that we have that is very important for us because we would like to go forward with newer technology, newer aircraft. I think you will also see that during next year that we will certainly try to take the average age of the fleet down. All in all, we are planning now for up to 70 aircraft already in the summer next year. I think you know, if you look at the cost level in the company today, you know, it is too high. I think we have a too high fixed cost base.
We also have to realize that we have had a huge project where we have been redelivering in the area of 100 aircraft to their owners. I have to say that the technical department in Norwegian have done a fantastic job making sure that all these aircraft have been redelivered to their owners. The owners are extremely happy by the quality that these aircraft still have, even if they have been parked up to two years. I think this is probably one of the reasons as well that these same leasing companies is knocking on our door today wanting to lease more aircraft to Norwegian.
The leasing companies that we have sourced the 13 aircraft from is people that we know very well and a few of them were also the biggest leasing contributors to Norwegian before the pandemic. Just to summarize, on the balance sheet, I think we have been through that. We have a very strong position as per today. We are not happy, you know, with the yield and the RASK and not even on the CASK, but I think, you know, the process that we're running internally in the company now will give results, especially in, let's say, during 2022.
Looking at the numbers for October, the current month, we are guiding now that we have a higher load than 80%, and the RASK is also up, definitely up, I would say, compared to the third quarter. Looking into the winter, which is obviously the low season, that will be a challenge. That's no secret. We are very well prepared to go through that period now, and we are very confident that we will be set going into the high season next year with as strong a financial position as we have today. The Reward program is now fully opened.
We are seeing that new members are coming on, 6,000-8,000 a week, which is also a very good sign. We're also looking at the booking curve where, let's say, the customers are now coming back also booking much more forward into 2022, winter and spring, and even some bookings into the summer season next year. I would say that, you know, it's looking good. We need all to get through the next, let's say, five months, five to six months before we are turning into the summer season. We have the flexibility, as we have been discussing, on the aircraft side, and we are going to play that very smart.
We will also see a cost level in this company that will be significantly lower in 2022 than what you are seeing today. Now it's all about, you know, seeing and hoping and believing in the market and the fact that will come back. We are certainly seeing signs of that, and we have been seeing that since the summer. Still not enough. The competition is tough, obviously, but I would say that we are very prepared to compete in the markets that we are operating in.
If you look at the different markets we are operating in, you could say that, you know, I think we say in relative terms, you can say that Denmark has been the best-performing market, let's say, during the third quarter, mostly by the fact that Denmark opened up earlier than what we did in Norway. You're seeing the effect in Norway, especially in October, I would say, where the yields are significantly up compared to Q3 as well as the loads. We are also then guiding on an ASK, meaning Available Seat Kilometers, close to 30 billion for 2022, which then translates into number of aircraft in the area of between 67 and 70. I think I'll stop there, Tore.
Thank you, Geir. We will now open up for questions. Please wait for the microphone if there are any questions in here physically. We also have some questions over the web.
Hans Jørgen Elnæs, analyst in WINAIR. Geir , interesting figures that you showed today, and you deliver on profitable operational and cash flow. That's very good. There's one thing that I would like you to get a bit more into, and that is the yield. If you compare now Norwegian with SAS in the period July to September, you had 2.4 million passengers, SAS had 3.1. The RPK in September, more or less on par. SAS had an average yield on SEK 0.97 , while Norwegian had SEK 0.553 . Still we could say that the corporate market is not back. Why is SAS able to take out so much more yield than Norwegian during these three months?
Well, I don't think it's 100% correct, Hans Jørgen, to focus only on the yield with SAS. I mean, if you look at the yield in SAS compared to the load, I mean, they have a pretty much lower load than what we are having. If you compare SAS to Norwegian during the quarter, you are also seeing that we have an increase in load and in number of passengers. By looking at the SAS figures, they are pretty flat, I would say. So I think you have to look at, I think they call it PASK in SAS, and so that's it's probably the number you should compare.
As I said, you know, we are definitely not happy with the yields that we have. It's partly obviously due to the fact that the market is not back. To a certain extent, you could say that we have been buying load by you know by setting the prices. Again, you know, we have 73% load in Q3. We have more than higher than 80% in Q4. I think in the market, especially in Norway, you know, we have competitors here where we have been competing wing to wing with you know with Wizz earlier this year. We have the new friends in Flyr now.
We haven't seen SAS, you know, participating in that lately. However, we are now seeing that they are also reducing the prices. I think for the first time in a very long time, you are seeing that SAS is also taking down the capacity in Norway massively, all the way up to 50% in certain routes. I think, yes, we are not happy with the yields, as I said, but, you know, it's definitely improving. But I think, I don't think you should focus on the yield numbers as such with SAS, then you have to look at the loads as well.
Yeah, I agree with you on that. I think actually in October, if you deliver on 80% the load factor, you will have more passengers than SAS. Also I think that when you have finalized now the rapid growth from July in terms of ASK, and you're flattening out in Q4, there is a fair chance that you will able to deliver a little bit more on the income KPIs.
Yeah, no, I agree in that. I mean, I think, let's say with the cost level that we will have in 2022 and looking at, you know, the revenue side of the business, today, I think we are pretty close to where we want to be. Obviously you will have a slower, a softer winter, there's no doubt about that. We will take down capacity during the winter. You will also see us taking down capacity in the first quarter next year compared to what we're flying now. Now we are really flying with full capacity, I mean, in October, and that capacity will be taken down.
We have kind of, y ou could say that, you know, let's say from now until let's say March, April next year, you are seeing the top of the capacity in Norwegian today. Why do we take down? Well, because we have the ability to do it, obviously, due to the flexibility that we have. We will certainly, you know, make sure that we can protect the market share that we have as well. We are ready. We are very comfortable that we are sitting here Easter next year. We will be extremely ready for the high season coming in then.
Thank you. Excuse me. We have a question from Jacob Lindgren at SEB, related to the same topic. If you look at the yield, is the current pricing reflecting the increased oil price?
Good question. I mean, if you look at the peers that we have, you know, the main competitors like SAS, for example, and I think others as well, you know, we are, as we have said, we have not hedged for 2022, and we are currently unhedged as well. I would say luckily, you know, the closest competitors are in the same position. We are not planning any fuel charge as such, but, you know, we will just follow the market, and then we will see how that develops.
I think it's fair to say that, you know, it's if the fuel price should stay at the current levels into 2022 and through 2022. Well, the market will decide whether that will build itself into the ticket prices. It is, it's something that we are you know, obviously following very closely.
A second question from Jacob. In short term, are you aiming for market share even if that could come with a lower load factors? Are we focusing? I think the question is related to whether we go for load factor or pricing.
As I said, I think through the winter and up to now, I would say in 2021, we have been very careful in taking the capacity too low, because we want to protect the market shares in you know the markets that we are now you know really focusing on, which is in the Nordics and in and out of the Nordics to Europe. I think that you know we will just you know we have the financial position that we need now. We are going, we are working very hard on the cost level of the company.
I think that, you know, compared to pre-COVID, as I've said many times, we are probably more competitive now than what we have been in a very long time. I think there's still more to go on in Norwegian, which we will show to the market next year. I do think that it is the cost game that we are looking at. I also think that, you know, we don't have the necessary scale as per today with 51 aircraft, and we have, as I said, also a cost base, a fixed cost base that is too high for 51 aircraft. We need at least to get up to 70 very soon. That might happen already next summer.
Then I think we will also have to increase that fleet to 80-90 aircraft as soon as possible. We will do it in line with the market. I think we have a fixed cost base today that could probably operate 70-80 aircraft with the same cost level. Then you will start to see the effects on the CASK, and we will be even more competitive compared to our peers. We are, as I said, we will have a cost level that will allow us to really fight with whoever comes into this market in the Nordics.
A question from Petter Nyström at ABG. How should we think about cash burn in Q4? You have previously indicated cash burn of NOK 150 million-NOK 300 million.
We're not guiding on cash burn for the fourth quarter. What we are saying is that it will be very controlled, meaning that we will have a relatively low cash burn in Q4 almost regardless of you know the market situation. We have also you know still 100%, 120% holdback with these credit card companies, which also gives us some I would say upside on the liquidity side. But you know with the flexibility we have, it will be a challenging four to five months ahead of us for us and for the other guys around. We will have a cash burn but relatively low. I think that's what we can say.
Another question from Petter. Did I understand it correctly that CashPoints liability is NOK 2.5 billion? Do you have an estimate on how much you expect to be used?
Yeah, 2.5 is 2.4. Well, we do anticipate that when we're opening up now and you know, taking away all the restrictions, you know, the burn on the CashPoints will increase, which is good. That means that you know, the passengers can now start to use the CashPoints without any restrictions. I think it's also fair to say that you know, we have a portion of the CashPoints sitting outside the Nordics and even outside Europe. They are valued until the end of next year.
Other than that, I mean, it's NOK 2.4 billion, and then we will see through next year what's the burn and how the situation will look then.
We have a few questions from Ole Martin Westgaard at DNB as well. He had a comment on your initiatives to drive costs further down. What is the potential?
Well, I think, you know, as I think I've said it last quarter as well, we are focusing on very few things, I would say. I mean, obviously profitability is the main goal. You know, to build the flexibility on, you know, say between the seasons is obviously very important. As I said, we have solved that problem now on the aircraft side. I'm very optimistic that we will also be able to solve it on the crew side. I've also said that the crew efficiency in the company is not good enough.
Looking at, you know, the plans that we have for next year and the measures that we will put in place, I think what you will call the block hours, meaning the number of hours the aircraft, the crew, and the pilots flying through a year, will come up. I think it will come up significantly during 2022 compared to what we have seen in the last years. I think, as I said, on the fixed cost base, it is as per today too high, but it's also lined up for a bigger production, meaning a higher production. The higher production will come in next year, and I think we can take in, as I said, the 20 aircraft without increasing the fixed cost base.
I think that's probably the main items. On the aircraft side, as we have said many times, the aircraft's cost, meaning the cost of leasing the aircraft, is down by close to 40% compared to 2019. That's why I've also said that we are probably more competitive, more you know stronger now, competitive you know competition-wise than what we have been in many years.
Here I have a question on that topic as well. On the 13 aircraft announced yesterday on the lease rates, is it possible for Norwegian to get even better rates than the average you had on the existing fleet?
As I said, you know, on all, I think on all the 13 that we have now that we are in the process of taking in, they have all lower lease rates than the average of the 51. That's. So by that I can say, I think I can share that, you know, the lease rates on the 13 aircraft is in the, let's say, window between NOK 130,000 and NOK 190 ,000 a month.
Final question: What is the situation with Boeing? How does the lease agreements impact your discussions?
Well, as you know, we don't have any 737 MAXs in the fleet today. If we are going to continue to fly Boeing, obviously we will end up with a MAX at some point due to the fact that the so-called NGs, the aircraft we are flying today, are no longer produced. We have a litigation case with Boeing ongoing, as we know, and I think we could also say that we are currently, as we speak, also in discussions with Boeing to see if we can find a commercial solution. That's what we can say.
I think we don't have any more questions, so thank you all for coming.
Thank you.