SAS AB

STO:SAS

Earnings Call Transcript

[Operator]

Welcome to the SAS Q4 2023 Report Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Now, I will hand the conference over to Klas Landelius at Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Klas Landelius, executive]

 Good morning. My name is Klas Landelius. I'm part of the Investor Relations team here at SAS. Today, I would like to welcome you to Scandinavian Airlines' fourth quarter fiscal year 2023 presentation, which will be presented to you by our President and CEO, Mr. Anko Van der Werff together with our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Erno Hilden.Before we start, I would like to highlight that the information being given to you in this presentation today is a summary and should not be considered as advice or recommendations to investors or potential investors in relation to purchasing or selling securities. Forward-looking statements presented to you today by Anko or Erno do not guarantee future results or development as the actual outcome could differ materially from the forward-looking statements. For further information, please read our financial and Annual Reports online.And with that, I'll hand over to you, Anko to start your presentation.

[Anko Van der Werff, executive]

Thank you very much. Klas. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, and thank you for joining us again. My name is indeed Anko Van der Werff. I'm the President and CEO of Scandinavian Airlines.And I'll start on Slide 2 with a brief review of the quarter. Here are many ways of course to look at this but at least look at the underlying trends of what we do best which is transport people by air. Almost 6.8 million passengers traveled with us in quarter 4 and that totals to almost 24 million passengers that traveled with SAS throughout the fiscal year. Year-on-year, our RPKs increased by 17.2% and capacity increased by 16%. The EBT for Q4 amounted to a negative SEK 2.1 billion, clearly something that we will touch upon quite extensively on this call. And for the full-year, EBT amounted to a negative SEK 5.5 billion. It represents an increase of SEK 2.3 billion compared to last year.SAS' achievements from stronger operational and commercial performance are unfortunately not as evident in the results as we would have hoped due to the incremental costs from the developments with currencies and fuel prices towards the end of the fourth quarter. And that is clearly something that Erno will touch upon at length today. Many of the cost efficiencies of the SAS FORWARD plan are ramping up over time. Some have been implemented, but cannot be recognized in our financial results until after emergence from chapter 11, and this includes, for example, the significant cost savings from the fleet restructuring. We continue to progress with SAS FORWARD, including our chapter 11 process in the United States. And during the quarter, we concluded our equity solicitation process.Shortly after the quarter ended, we entered into an investment agreement with the winning bidder consortium of Castlelake, Air France-KLM, and Lind Invest together with the Danish state. And this means that we have secured the financing for the future, which is a key milestone in our SAS FORWARD plan. And I will speak more about this towards the end of this presentation. Other news, not less relevant because it touches all our passengers and customers. In September, SAS won a Red Dot Award for our new mobile app. It's one of the most prestigious and internationally recognized design competitions. It celebrates outstanding achievements in the field of design, creativity, and innovation. And this achievement is a result of very hard work and dedication of our talented team, who continuously strive to create innovative solutions that deliver exceptional experience for our customers.During the quarter, we also earned a 5-star rating in the prestigious global APEX customer ranking at the 2023 APEX Awards. And we are thrilled to achieve the highest rating from our customers. And this recognition is a testament to the tireless dedication of the SAS team in ensuring safe journeys, championing sustainable initiatives, and offering the highest service standards. We have also made progress in our work towards fossil-free aviation. SAS is participating in a study investigating sustainable aviation fuel flights' impact on local air quality. And during the quarter, it was concluded that the use of SAS does improve air quality, an important consideration because there was quite some debate and we wanted to also be part of a neutral and objective party that once would settle that debate.And yesterday, we have -- hopefully, you've seen that announced that we are launching the EuroBonus Conscious Traveler program soon, which will make it easier and rewards SAS travelers for making sustainable choices. I will return to that later in the presentation as well.Then we move to Slide 3, passenger demand. Yes, total passenger volumes increased by 18% to 6.8 million for the quarter compared to the same as last year. And for the full fiscal year, we have seen an increase of 33% to almost 24 million compared to last year. Good indication that passengers continue to fly, continue, of course, to return to SAS. And that being the bigger airline that ramp-up throughout the year has been successful. We are also pleased to see that the overall underlying demand for travel continued to be healthy during the fourth quarter despite economic uncertainties in society as a whole. During the quarter, some new routes that we have launched, I will highlight a few. The new seasonal route to Bangkok, for instance. Now Thailand, as you know, favorite destination among many passengers during the winter season. It's a perfect entry point to wider Asia as a whole. It's a great option for both business and leisure travel. We have also started flying into Agadir, and we are launching, again, also ski destinations soon, such as, for instance, Oslo soon is now also linking that to Copenhagen.So all of that really still is building in total about 15 new routes over long haul, Bangkok and then Miami going to daily from Copenhagen as well, including ski destinations and some destinations opening, for instance, Seville, a beautiful city in Spain in February.Slide #4, turning to our traffic information. Load factor, slightly up 0.7 percentage points to almost 78% for the fourth quarter. Here, people have told me that the load factors that we currently are having are towards the highest we've ever had. I still think that there is space for more, but it's good to see at least that we are ramping up also there, 78% for the fourth quarter. ASK was up 16% and our RASK was up 2% both year-on-year. We have also increased the number of departures over year. We're still growing, and we have increased departures by 10%, which you can see on the chart to the right.Now I will hand over to Erno, and then I will be back afterwards.

[Erno Hilden, executive]

Thank you, Anko. And very good morning also on my behalf. As always, I will cover some key areas and highlights from the financials for Q4 and Anko will then come back again with an update on the progression and the next steps for SAS FORWARD and the chapter 11 process.But let's kick off with Slide #6, please. After the profitable third quarter, we faced a challenging quarter with Q4 with the summer schedule coming to an end. And as Anko mentioned, the demand continues strong. And we are reasonably happy with our revenue performance. But mostly because of adverse development with currency rates and the jet fuel costs, our result for the quarter fell into negative territory. Our production volumes for Q4 brought us significant growth year-on-year with the total capacity increasing by 16.2% from the fourth quarter last year. But comparing to Q4 of 2019, our total capacity in ASKs, or available seat kilometers was still some 15% below the pre-pandemic levels.In Q4, our revenue performance continued strong with total traffic revenue increasing by 18% and so slightly more than the increase in capacity, signaling stable development with our load factors and yield, which both were exceeding last year's levels. Our PLF or passenger load factor for Q4 landed at 77.8%, and that is approximately the same level that we also reached back in 2019. And as usual, I will share some further details into our main revenue and cost developments with the following slides.On top-line, our total revenue increased by some 13% during the quarter and reached SEK 12 billion. And pre-pandemic in 2019, our Q4 total revenue was at SEK 13.5 billion. So this year, we landed still some 10% below that level. The high volatility on both currencies and jet fuel prices has continued also during Q4. The high volatility of our accounting currency, the Swedish krona against the U.S. dollar has been particularly strong. The krona has depreciated significantly against most major currencies, and particularly the dollar, which reached a closing rate of 11.12 at the end of the quarter.During Q4, the overall negative impact from currencies on our operating income was a negative SEK 246 million, which includes a positive impact of SEK 210 million on revenue and a negative SEK 456 million on operating expenses. On EBT, or earnings before taxes level, the year-on-year comparison is slightly positive with SEK 27 million but it's worth noting that for both Q4 '22 and Q4 '23, the weakening of the Swedish krona caused a big negative impact on the revaluation of the U.S. dollar-denominated lease liability with SEK 1.1 billion booked in Q4 '22 and more than SEK 800 million booked in Q4 '23. As we have communicated before, this is not an immediate cash item. During Q4, our currency-adjusted jet fuel costs increased by 15%. And this was driven by increased volumes from growth in traffic, but also the increased cost of the emission rights.Our crews are still going through intense training programs due to continuing recruitment for the ramp-up of the traffic. And the high training volumes are clearly visible in our crew productivity numbers, which are still way below targeted levels. Because of continuing strong demand and ongoing crew training, we have been using additional wet lease capacity in our network to meet the demand. This continued also during the fourth quarter. But for this financial year and the coming years, our objective naturally is to improve on aircraft and crew utilization and operate a much bigger proportion of our traffic by ourselves, so with our own metal and our own crews. We did not meet our targets for punctuality during Q4. And as a consequence, we also had an elevated level of irregularity costs for the period.Majority of this is included as revenue adjustment in other operating revenue. Our operating costs for the fourth quarter totaled SEK 12.7 billion, and most of our operating expenses have developed in line with our expectation. But for the fourth quarter, we've had some additional headwinds from currencies and continuing additional costs also from the chapter 11 process. Our full cost currency-adjusted unit cost decrease for financial year '24 was minus 4.5%. Our operating income or EBIT for the fourth quarter was negative SEK 700 million and income before tax or EBT at SEK 2.1 billion negative. Despite the cost pressures during the fourth quarter, we are on track and making steady progress with delivering the targeted cost savings under SAS FORWARD.And I will walk you through the main drivers and development in the following slides. So let's jump on to the next one with the revenue bridge. And here, on Slide #7, overall, our revenue performance during the quarter was quite strong. Our total capacity in ASKs increased by 16.2% and naturally together with the strong demand driving more revenue. Our passenger revenue increased by 21.5% and reached SEK 9.4 billion for the quarter. Adjusted for currency, the growth was 19%. The growth in demand exceeded the growth in capacity in scheduled traffic in short-haul, but was slightly below the capacity growth in intercontinental traffic. Our PLF for scheduled traffic was on par with pre-pandemic for the fourth quarter and reached 76.7% for the scheduled traffic. The traffic growth was strongest in European and intra-Scandinavian traffic where RPKs increased by 25.4% and ASKs by 24.8%. In intercontinental traffic and then domestic traffic, the capacity growth was 17.8% and 5%, respectively.The RPK growth in these sectors was 16.2% and 13.1%. The biggest contribution to revenue growth came from the added scheduled capacity increasing revenues by SEK 1.5 billion. The positive impact from improved passenger load factor was SEK 95 million. The slight decline in yield had a negative impact of SEK 85 million on passenger revenue. And our scheduled passenger yields increased nominally slightly by 1.2% but declined slightly by 0.9% adjusted for currency. It's worth noting that our yield development is also impacted by the increased sector length as we have further increased our traffic to Southern Europe. After the improvement in PLF, the passenger unit revenue or PASK increased nominally by 2.3%, but was flat compared to Q4 '22 when adjusted for currency.During the fourth quarter, we saw continued softening in cargo yields, which, together with negative cargo load factor development led to a currency-adjusted decline of SEK 153 million in cargo revenue. Our charter revenues increased by SEK 84 million year-on-year and other traffic revenue by SEK 123 million, both numbers adjusted for currency. Other operating revenue decreased by SEK 391 million from the fourth quarter in '22, mostly because of revenue adjustment from customer compensation under the EU 261. The effect from improved load factors and the slight currency-adjusted yield decrease led to an overall growth of total unit revenue or RASK for scheduled traffic of nominally 1.7%, but a slight decline of 0.4% adjusted for currency.And as I mentioned before, the positive currency impact for Q4 in revenue was SEK 210 million. Overall, we are reasonably satisfied with the revenue development for the fourth quarter, but we'll continue the efforts to further improve the load factors, both in passenger traffic and cargo.And let's move over to the next slide, please. And here, on Slide #8, we have the earnings before tax or EBT development in the quarter. The EBT for Q4 was a negative SEK 2.1 billion. And last year, the respective number was a negative SEK 1.7 billion. So we have landed below that previous year's level. Our operating expenses during the quarter increased by 18% from previous Q4. And approximately 24% or 1/4 of this cost increase is driven by the currencies, leaving the currency-adjusted increase at 13.8%. Our biggest single cost line, the jet fuel cost increased nominally by 16% or SEK 555 million to SEK 3.3 billion and by 16% when adjusted for currency. The volume impact was an increase of SEK 531 million, whereas the impact of the jet fuels spot price decrease reduced the cost by SEK 400 million. At the same time, the cost for emission rights increased by SEK 292 million year-on-year. And as before, at the end of Q4, we are still unhedged for fuel.The substantial capacity growth naturally also increased our other variable production costs, so excluding fuel, which increased by SEK 1.1 billion year-on-year. Our currency-adjusted personnel costs increased by SEK 204 million because of the traffic growth and the required additional crew resources to operate this growth. Our external expenses amounted to SEK 5 billion and year-on-year currency adjusted, the other external expenses increased by SEK 865 million. The increase pertained primarily to higher costs for aircraft maintenance, handling costs, and wet lease expenses. Our currency-adjusted maintenance cost increased by SEK 284 million. It is worth noting that we have by now completed the phase-out of the Boeing 737 fleet from our network. And we will now gradually see the benefits for increasing fleet commonality also in maintenance costs.Our currency-adjusted handling costs increased by SEK 133 million and the currency-adjusted wet lease expenses increased by SEK 364 million, primarily due to higher volumes from extended use of third-party capacity providers. Our net financial expenses amounted to SEK 1.4 billion, representing a decrease in net expenses of SEK 161 million year-on-year. This decline is mainly related to currency revaluations for the lease liabilities, which, as I mentioned, still had a very high cost of SEK 817 million this year, but were slightly lower compared to a cost of SEK 1.1 billion last year.Other changes here of SEK 122 million mainly include increased interest expenses related to the DIP financing but also some increased interest income. And the negative Q4 EBT result of SEK 2.1 billion brings the full-year EBT for financial year '23 to SEK 5.5 billion negative.And then moving on to the next slide, Slide #9. Here, we have the developments with our cash flow and liquidity position during Q4. In line with our regular seasonality pattern in traffic, our cash generation is reduced during Q4 and Q1 compared to other quarters. With solid revenue performance and strong booking trends, our operational cash flow was positive for the fourth quarter. Cash flow from operations before change in working capital was SEK 532 million for the fourth quarter. The net cash flow from changes in working capital was a negative of SEK 451 million, mostly due to regular seasonality impact with unearned transportation revenue or UTR, netted by positive impact from receivables and maintenance provisions. Our total operating cash flow for the period was a positive SEK 81 million compared to negative SEK 1 billion in Q3 '22.At the end of Q4, our liquidity position was a solid SEK 6.2 billion, which is down slightly from the end of Q3, but on seasonally, a very healthy level. For Q4, our total outflow for investing activities was a modest SEK 8 million. We are continuing our fleet renewal program and took delivery of one more Airbus 320neo aircraft during the fourth quarter. And as before, this aircraft was fully funded by a competitive sale and leaseback contract. And then for financing activities, we had an outflow of SEK 400 million, which consists mostly of amortization of lease liabilities, the repayments of borrowings, and the DIP financing fees.As we have communicated before, we have concluded the lessor negotiations under chapter 11, bringing us annual cost savings of at least SEK 1 billion in aircraft lease expenses and annual cash flows. The amended lease agreements are subject to approval by the court and the plan of reorganization in the chapter 11 process being confirmed and becoming effective. However, we are already using the reduced lease rates in our payments. So the cash flow benefit is already with us.And then on to the next slide, Slide #10. And here on the left, we have our current debt maturity profile. The majority of the FY '24 outflow shown here is the repayment of the original USD 350 million DIP loan. And as for today, we have already repaid this DIP loan in full, and we have refinanced it with the new DIP loan from the investor consortium. The new DIP loan totaling $500 million has been drawn in 2 tranches, first of which at $450 million; and the second with USD 50 million in November. The new DIP loan is to be refinanced in the recapitalization process during financial year '24. Also included in the maturity profile for financial years '24 to 27, we are showing the term loans from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. And as you probably recall from previous announcements, we have received confirmations from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway for their willingness to engage in debt-to-equity conversions for their respective loans to the company subject to material progress being made with the SAS FORWARD program.And also included in the financial year '24 maturities, we have some finance lease payments for aircraft that are to be refinanced and not paid out during this financial year. And this means that the actual expected paid out amounts will be substantially less than shown on this chart. And on the right-hand side of the slide, we have the scheduled aircraft deliveries for the future periods. And this year, financial year '24, we are expecting to take delivery of 13 additional aircrafts, and this consists of 12 further Airbus 320neos and 1 additional Embraer 195 regional aircraft for SAS Link. Our order book for new aircraft, together with the option to extend or phase out aircraft from our existing Airbus A320ceo fleet gives us good flexibility to adjust the fleet size up and down to meet the requirements from traffic and the demand outlook.On the hedging front, we currently have no hedges for fuel, as I mentioned. But for foreign currency, our policy is to hedge between 40% to 80% of the exposure. And at the end of the quarter, we are hedged 41% of our anticipated U.S. dollar cash flow deficit for the next 12 months. And in terms of the Norwegian krone, which is our largest surplus currency, we are hedged for 42% for the next 12 months.And from here, I will now hand over back to Anko again to take you through the progression with SAS FORWARD.

[Anko Van der Werff, executive]

Thanks, Erno. And moving immediately on indeed status updates on SAS FORWARD and, of course, chapter 11 in the United States. As you all know, I think by now, we've reached a major milestone during the quarter. In early October, we announced that we have selected Castlelake, Lind Invest, Air France-KLM, and the Danish state as the winning bidder consortium following our competitive exit financing solicitation process. We entered into an investment agreement with the consortium shortly after the quarter ended. And the agreement entails a total investment in the reorganized SAS corresponding to approximately SEK 13.2 billion, over SEK 5 billion in new unlisted equity, and approximately SEK 8 billion in secured convertible debt.By securing the financing for the future, we have reached a key objective in our SAS FORWARD plan. And this is really great news for us and a testament to the commitment and hard work by everyone at SAS to succeed with our transformation and take care of our customers. The investment agreement shows that our new investors believe in SAS and our potential to turn things around and remain at the forefront of the airline industry for years to come. As part of the transaction, we have secured new DIP or debtor-in-possession financing of SEK 5.5 billion from Castlelake. Among other things, the funds from the new DIP agreements are being used for refinancing SAS' original DIP term loan, increasing liquidity, and supporting SAS' path to exit from the voluntary restructuring proceedings. The refinancing of SAS' original DIP loan was completed in November 2023.As part of the transaction, SAS also intends to eventually exit the Star Alliance and join the SkyTeam Alliance of which Air France-KLM is a founding member. This move towards a partnership within SkyTeam and being closer with Air France-KLM and its partners determines a very clear path forward for us. Needless to say that it's a transformative step for SAS, becoming part of something bigger and further strengthening our customer and people offering. We will have access to new destinations, more flight options, and enhanced service offerings. Most importantly, it means that we will become an even better partner to our colleagues, our customers and of course, the communities that we serve.Important to note that we are not making any immediate changes as of today, and we remain a member of Star Alliance until further notice. Our EuroBonus members will continue to enjoy their usual benefits when flying with us and our partner airlines and members can continue to accrue and redeem points just like today and their benefits when they fly with SAS will not be impacted. It is good to see that the members really understand this when we look at how much they keep on earning and burning after the announcement. We currently target to receive approval of the chapter 11 plan from the U.S. courts in early 2024. This is to be followed by obtaining regulatory approvals and the implementation of a Swedish company reorganization at the SAS AB level, which is likely to be filed in 2024.As a result, all of SAS AB's common shares and listed commercial hybrid bonds are expected to be canceled, redeemed, and delisted, which is currently expected to occur during the second quarter of 2024. Consequently, there is no expected value for existing shareholders in SAS AB and only modest recovery is expected for the holders of commercial hybrid bonds.Before we move on, I would like to emphasize how proud I am of the SAS teams. It's been hard work throughout the process so far. There's clearly more ahead of us. But I thank, once again, them for their dedication to the airline's future. The recent progress with SAS FORWARD is in line with the goal to make SAS a better airline for all stakeholders and a stronger business partner, of course, in the years to come.Slide 13. Another very important topic highlighting some of the important progress we're making in our work towards fossil-free aviation. We have always been striving to be a driving force in sustainable aviation. And as I alluded on at the beginning, we are proud to participate at a large-scale international study at Copenhagen Airport to investigate sustainable aviation fuel flights' impact on local air quality. This project began during the first quarter of the fiscal year. And one of the main conclusions drawn is that bio-based aviation fuel indeed reduces the number of ultrafine particles that are emitted from the aircraft engines by approximately 30%. And thereby improving air quality. And this, for us, is a great example of how our collective efforts and our partnerships can enable further discoveries of sustainable solutions for the aviation industry.The findings of this unique experiment at Copenhagen Airport showcase that using SAS not only reduces CO2 emissions but also enhances local air quality. Yesterday, we announced that SAS will launch a new reward program called EuroBonus Conscious Traveler in January 2024. The new reward program will make it easier for SAS travelers to make sustainable choices throughout the customer journey. We believe that we must involve our customers on a journey towards net-zero emissions to succeed. We, together with the EuroBonus Conscious Traveler program can offer SAS customers the contribution to reducing their own carbon footprint, and they will get rewarded for it.Now then also this morning, we have received some questions on the outlook. Let's touch upon that at a high level and then, we'll still make sure that we have time for Q&A. We have entered the winter season with several new and exciting SAS routes and destinations. And of course, we look forward to flying our passengers to those destinations. I gave them actually at the beginning, some of them at least, I listed. I will not go through that list here again. We continue our work towards completing our chapter 11 process in the United States and towards reaching the objectives, of course, in our SAS FORWARD plan. The aim is currently to receive approval from the U.S. courts of the chapter 11 plan in early 2024. And then, like I said, to be followed by obtaining regulatory approvals and the implementation of a Swedish company reorganization at the SAS AB level shortly thereafter.While there is still work remaining, I'm pleased to see the steady progress we're making and really look forward to that future. Now on a final note, as always, I would like to express my gratitude for the tremendously hard work my colleagues at SAS have done for the progress of SAS FORWARD so far and for ensuring everything and everyone that we take the best possible care of our customers on a daily basis. Thank you very much to the broader team.And with that, I would like to open for questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Jacob Pedersen from Sydbank.

[Jacob Pedersen, analyst]

Congratulations on moving forward on both the chapter 11 and the SAS FORWARD. I have a couple of questions. Can you talk more on the prospects of regaining some of the lost market share moving forward? What would it take for you to improve and get back on the same level as you were before the pandemic?

[Anko Van der Werff, executive]

Yes. I was waiting for your next question, Jacob.

[Jacob Pedersen, analyst]

Okay. Okay --

[Anko Van der Werff, executive]

No, no. We can take it one by one. It's okay. Look, we're gaining share. Yes, I think we are -- as we have shared before, in a position that we have started that restructuring later, right? And that is a shame because, therefore, also we have quite some energy dedicated to, of course, getting through this process. I think 2024 will see another year of growth. I think the years '25, '26, and '27 will probably win when really also, we will be in a much better position. Now we have already reclaimed some of that territory. You've heard me list some of the destinations. And we also do that, of course, in Oslo and -- or in Norway, I should say, because it's not just Oslo. We also have regional flights going to Tenerife for instance that we start up new. And we also do stuff in Sweden, of course, right?So we are expanding at all 3. At Copenhagen, like I said, some long-haul flights, again, more focus on those. So Bangkok now, Miami going to daily, and more to come. I think we also have views and plans. And you can think of course, in a direction of that Star to SkyTeam transition where we will need to rebalance some of our network. That is part of the work that's going on at the moment. And then secondly, also in the short hauls, right, whether it's now in the winter season, Ostersunds are already preparing for a sunny season, where you have Seville gold destinations in the South, more in Greece, Italy, and Spain next summer. And that is the highest growth area. Once again, it was already in 2023. It will also be from Copenhagen in 2024.

[Jacob Pedersen, analyst]

Irregularity has been a drag in the fourth quarter clearly. What are you -- which handles are you turning in order to improve this?

[Anko Van der Werff, executive]

Yes. No, very good question. Very fair. In fact, we have actually on regularity side, really been much better if you exclude weather. And I will tell you the numbers and I'll include November. In August, 99.1, in September 99. In October, we had 98.6, but half a percentage point was because of storms Babet, and I keep on forgetting the names of the storms but it was at least Babet and I think it was Hans. And then in November, including all the weather cancellations, we are currently still at 99.2. So regularity-wise, much better. The punctuality certainly when it comes to October-November, with those weather disruptions at those multiple hubs, that is still something that really pains me. And we have to get better and there is now a significant project team that has kicked that work off again at the end of October.Definitely, a focal area. We have seen the clear improvements on regularity. In fact, in November, we had a week of 99.92. I think it was regularity. We went back in time, and that was our best year or best week in the last decade. So it is possible. We're able to do it. We should, of course, do that consistently. And there's a few ingredients. One, you have seen us go with fewer wet lease providers. That was something that we always said for this summer season that we needed to have that complicated our operational structure, right? When you have so many different parties, of course, that we have. Two, in maintenance. Quite a number of organizational changes also. And with Jason as a new COO, right? This summer was always stacked against him. He started just before the summer and then we had Naviair and everything that you're aware of, Jacob.After that summer, again, 99.1, 99, 99.1 technically for October, if it hadn't been for the weather. And in November, we had 99.2 including the weather cancellations. On the 2nd of November, we had well over 50, 60 cancellations because of storm Kiran. And earlier in this week here in Stockholm, we had about 25 cancellations on 1 day. And including all of those numbers, we are still at 99.2. Excluding the weather, it would have been at 99.6. So that is much better. The punctuality is really the #1 focus right now.

[Jacob Pedersen, analyst]

Your equity is clearly in the negative minus like SEK 6.1 million. When you get new capital from your new owners, equity isn't even going to go back to zero. How comfortable are you in the new setup? I know your debt will be a lot lower, but you will probably exit the chapter 11 with negative equity.

[Erno Hilden, executive]

Well, to answer that one, we are not giving any specific numbers forward-looking for the emergence, but you need to take into account also other things happening with the balance sheet, not only the equity injection, but also the debt-to-equity conversions. So that ultimately will determine the final balance sheet from emergence.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Kurt Hofmann from Air Transport World.

[Kurt Hofmann, analyst]

Two questions from my side regarding the wet lease, you just mentioned it. How many wet lease aircrafts do you have this summer? And how much would you like to reduce them for next year? As I learned from other airline CEO colleagues and from you that even more wet lease partners you have is getting too complex. And with the last orders you have, when do you have to think about to study new aircraft orders for the longer-term future?

[Anko Van der Werff, executive]

Yes. So first of all, I don't have the number in terms of aircraft numbers for wet leases. But what I can tell you is that we had this year up to 6 different wet lease providers. That we will significantly reduce for next summer, and it really may be only 1 or 2. And it's exactly to that point, right, that you mentioned, the operational complexity with, of course, different aircraft types. Look, we always knew that was going to happen, but we still had to do it, right? Remember that in 2022, the pilot strike and then bringing people back, we had the recruitments, we had the training. So for 2023, we really wanted to make sure that we were at least covering our stock portfolio. And so that's why we needed those wet leases.For next year, it will be very much clearer that we will put to the largest extent, all that capacity on ourselves, right? On long haul, we had a wet lease partner that will be gone. On the 320s, we had several wet lease partners. We do not intend to have them. And so really, what we will still have is on the smaller aircraft types, ATRs and CRJs, there, we will still have, but those are much more long term, if you like.

[Kurt Hofmann, analyst]

And regarding new aircraft orders for the future?

[Anko Van der Werff, executive]

Yes. So new aircraft orders, I think that is something not for today, for tomorrow, we are, of course, looking at it with RFPs in the market, both for the midsize segment, let's call it, up to 150 seats. And then, of course, also for long haul at some point, we will have to look at what we do there, right, go for new, go for bigger. What we have now at least communicated is those 13 that we will bring in, in the fiscal year that we have just started on the 1st of November. And that is mainly and almost exclusively 320neos, right? I mean when you look at it, for us, we are already the biggest A320neo operator. What I'm going to say now is really no sign of disrespect whatsoever. So don't make that into the headline. But for instance, SN Brussels, I saw them. Brussels Airlines and Austrian, they really have now 1,2,3 A320neos. We are already in the 60s, and we have 12, 13 more coming this year, right?So that is significant. Of course, we have, yes, a significant portion of that already. And that we will continue.

[Kurt Hofmann, analyst]

Just another follow-up question. Do you have LEAP engines or Pratt & Whitney on the neos?

[Anko Van der Werff, executive]

No. We have LEAP.

[Kurt Hofmann, analyst]

Okay. Lucky you.

[Anko Van der Werff, executive]

Yes. Exactly right. We are not affected by the Pratt & Whitney issues.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

[Anko Van der Werff, executive]

Perfect. Thank you all very much for participating. And of course, for your questions. I wish you all a pleasant Thursday, and I hope to see you on board of our aircraft soon. Thank you very much for today.

[Erno Hilden, executive]

Thank you.