Michael O’Leary: And I will just add to that, Gerald, over many years, we have got significant discounts from large suppliers by giving them prepayments and so that will be reflected in the non-current asset line as well as I think you might have been referring to.
Gerald Khoo: Okay. Thanks.
Michael O’Leary: Thanks guys. Thanks Gerald. Next question, please.
Operator: The next question comes from Conor Dwyer from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Conor, your line is now open.
Michael O’Leary: Conor, hi.
Conor Dwyer: Hi guys. Thanks very much. First question is on pricing commentary. So, if you are currently running low-single digits ahead initially for the summer, and you think you can get to mid to high, is that just as the impact from a late Easter hurdling April and May dissipating, or you think you can get more in the late yields? And then secondly, assuming certification does happen on the MAX 10 later this year and United doesn’t actually take them. How confident are you that you would be able to actually take them and run that capacity? What kind of lead in time would you need for that? Thanks.
Michael O’Leary: Okay. On pricing, look, I think the biggest driver at this point in time on pricing is that the first half of Easter is in March and not in April. Easter is still a big driver of forward bookings at this time of the year. Q4 is materially stronger than Q4 was this time last year. We are still expecting a loss in Q4. But bookings through the summer are running ahead of where they were this time last year, both in terms of volumes and pricing. But I would believe – I mean this time last year, we were in a – very straight. We had a very, very strong January, but an awful of that was still post-COVID recovery, people getting out there and booking early. So, we had a very, very strong first quarter. And then pricing softened into the second quarter and third quarter of last year.
I am not sure this year, we won’t see pricing at the moment is sort of modestly up. But I would expect it to strengthen further as we go through into calendar Q2 and calendar Q3. I might be wrong, it might, I might be calling that wrong, but that’s the way it feels to me. And I think what we need to see, like we monitor closely some of our A320 competitors, and they haven’t yet in the case of Weeze taken out as far as we can tell, the 40 – or ground in 40, 45 aircraft same with the Valaris [indiscernible]. I don’t think they have finalized where the capacity is coming out yet. So, there may be more to go on that, we don’t know. But I think pricing will continue to drift upwards into the summer of 2024. But we haven’t – there is more to run on that.
And I think we won’t have a better feel for that until we get to May and where on the full year results road show. Second point, MAX 10s, I mean if we were to – I mean I would be very happy to start looking at Boeing and the – clearly, we would want to negotiate the price of them. I would be very happy to take MAX 10 deliveries in – for summer in advance of summer ‘26. I am not sure we would be in a position to take in advance of summer ‘25, but I am not sure they can manufacture or deliver in summer ‘25. But someone like United want to walk away from those deliveries over the winter of ‘25 into ‘26 or we could take more aircraft for summer ‘26 and the increased we have 17 aircraft MAX 10 deliveries in the spring of ‘27, I would be very happy to take that up from 7 to 30, 40 aircraft over the winter of ‘26, spring of ‘27.
We have more than sufficient demand across Europe for these aircraft and the operating performance of these aircraft is dramatic. But I don’t foresee despite all of that, what I was kind of nonsense commentary on United last week, I don’t see any chances of not taking the MAX 10s. And I am sure there will be a queue not least of rapacious aviation lessors out there and others looking to get those aircraft if United or somebody else walked away from them. So, I mean we are still expecting a number of very large orders coming out of the Middle East and China might also step up to the plate as well. So, if somebody wants to walk away from MAX 10s, I think there will be a queue of people will take them. But to answer to your question, we have to be very keen on taking MAX 10s for summer ‘26, not summer ‘25, that would be too early for us.
Conor Dwyer: Great. Thanks.
Michael O’Leary: Thanks very much Conor. Next question, please.
Operator: The next question comes from Muneeba Kayani from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Michael O’Leary: Muneeba, hi.
Muneeba Kayani: Good morning. I just wanted to clarify on pricing for Q4, so fares were up 13% year-over-year in Q3 and kind of what’s in your guidance for Q4? And then secondly, just on capital return and the share buyback. Given the share ownership issues post-Brexit, like, how does that impact your ability to do a share buyback this year? Thank you.
Michael O’Leary: Sorry, give me let’s say the second piece of that again, Muneeba, do share buybacks…
Muneeba Kayani: Just in terms of your ownership post-Brexit. And how do we factor that into a potential share buyback?
