Flughafen Wien Aktiengesellschaft (FLU) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Our results for the first 3 quarters 2024, including the result for the third quarter. And we saw throughout all parts of our company a positive development on the background of good traffic results. And overall, revenues went up 13%. And from today's perspective, we will exceed a total turnover of EUR 1 billion end of the year. Net profit went up 19.4%. What is very important to see is that we saw a steady increase of results, especially from our subsidy in Malta. And this year, EUR 40 million out of the EUR 207 million are contributed by Malta. All that is on the background that we saw extraordinary growth in Malta and growth in Vienna as well, not on the same pace, but also an increase. And putting all together, we have been so far slightly above 2019 levels. And our EBITDA is well positioned. And from today's perspective, we will be better than the current guidance in minimum expected. So if we move forward, the next slide, you'll see in detail, revenue increased to roughly EUR 700 million EBITDA to EUR 368 million; earnings before interest and taxes, EUR 268 million and, as expected, positive financial results that are now fully accrued because we have no outstanding debt that has to be served. If we move on to the next slide, you see as well substantial cost increases both for personnel expenses, up 14.4%, but also for maintenance. As it was the case during corona, we have now some issues that have not been solved in the corona period, and they are contributing to higher maintenance. Depreciation and amortization is more or less the same as it was last year. And EBITDA margin stays at 46.5%, which is rather fine for us and meets substantially our goals out of that; EBIT margin at 33.9%. If we move forward to the cash flow position, you see that the free cash flow has substantially improved to EUR 114 million. CapEx in the first 3 quarters was at EUR 131 million. So a certain bulk will follow in Q4, maybe that we end up below our EUR 200 million target, but it will be somewhere in that range. Net liquidity, still fine. Equity position went up to EUR 1.637 million, a plus of 5%, and equity ratio at 70%. The additional capital expenditures result especially from the terminal expansion project and also investment projects in Malta, especially SkyParks 2 terminal extension, a photovoltaic plant and things like that. Overall, these figures show that we can finance the projects that are now underway out of our liquidity and of the cash flow. So we will not need debt for the next years, and we will be well financed throughout this period. If we look at other key issues, as already mentioned, the terminal expansion is well underway. It's in time and within budget. And from today's perspective, there's no reason to assume that we will not end up in the time schedule planned and within the budgeted cost. We are still progressing in our sustainability activities. We just recently opened a supercharger station for EV vehicles. And we have now roughly 46 hectares of solar power plants. And we are considering to add some storage facilities, electricity storage facilities, to the plants because it would be essential to fully utilize the production power that we have now built. Also, our AirportCity continues to grow. We had the groundbreaking ceremony, and construction is strongly progressing for the new hotel, and it will be opened in autumn 2025. And we see a constant inflow of companies coming to the airport. Just in these days, TUI will move to the airport with their Austrian operations. And many other interests are still pending, so that we can expect that our office facilities will be filled more or less throughout 2025. Also, the congress business is going well with Cargo Day and FlyPharma and other events. And so from today's perspective, we can expect also slightly growing business there for the coming years. So summing up, we are optimistic now that we will exceed EUR 1 billion as revenue, that our EBITDA will be clearly above EUR 400 million and the group net profit will also be clearly above EUR 220 million. CapEx, I would say best guess is somewhere around EUR 180 million or close to EUR 200 million. So that are the main figures from my side. And if you look at our share price, it's still in a very favorable position. We had EUR 52 to EUR 56 in the last days, which equals a market cap of roughly EUR 4.5 billion. And it shows an effect that was totally unexpected or nobody has expected maybe 5 years ago that total, our market cap is above Fraport, which is substantially bigger than Vienna. But from the profitability standpoint, I think it's a clear outperformance compared to Frankfurt. So that's from my side, and I hand over to Julian.

Yes, good afternoon. I will continue with the traffic figures. Traffic has been really, really strong in Q3 and October was very positive as well. In the first 3 quarters of this year, we had, in Vienna, growth by 7.2%; October, plus 7.8%, a new record as well with 3 million passengers. Malta, really astonishing, plus 15.5%. Gross debt slowing down a bit with plus 8.9% in October. Kosice, plus 18%; October, plus 6.1%. So overall, 31.6 million passengers, including September, and then 3.8 million passengers in October, plus 9.1%, respectively, plus 8%. What you have to understand because, obviously, we are now above the 2019 figures, including October, but after the autumn holidays in Austria, now traffic is slowing down, and we are quite significantly behind the 2019 figures. Probably you remember that 2019, the low-cost growth really kicked in, in the last couple of months of the year. So from today's perspective, my best guess would be that we are above 31.5 million passengers. And then we will be, in any case, below or slightly above the 2019 figures. Definitely, it will be an excellent year in Vienna and for the whole group. If you look at the details for Vienna, I think the picture is overall very positive. What we see that in terms of seat load factors, probably we reached a certain level, which is not that easy to surpass anymore. What we see as well is that the ticket prices are not growing anymore. So I think it will become more and more difficult in the coming months for the airlines to really push through this very high ticket prices which, on the other hand, means that with rising costs, staff costs mainly for the airlines, it might be more difficult in the future to reach the desired results. Very positive in Vienna's cargo, plus 35% in October, plus 19.7% in the first 3 quarters. So overall, really positive, mainly driven by Chinese e-commerce. How sustainable that growth is, we'll see next year. But this year, definitely, we saw a very positive development. And what's positive as well is that, in October, we saw transfer passengers increasing quite significantly with plus 8%. So overall, I think 2024 is a real success story and gives a very positive picture. And then, despite the still very difficult geopolitical situation, I mean still there's a war in Ukraine going on, so we have no passengers from Russia, no passengers from Ukraine, Middle East is hurting mainly Austrian Airlines very badly. I think we spoke about the very important traffic flow from Tel Aviv via Vienna to the U.S. Middle East was down 15% in Q1 to Q3. Far East is growing. So I think given the geopolitical situation, we should be very happy with our results so far. And looking forward, I mean, obviously, it's very early for 2025, but overall, we don't really have visibility for summer yet. Winter doesn't look bad, but I would assume that given the economic situation in Europe and in Austria, given the geopolitical tensions, there's no reason to believe that we would be looking at significant growth next year. From today's perspective, I would assume that we would be somewhere along the lines of 2024. But as you know, we will know hopefully more in January, and we will give our guidance and forecast then in January 2025. Our 3 major airlines all are doing quite well. Austrian still growing at record levels higher than 2019; Ryanair, obviously higher than 2019; and Wizz Air essentially on the level of 2019. Wizz Air is the airline which was mainly impacted or heavily impacted by the engine troubles. So for us, the most important decision we expect next year is if Wizz Air will base some XLR in Vienna. We are in constant discussions regarding a connection to India. I think this would be, from a strategic perspective, very important for us. But overall, I think all the 3 airlines are doing well, but we don't expect significant growth in 2025 from either of them. I think the rest of the picture is pretty positive. I think Lufthansa, 51%; low-cost, 30.4%. And I said this more than once I think in this forum, I think this is, for us, a very good balance between our main hub carrier and the low-cost carriers. And I think there's still, for the coming years, quite some potential on long haul from Asia mainly, but from the U.S. as well. So overall, I think we are in a pretty good spot, having recovered very fast now on really an extraordinary level of 2019. And what you shouldn't forget as well is that the 2019 figures were extraordinarily high. So I think it's quite an achievement to be on that level already again. So I think the growth pressure is not that strong in the next 1 or 2 years for us. The winter schedule, roughly 60 airlines operating 166 destinations in 66 countries. I think we can be quite happy with the resumptions of this year. ANA came back to Tokyo-Haneda since August. Hainan Airlines came back in May from Shenzhen. They are starting a new destination with Chengdu on the 1st of December. Air Arabia starts again from Sharjah. Sky Express is launching a service to Athens starting from December. And Austrian Airlines will grow frequencies to Bangkok over winter. So I think the outlook here is pretty good. Yes, I wouldn't want to go into too much detail on the airlines. I think I've mentioned most of it. But I think the good news is that we see really a very stable development of Austrian, of Ryanair and Wizz Air. And I think this is good news for us. Yes, I think I mentioned already our expectations for this year. We said cautiously, we will be above 30 million. From today's perspective, I'm very optimistic that we will be above 31.5 million, so around 31.6 million. And if it stands better than 2019 or not, we'll see probably on the 30th of December or the 31st of December, but we will be very close. In the group, from today's perspective, I think I would expect something close to 41 million passengers. Yes, a few words to the different segments. Airport segment, obviously driven by volume growth and the airport charges increase. EBIT, plus 18%, EUR 117 million, very significant growth. From the revenue perspective, plus 18% from the passenger-related fees, which is 74% of our overall revenues in this segment. Aircraft-related fees, just plus 1%, 14%. And the rest is then infrastructure and services. Looking forward, we increased our airport charges by 4.6% starting on 1st of January. Gross, net, we developed a new incentive to push growth in the winter months, which will mainly support Austrian Airlines, Ryanair and Wizz Air. So net, I would expect next year airport charges to grow roughly by 3%. And as I already told you in our last call, for the year after, we expect airport charges to decrease roughly by the same amount. So obviously, we don't know yet inflation. We don't know yet the growth of the first 6 months of next year. But from what we gather, we would expect airport charges to decrease by the 1st of January 2026 by roughly 4.5%, plus/minus. And given that we don't necessarily have to extend incentives, we expect the development in airport charges to be pretty flat if I take '25 and '26 altogether. And from '26 then, again, we are in our old pricing model where the airport charges development depends on inflation and growth. Handling & Security Services. As I told you, we had already, in the last call, expected a very strong third quarter, and we delivered a very strong third quarter. So EBIT increased by 50% to EUR 10.9 million. Obviously, air cargo volumes helped. Revenue was growing very significantly in our freight handling. Ground handling, plus 8%; Security Services, plus 12%, so I would say, overall, a satisfying picture. But obviously, this will remain the segment where we have to fight the hardest. There's a lot of pressure from the airlines on the prices. Costs and collective agreement are constantly rising because of inflation. So overall, this really continues to be a fight, but we are very happy that this year's development is significantly positive. And as I said, having ground handling in our own hands is very important for the quality. And I just received yesterday the numbers for the first 9 months of this year. Vienna Airport is the fifth most punctual hub in Europe. Ahead of us there are Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Madrid, and we are significantly more punctual than Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich. So overall, I think we can be very happy with our operational performance, with ground handling and security services a main driver of this performance. Retail & Properties, doing well as well. External revenues, plus 12%, EUR 151 million; EBITDA, plus 11%, EUR 87 million; and EBIT EUR 72 million, plus 12.9%. Center management, a bit more than 50% of the overall revenue in this segment, plus 14%; rentals, plus 13%; and parking, plus 9%. I think the major driver of additional revenue and results in this segment starting from '27 will be our South extension. Right now, all the space is rented out. So I think we have just 1% left, essentially nothing. In the next 12 months, we will do our utmost to find the right tenants and to negotiate the best possible rents for the South extension. So far, we see a lot of interest on the F&B side and on the retail side, and we will have, yes, a lot of meetings, a lot of negotiations to do until the end of next year to fix all these contracts to be in time for the opening of the South extension in the first half of 2027. Malta, doing exceptionally well driven by the passenger development, plus 15% in the first 3 quarters. Ryanair, they're the biggest carrier with a 51% market share. I think we spoke about KM Malta Airlines, very important development this year. A deal with the European Commission was done. And after the restart, they saw an insignificant passenger reduction of 4%. So overall, I think an excellent development with an EBIT of close to EUR 60 million, revenue EUR 107.8 million and a 70-30 split in terms of airport and retail. Yes, that's it from our end. Thanks a lot for your interest, and now we are happy to take your questions.

And the first question is already here. Carlos?

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes, we do.

Okay. Good. Yes, two quick ones, okay? So the first one is on the delays in aircraft deliveries. I understand that several planes from Austrian Airlines are just pending a small approval before being sent to Vienna Airport. So I was wondering if you have any kind of visibility on the timing. And the second one is related to Chinese traffic, and if you could please share with us where it stands now compared to 2019.

If I'm not mistaken, China is I think 20% below 2019. This was October, so there's still some room for growth. We had more capacity on Beijing in 2019 and more capacity on Shanghai. But we see quite some interest now from Chinese airports and airlines, mainly on secondary airports in China. And I think Chengdu was a very positive sign and Shenzhen. So we will do our utmost to get more connections to secondary airports. I don't expect a significant traffic growth to Beijing or Shanghai. I think overall, the European airlines are really suffering in this market. There's less business traffic between Europe and China. So I think this is the main issue. And on Austrian Airlines, yes, this is one of the reasons why we are not overly optimistic apart from the macroeconomics and the geopolitical situation. But if I look into the details, we expect the 787 deliveries for Austrian to be delayed. So I don't expect an additional aircraft next year. So I think there will be some capacity constraints next year. Overall, we are still happy. And 2 or 3 years ago, we would not have expected that Austrian gets a new long-haul fleet altogether, but now we probably will see a few delays.

Vladimira, the floor is yours.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Yes, we do.

Okay. So congratulations to a very good set of figures. And just two quick questions. First one will be related to what you write in your report. You are referring to a significant increase in seat capacity in 2019/'20 winter flight schedule. And then now that you are expected to be below, could you maybe share a little bit more details what is the current seat capacity compared to the 2019/'20 winter schedule? And then going forward, I would like to know, personnel expenses went up by some 14% this year, is this like fairly reflecting the full year picture as well? And by how much do you think that you will see your personnel costs growing next year? Last, but not least, I have not seen anything on the third runway. So just to confirm if this is something that is still pending and when we can expect maybe more information coming on this.

Yes. Let me start with the winter schedule. I mean, just to give you an idea, I would expect now, for the rest of November and for the first 3 weeks of December, to be quite significantly below 2019. From a seat capacity perspective, we are roughly 10% below 2019. I mean be it 8%, 9% or 11%, but plus/minus, I would expect that we will be roughly 10% below. And so that means right now until the end of October, we are roughly 250,000 passengers ahead of 2019. But now with significantly less seat capacity and less passengers, we will lose this. So we'll be pretty close, one way or the other, to 2019. And then we will start comparing ourselves either with 2024 or 2019 in January because January and February 2020 were the absolute record months. But in the end, this is not relevant anymore. And your question regarding the third runway, I think nothing changed in this respect. We are working on the project. Our teams are reassessing construction costs, land costs, operational issues. And as we said before, it's our intention to be ready to take a decision end '25 or in the first quarter '26. And I would not assume any news until then, except anything extraordinary happens.

Günther, on the personnel expenses.

Yes, yes, regarding personnel expenses. Firstly, our collective agreements have normally a duration of 12 months starting from the 1st of May. So what we agreed this year then in April for '24/'25 is still progressing for the first 5 months, also in '25, and then we will enter into a new collective agreement for the next 12 months. Given the situation of inflation right now, if we accumulated from May and somehow extrapolated to the end of March of '25, inflation rate will be substantially below even 3%, if not an adverse movement will come in the next 4 months. And this inflation rate then will be the basis for the negotiations for the next agreement. And this, as I said, starts with 1st of May. What you see in our first 9 months is that we hired additional personnel in the first 9 months of roughly 5%. This will slow down substantially because, if we are not expecting growth, we will not be able to increase the number of employees, with some exemptions where we have specific needs and the specific situation like building and supervising all the projects. But overall, we will have to be very restrictive in regard of additional personnel to slow down the development of personal costs. And overall, I mean, we will enter now, after 3 years of relatively strong growth, a period where we see no growth or very slow growth rates, at least for '25. And the overall economic situation, especially in Germany, and that is also very much affecting the situation in Austria, does not show economic growth expectations for 2025. And this will, in any case, also somehow reflect on our growth potential. So for the coming year, I think we have to be a little bit cautious, expecting substantial growth. And so the cost management issue will be now again on the table. I mean, we always tried to be very disciplined in regard of costs, but now it gets even more essential given the fact that growth expectations definitely will slow down.

Are there any further questions? Because if not, then as each and every quarter, I thank you for your participation, for your question, especially in your interest in Vienna Airport, and would close the session. Replay should be online soon, later this afternoon. No hand is popping up. So I thank you, everyone, for participation, and I close the call. Thank you, and goodbye.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Good bye. Thank you.