Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Gelly, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Athens International Airport Conference Call and Live Webcast to present and discuss the Flash Note full year 2024 financial results and strategy update. All participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded.
The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. George Eleftheriou, Manager, Investor Relations. Mr. Eleftheriou, you may now proceed.
Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and good morning to those of you listening to us across the globe. Welcome to our conference call of Athens International Airport Flash Note financial results for 2024. Please note that the digital playback of the conference will be available from about one hour after the conference call has ended and until March 6, 2025.
Today, I'm joined by our CEO, Mr. Yannis Paraschis, our CFO, Mr. Panagiotis Michalarogiannis, our CSO, Mr. George Kallimasias, and our Director of Finance, Mrs. Nadia Xirogianni. Also, let me mention that our presentation is available on our website at the section of Quarterly Results in the Financial Information, and with that, I would like to give the floor to our CEO.
Thank you, George. Thank you, everyone, for attending our today's call on the basis of yesterday's Flash Note, where we present our 2024 unaudited financial results and a very positive strategy update for the company and its shareholders. When we turn to page four of the presentation, 2024 has been a record year for Athens Airport. We handled 31.85 million passengers, a growth of 13% versus the previous year. Our traffic mix characteristics remain predominantly O&D, international passengers, and leisure.
All these characteristics have contributed to an above-average rebound and growth in the post-pandemic era in other European airports as well, but very much so in Athens. Our traffic growth translates to record financial results. On the right-hand side of the slide, we present our revenue growth to EUR 665 million. Both segments, the air and non-air segments, profited from improved revenues.
Just to highlight here that when we compare it to 2023, the year included a compensation, an untaxable compensation of EUR 20 million from the Greek state for the losses incurred in the second half year of 2020 during the pandemic.
Now, the improved revenue performance and the good cost performance translated in improved EBITDA, and you are familiar with our adjusted EBITDA margin, where we include our fixed part of the Grant of Rights Fee and exclude the COVID compensation, EUR 424.8 million in terms of EBITDA, an EBITDA margin of 63.8%, among the highest in the airport space in Europe. That translates, obviously, to significant profit after tax and the decision of our board to propose to the AGM for distribution a dividend of approximately EUR 0.78 per share.
On the next slide, number five, we see the growth versus 2023, which we commented about, but at the same time, we see a very remarkable growth when compared to 2019, which was the record year pre-pandemic. Important to note here that most of the growth came through the international segment with 15.7% versus 2023, as opposed to 7.3% in the domestic.
On the next slide, we see some comparisons which indicate that Athens strongly outperformed the European average airport space versus the average growth versus 2023 in Europe was 7.4%. We had the 13% growth, but more importantly, when compared to 2019, where the European airport market recovered with 1.8% versus 2019 only last year, we demonstrate a growth of 24.5%.
Also, in the lower part of the slide, very important to note that most of our growth comes from the non-peak quarter, not the third quarter, and that is in line with our strategy for a smoother profile of traffic throughout the year, avoiding extreme summer peaks.
On the next slide, slide number seven, very important part of our strategy update. Given the traffic growth over the last year, we have been working with our design and engineering teams on the 33 million annual passenger expansion and the 40 MAP expansion, and we identified a clear opportunity to accelerate and optimize the expansion program and realize significant benefits.
So the numbers that you are probably familiar with from the 33 MAP to be completed by 2028, EUR 650 million (2022 prices), and the 40 MAP with EUR 700 million are now being combined into a smoother expansion phase to be completed by 2032 and deliver a capacity of 40 million annual passengers.
This new approach would accelerate the delivery of 40 million passengers capacity by '32 versus previously the mid-30s. In the non-air space development, in such a way, we will expand our currently 30,500 square meters to 34,000, a significant improvement compared to the previous expansion program, which would deliver only 22,000. So we have a growth of 150% in terms of commercial space, very, very important for our Non-regulated Air Activities revenues.
At the same time, we are able to realize commercial and cost synergies in terms of CapEx from combining the two phases, while at the same time delivering earlier on the 33 million annual capacity that previously planned, this being now scheduled for the first half year of 2028. So we have an incremental delivery of additional capacity. Now, when it comes to the financing of this expansion phase to the 40 MAP, we developed a program that allows us also to use equity for the financing of this phase.
This Air Activities capital increase is important because this allows us additional returns as per our regulation that led our board to propose from this year's dividends of EUR 235 million to EUR 35.9 million to propose a scrip dividend program, out of which EUR 100 million will be the minimum offered to the shareholders, and a voluntary, excuse me, 135.9 million will be the minimum cash, and EUR 100 million will be a voluntary scrip, whereas we aim for the next three years, from 2026 to 2028, to offer another EUR 140 million from future dividends in terms of the scrip program.
At this point, I think it is important to highlight, as we have indicated also in our Flash Note, through this increase of the Air Activities capital, we are entitled to respective returns, consistent with our regulatory framework. As mentioned already, we will increase our Air Activities potential, early delivery of increased commercial space, and additional revenue. And that allows us, obviously, with the debt that we have already in place and the additional equity to retain a healthy balance sheet with a net debt to EBITDA ratio between 2 and 3 and not to exceed 3.5.
Important, also indicated on this slide, to mention that our cornerstone shareholders, both AviAlliance and HCAP, have informed us today that, based on the Flash Note, they are favorable and they intend to participate in the scrip program. And with that, I hand over to Nadia for the financial performance, more details on the financial performance of the year.
Okay, thank you, Ioannis. I will give you some more color on the financial performance of 2024. In the next slide, you can see the revenues performance. As the CEO said, the impressive traffic growth, plus the very successful performance of the commercial activities, resulted in significant revenue level that we recorded, EUR 665.5 million in 2024, which is an increase of 10.2% compared to 2023. But if we exclude the one-off compensation impact that was recorded in 2023, the EUR 20 million, the growth is 14%.
The Air Activities, the regulated segment, is actually the 76% of our total revenues recorded, and this increase is in line with traffic growth. As you see, the air revenues per passenger is at EUR 15.9 per passenger, as expected, and as was in last year.
The very good development is the increased revenue per passenger of the non-regulated segment, which actually has this uncapped profitability potential, and this is good news. So the EUR 4.8 per passenger in 2023 turned in 2024 to EUR 5 per passenger, an impressive 18.9% growth.
This is mainly driven by the very good performance of the terminal retail revenues for various reasons, mainly due to the successful expansion of the international flight schedule to high-yield markets. And, of course, this affected the spending per passenger, to improved financial terms of renewed agreements, the introduction we had of new concepts throughout the year, and, of course, the inflation. So if we go to the next slide, on top of the very good revenue performance, we continue to focus on cost discipline.
However, we address all the additional requirements we need to handle the traffic levels and to keep providing attractive service levels to our customers. Overall, we recorded in 2024 total operating expenses at EUR 225.7 million. This includes the variable portion of the Grant of Rights Fee, which is the concession fee that the company pays to the Greek state.
This increased year on year because this is based on a higher profitability. If we exclude this, the remaining part of the operating expenses increased compared to the previous year by 8.2%, and the growth comes as a result of the additional resources in-house and outsourced we required to handle, as we said, the traffic levels and the service levels we want to keep, plus the inflation and minimum salary increases in Greece as of 2024 that affected various outsourcing contracts we have.
Still, however, you will see that the operating cost per passenger, even also excluding the Grant of Rights Fee, provides a significant benefit year on year. So from EUR 6.1 per passenger, it ended up to EUR 5.84 per passenger in 2024. So the combination of the performance of the revenues and the operating costs drives the very solid EBITDA base that we recorded in adjusted terms.
And as Yannis said, the adjusted EBITDA, which is the metric we keep track on, excludes any one-off items as a compensation received by the Greek state and also takes into account the fixed portion of the concession fee, which is EUR 15 million every year. So the adjusted EBITDA we recorded in 2024 is at the level of EUR 424.8 million, with a significant adjusted EBITDA margin, a very strong 63.8%.
After accounting also for the remaining fixed cost elements of the income statement, we end up at net income of EUR 235.9 million, which is a growth of 11.5% compared to previous year if we take out the compensation benefit. This means that the earnings per share, which will be also the equivalent of the dividend distribution, is EUR 0.78 per share this year.
If we go to the next slide to see some more details on the status of the regulated deal, as we said, we recorded in 2024 total net income EUR 235.9 million. This derives from the performance of both Air Activities and Non-Air Activities. We give you a range since we are in the process of finalizing the breakdown between Air activities and Non-Air Activities.
So the net profit that comes from the Air Activities is within the range of EUR 143 million-EUR 148 million, which implies a Return on Equity of 26%-27%, a bit lower than the previous year since we had to invest on the cost side to keep the service levels.
And this also means that taking into account the status of the Air Activities deal in the previous year, the remaining Carry Forward Amount at the end of 2024 is in the range of EUR 19 million-EUR 24 million that we will target, of course, to recover in the following year. And this completes the overall picture of the financial performance, and I give the floor to George to tell you more details on the scrip dividend program and the outlook.
Thank you, Nadia. Before going on the scrip dividend details, one more slide to sum up our very positive performance with a couple of charts comparing us with airport peers. On the left-hand side, you can see the traffic growth compared to other airports from the base year 2019 until 2024.
With regard to traffic growth and compared to all European airports with traffic exceeding 25 million passengers, we are number one in the growth of all these what we call major airports, and you can see also here, compared to some of the peers, you can see a significant difference, positive difference on the compounded annual growth rate. On the right-hand side, with regards to our financial performance, we also demonstrate very high profitability in terms of EBITDA margins compared to peers. This chart shows 2023 EBITDA margins. Our adjusted EBITDA margin in 2023 was about 63%, 62.9%.
2024 was even higher, 63.8%. So you can see from this chart that we also demonstrate considerably higher margins in terms of EBITDA compared to other airport peers. If we move to the next slide, 15, a few more details about the scrip dividend program for 2025. As mentioned earlier, our board unanimously approved the distribution of 100% of our net profits to net profits of EUR 235.9 million in 2024, which equals approximately EUR 0.78 per share.
And EUR 100 million of this dividend, distributable dividend, will be in the form of a voluntary scrip, and the rest, EUR 135.9 million, will be in cash. The pricing terms and the calculation methodology for the price will be in line with market practices, but will be announced the second quarter of the year after the annual general meeting. So some important dates with regards to the milestones of the scrip dividend.
First of all, on the 24th of March this year, the board will approve the annual report and the financial statements. We will publish them, and shareholders will be invited to the AGM. The AGM will take place on the 14th of April, where the scrip dividend program is expected to be approved. The exact methodology of pricing and determination of the election period will be announced on the 17th of April following a board resolution on the extraordinary share capital increase.
With that, we can move to the next section of the outlook for the year. Let's go to slide 17. First of all, with regards to traffic forecast, we've seen spectacular growth over the last couple of years. We expect a reduction in the growth rate, and actually, our forecast for 2025 is in the mid-single-digit levels for passenger growth.
We expect to gradually converge to low single-digit growth rates in the long term. Another important development and important for 2025 is the fact that we have announced that in the summer period of 2025, we will change our status from Non-Coordinated to Schedule Facilitated in order to address capacity constraints with regards to air traffic control. What this means is that the growth will come mostly to the off-peak hours during the summer in a controlled manner. We have also announced that we will implement incentives to drive additional traffic in the off-peak hours.
In terms of guidance on the financial performance, following the full utilization of the carry forward amount due to the exceptional traffic and financial performance, we expect that the Adjusted EBITDA margin for 2025 will decrease by approximately 100 basis points, which is slightly below our long-term target for 60% plus of Adjusted EBITDA margins. We also expect incremental Air Activities revenues from the equity increase following the scrip issuance.
And finally, on the net income for 2025 and 2026, we expect that we will have a net income in the order of approximately EUR 200 million annually, which includes the utilization of the remaining carry forward amount plus the additional return from Air Activities investments that we mentioned earlier from the scrip program. Moving on to the expansion program, a few further details on the accelerated CapEx program.
As mentioned earlier by the CEO, it features mainly the acceleration of the terminal in a single phase, the 40 million passenger capacity developed in a single phase. In the central picture, you can see what our terminal is expected to look like after the completion of this phase. It relates to approximately 68% increase of our floor space by an expansion towards both sides of the terminal to the north and to the south. We expect that we will have faster delivery, earlier delivery of the 33 million passenger capacity by the first half of 2028.
It also features additional increased retail space. The previous plan of the 33 MAP featured approximately 60% increase in retail space. Now we project a retail space increase of approximately 150%. So moving from 13,500 square meters to approximately 34,000 square meters.
The other two projects are also on track. We are actually completing the tender process. In a few weeks, we will be awarding the construction for the development of the new multi-story car park, which is a non-regulated activity, and we will provide additional Non-Air Activities revenues expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2027, and the additional aircraft parking positions are also expected to be developed in the second quarter of 2027.
I think it's important to mention two things here. First of all, that our expansion is based on an approved master plan and does not require any development of new runways or taxiways, so it's mainly terminal buildings and the two additional projects that we mentioned here.
In terms of cost, the other important thing is that in terms of cost, we expect that the full development of the 33 MAP and 40 MAP, as we see here, will cost approximately EUR 1.3 billion in terms of 2024 prices. It will be, to a large, to the greater extent, recoverable by Air Activities revenues and is expected to be fully amortized and recovered within the concession period. If we move on to our ESG developments, we are on track with an ambitious program for becoming Net Zero, 100% Net Zero carbon by the end of the year.
We have awarded last year the development and construction of the last phase of the photovoltaic park is under process and is underway and is expected to be completed before the end of the year on time for the target, which will allow us to have 100% of our electricity produced on site, and we also have on track the other two pillars of our Route 2025 program, which is electrification of our vehicle fleet and the installation of heat pumps to replace natural gas consumption by clean electricity, and with that, I give the floor again to our CEO for the final remarks.
Thank you, George. So in summary, we can say that 2024 has been a record year, very strong traffic growth, 13%, and very robust profitability. We decided on a 100% dividend payout proposal to the AGM with significant yield based on the EUR 0.78 per share.
We decided to accelerate the airport expansion and deliver 40 MAP capacity earlier than originally planned by 2032, while we gradually be delivering incremental steps, modules of capacity towards the final completion of the program. That allows us to generate higher Air Activities profits due to the increase in equity through the scrip dividend program and substantially higher Non-Air Activities revenues from additional commercial space than previously expected.
So in all, in terms of strategy outlook, we believe that by continuing to deliver a world-class experience at Athens Airport to our passengers, we also, through the accelerated expansion program, will be able to create significant value for the company and our shareholders. And with that, thank you very much, and we're here to answer questions which we are sure that you will have. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, then you may press star and two. Please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from the line of Garces, Jose Carlos, with Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Hi everyone. Thank you for the presentation. I'm looking forward to taking my questions. I have three, if I may. First, on the scrip dividends, given that you've already had conversations with your shareholders, could you shed some light on the acceptance rate you are expecting during the 2025-2028 period? And could we also assume that this option may be extended beyond 2028?
Second, on the expansion plan acceleration, the total amount to be invested over the 33 MAP and 40 MAP was EUR 1,350 based on 2022 costs. Now it's going to be EUR 1,280, even though the plan is going to be more aggressive, as we can see with the commercial space. So could you give us some color on how this is going to work, and where do you expect to see CapEx savings? And the final question, if traffic continues to outperform expectations throughout the new investment plan, will we end up seeing an integration of the 50 MAP into this new phase? Thank you.
Yeah, we will distinguish the questions with the team here. In terms of the acceptance rate, we expect, obviously, as we said, from our cornerstone shareholders to participate. As they account for 75.5%, we expect that the also partial acceptance from the free float.
All in all, significant acceptance of the program. In terms of the second question, in terms of the overall CapEx budget, by integrating the two phases into one, we will realize CapEx savings because it was obvious from the analysis performed by our design and engineering teams that the two-step approach would require us to build parts in the airport. We would have to demolish in order to continue with the next phase. That is expected to deliver savings, and the team may also comment on this one.
I would say that with regard to the third question, the 50MAP phase remains something which is not within our medium-term planning. It remains something which will be examined towards the end of the concession period.
If I may add on the cost, if I may add on the cost savings, yes, the EUR 1.3 billion that you mentioned in the by adding the two phases of as we have provided guidance during the IPO, these were in 2022 prices, whereas these are more current prices, 2024 prices, with a significant construction inflation over, especially in 2022. So we estimate considerable savings, which are in the order of EUR 200 million compared to the initial addition of the two phases from construction synergies, both of them.
Okay, thank you.
The next question is from the line of Lobbenberg, Andrew with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hello, hi there, and congratulations on some strong results. Can I come back to the question that my colleague just asked on the scrip dividend? He said, is it possible you might continue the scrip dividend program beyond the four years that you've announced, or perhaps asking the same question in another way? I know you're balancing the interests of different stakeholders here, but introducing the scrip dividend program clearly is quite value accretive for shareholders.
So how did you decide on this scale of the scrip program? Why wouldn't it be a bit higher? And that would create more value for shareholders. Then the other question I would just like some discussion on is the aviation revenue per passenger. I think in the Flash Note, you referenced that you expect aviation revenue per passenger to come down in 2025, and yet the tariffs are flat, but you've got some incentives. So can you give us any guidance on the scale of unit revenue, unit aviation revenue decline that you expect for 2025? Thanks.
Thank you, Andrew. On the questions, would we plan for more scrip beyond what we announced now? No, that is not part of our planning. Number two, what is the basis upon which we decided on the size? This is the derivative of our needs for Air Activities expansion and what the regulation allows in line with our debt levels. So it is something which is fully in line with our regulation. As you know, the regulation sets a priority for debt, but based on special criteria, it allows also equity, but obviously, equity cannot be injected abusively, let's put it this way. The other question was about the levels of charges.
Yes, as we have indicated, any adjustment, as Nadia indicated, from the depletion of the Carry Forward Amount, which obviously will be also offset to an extent by the additional accretion of our ability to generate Air Activities profits from the scrip. But any adjustment there will be done through temporary incentives. Nadia, you want to.
Yes. And the target is, for our planning now that we are designing the temporary incentives, they will be significant, but the overall target of the profitability of the Air Activities segment in 2025 is targeted to be at the 15% return on equity, the Air Activities capital, the new Air Activities capital, plus the full depletion of the remaining balance of the carry forward amount at the end of 2024.
So this gives you an overall, let's say, picture for the Air Activities. And this is why we also provided the guidance of the targeted overall net income for both Air Activities and Non-Air Activities at the level of EUR 200 million for next year and 2026.
Okay, thank you.
We do not plan for any over-earnings, let's put it this way. And I'm sure you know what we mean. Okay, next question.
The next question is from the line of Adam Murphy with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. It's Harry from Deutsche Bank. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe a couple of clarifications to start off with. The scrip dividend that you might end up having for this year, does it earn the 15% return for the full year, or is it prorated for when it's added to the equity? And then when we think about the EUR 140 million of future scrip dividends, would it be how is it going to be phased? Is it going to be front-loaded? So maybe another EUR 100 million for the next year? Is that the right way to think about it?
And continuing on this point on scrip dividends, do you need the airlines to kind of agree to this mechanism of adding to the equity? Because presumably that impacts the charges. Maybe I'll pause here and come back to you with a couple more, but.
Okay. Starting from the last question and then addressing the other ones, I think Nadia will have the answers. As you probably know, based on our regulation, we are the entity responsible for setting the charges. Obviously, we need to demonstrate that we abide by the regulation included in the concession agreement, and therefore we always need to have the proper legal and auditors backing in doing so. So we announce our charges.
We also will complete our consultations. What we say is that what we plan is fully in line with that regulation. We have informed our regulator about this as well. But in our case, the regulator has no say unless an airline would object, and therefore they would have to opine.
This is exactly the same process that we have followed this year already with the adjustment of charges when the ADF was reduced from EUR 12 to EUR 3, and we adjusted our charges respectively. That was exactly the same process. So we have the full legal and auditor backing for the process required in line with the regulation. Nadia.
Now, as regards the first question, the entitlement of the 15% on the additional Air Activities capital will start from the, let's say, the moment that we will increase the Air Activities capital. So we expect for seven or eight months, depending on the timing. So it will be equivalent to the time of the year that we will have this additional air activities equity.
And as regards the future planning for the additional air activities capital, the plan is front-loaded, but our consideration in general is that in the following years, we will try to have also a significant share of cash dividend. So most probably we will try to distribute it based on this consideration, let's say.
Sensible, very sensible. Thanks for that. Maybe just a couple more. In terms of OpEx per pax for the near term, I believe you've come in quite commendably lower than what we thought you might end up landing at. So any guidance for OpEx per pax in the near term? And maybe one last thing. In terms of the retail space becoming operational, in terms of the capacity expansion, is that also going to be in a linear fashion, or is that going to be more sudden and step increase? Thanks.
As regards the OpEx per pax, we remain with our guidance that we will need to invest with more resources in-house and outsource to address the traffic levels and taking into consideration our terminal capacity levels. We expect that we will have, on the per passenger level, no further, let's say, saving in the future. In relation to the retail revenues, the upside will be more moderate, let's say, step-up increase following the completion of the additional terminal retail space that we will build.
Exactly. It will be as the various elements of the terminal will be delivered. So it's not going to be a linear, but we will have gradual deliveries, and the first one will be in 2028 with the delivery of also capacity of approximately 33-34 million passengers in the terminal.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.
The next question is from the line of Maglione, Dario with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. I have two questions, actually maybe three. Let's start with the first one. At the EPS level, if I sit in 2028, will the scrip dividend be dilutive or accretive as a rough estimate? Second question on commercial revenue per passenger. For 2025, you said you expect a limited upside.
What exactly does that mean? Is it like flat or maybe small growth year on year? And what's the outlook during the construction phase? And maybe last question. Again, regarding the scrip dividend, what if you can't raise the full amount, EUR 240 million? What are the alternatives? Thank you.
Coming on the last question, the EUR 240 million is the maximum offering. Obviously, there is also tax there of about 5%, and obviously the final amount of equity will also depend on the uptake. So the number obviously that we are targeting is not 240, but something below that. We are very confident that we will raise that based on the comments we made earlier. And.
On the second question, if I understood correctly, you were asking about the commercial revenues per passenger in the following year. So what we have given some guidance, let's say, in the past, we were expecting some disruption in the commercial revenues per passenger. This did not really happen. So we managed to even increase the revenue per passenger of the commercial, the non-air.
Within 2024, our target now is, again, not to see disruptions and diminishing revenue per passenger. We expect we will target to have this stable before we see the significant increase following the realization of the expansion, both on terminal retail spaces and multi-story car parking. And then.
On the, I think on the first question on whether the, even after any dilution effects in 2028, whether the EPS will be accretive, the impact of the dividend there or the scrip will be accretive, the answer is yes. We expect that the impact will be positive.
Okay. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is from the line of Wojtal, Marcin with BOA. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Could you please explain why your funding strategy for capacity expansion has changed over the last 12 months? I believe a year ago you were guiding for CapEx to be funded 100% with debt issuance, and now you are talking about debt issuance, but also equity issuance. So is that mostly because your CapEx plan is now larger and accelerated, or it has more to do with the fact that you can now include equity issuance profits in your regulatory equity balance and earn a return of up to 15%, or is it actually a combination of both? Thank you.
Good question. As we've indicated in the past, the regulation puts a clear preference on debt, and our program comprised two phases: a phase up until 2028 for 33 MAP, based on the traffic profile that we were forecasting back then, and then a, let's say, an idle period, and then a recommencement of the expansion toward the 40 MAP in the mid-30s, based on the profile we presented.
However, based on the very strong traffic growth, we have, as we mentioned, worked on the different implications of that and our ability to cope with traffic growth, and we saw the clear benefits of harmonizing these phases into and optimizing them into one up until 2032.
That generates a different profile of investments, and based on that different profile of investments, we satisfy the criteria included in our regulation for the inclusion also of equity for the partial financing, and that is an important change. That's why we, apart from the Flash Note, we felt obliged to inform our shareholders and the investor community about it because this is a change, but a very positive strategy update.
Mr. Wojtal, you finished with your questions?
Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you.
The next question is a follow-up question from Mr. Maglione, Dario with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking the follow-up question. This one is two on traffic. So how concerned shall we be about the capacity constraints and the works at the terminal? Will we have an impact on traffic in the mid-term while the traffic growth, while the construction is ongoing? And then second question on the impact of the engine Pratt & Whitney PW1000G on the airlines. Do you expect, I mean, do you expect an improvement, like airlines getting back these planes anytime soon? Thanks.
I think as we indicated, we've seen very, very strong traffic growth, and we're able to cope with the traffic growth, and we expect traffic to ease going forward. As we indicated also and explained, we are applying a number of measures in order to be able to accommodate, like the, for example, schedule facilitation in order to be able to grow in the off-peaks.
Obviously, we don't have any capacity issues when we talk about the off-peaks, off-peak days, off-peak seasons. However, we need to cope with the peaks, and what we expect is that no disruptions in terms of no limitations in terms of the projected capacity growth. As we said, we do not expect things to move on with a 13% on an annual basis. Let's put this in mind. The second question was about the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engine.
Actually, the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engine problem was very, very pronounced in 2024, and as you saw, and you know that also our home-based airlines have also partially invested in a fleet suffering from the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G problem, but they were able to cope and expand significantly.
And based on what they informed us for next year, their growth and the investment in the airport will be even higher as they recover from that engine issue. So we do not expect to be impacted by that negatively. As I said, we saw this year 13% growth despite that issue being out there.
Okay. Makes sense. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a final reminder, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Paraschis for any closing comments. Thank you.
Thank you very much for attending this call. And as indicated, we will have a number of announcements coming up around the implementation, the distribution of dividends of our script dividend program, and we will have more chances again to talk. We thank you very much for your interest in us and the airport. Thank you.