Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Desiree, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Aena first quarter 2025 results presentation. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question again, press the star one. I would now like to turn the conference over to Carlos Gallego, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our Q1 2025 results presentation. This is Carlos Gallego speaking, Head of IR. It's a real pleasure being with all of you today. Our CFO, Ignacio Castejón, will host the call together with myself. As usual, we are going to cover some of the main topics explained in the results presentation that is already available both on the Aena and on the CNMV website, and we'll finish with a Q&A session. Without further ado, I give the floor to Ignacio Castejón. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Carlos. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us to go through our first quarter 2025 results presentation today. I'll start sharing some highlights with all of you, and then I'll give back the floor to Carlos to further explain our performance through this quarter. At the end, there will be a Q&A session, as stated by Carlos. I am referring now to traffic, so I would go to slide four. Aena Group traffic increased year on year by 4.9%, as you can see over there, reaching almost 78.3 million passengers. In the Spanish network, the annual increase was 4.7%, and we reached almost 63.6 million passengers, beating our expectations and recording the highest-ever traffic in any first quarter.
As you know, you are well aware that last year, 2024, was a leap year and that the Easter break took place during the first quarter of 2024. We don't see at this stage reasons to change our February traffic guidance for this year. April traffic is performing well, continuing the positive trend seen over the last quarters. The European market and most of our international markets are performing in line with our expectations. On the other hand, we observe a certain slowdown in the domestic market, and regarding the USA, the summer schedule looks higher than the comparable figure in 2024 as of today. However, we are seeing some early indicators that might result in less strong demand in the following months.
Having said all that, I would like to share that the current aircraft shortage, spare parts supply chain issues, economic and political uncertainty, rising airfare and accommodation prices, especially in Spain, could affect both the demand and supply in our industry and therefore result in changes in the traffic forecast. Now I will move to financial performance. With respect to the first quarter 2025 financial performance, total revenue went up by 7.5%, up to EUR 1,325.6 million. On the cost side, the total operating expenses increased by 3.2%, up roughly to EUR 890.6 million. This means that in total, EBITDA came to EUR 643.6 million, and the margin stood at 48.6%, comparing to 47.1% in the first quarter of the previous years. All in all, the net profit slightly exceeded EUR 300 million.
With respect to commercial, on the commercial side, and now in slide number five, I would like to mention that the growth that started back in 2022 continues this year in 2025. Total sales have gone up by 10% in this quarter and on a per-passenger basis by 5.1%. Revenue from fixed and variable rents invoiced in the period increased by 15.8% compared to the first quarter of 2024. I would like to highlight several things on the commercial front. Our tenants keep finishing their units, and therefore we are adding more renovated spaces and a more complete offer and new brands. The lot of the Canary Islands, and referring to the duty-free business, has operated this first quarter above the Minimum Annual Guaranteed Rent level for that lot. The outstanding performance of the car rental and VIP services has been incredible this quarter.
The car rental revenue increased by 32.7% year on year, reflecting the sales increase and improved conditions of the new contracts that are entering into operation on the 1st of November of last year. With regard to the VIP services, revenue increased by 33.7%, thanks to the strong demand in the VIP lounges, plus 18%, and also in the increase in the number of users. Real estate revenue also increased 9.7% year on year. In the context of this real estate activity and in our real estate businesses, I would like to highlight, and I'm happy to announce, that we have received proposals to develop the land plot for logistic purposes in the Barcelona Airport. This is a 50-year contract in which Aena will be collecting a monthly rent, and the logistic operator will be responsible for the CAPEX investments.
On the international front, international revenue and EBITDA were above EUR 168 million and EUR 88 million, respectively. Our international assets keep performing positively and delivering growth and efficiency improvements. Please note that this quarter, the reported performance of our international activity in our consolidated figure was positively affected by an insurance compensation received in Luton, also was affected by the end of our construction activity in ANB and the beginning of construction activity in our second subsidiary in Brazil, BOAB. You know that all this construction activity and how it is accounted for in our books has an impact in how we report income and cost, although it's neutral from an EBITDA standpoint.
With respect to the future capacity expansion at Luton, I would like to mention that on April 3rd, the British Secretary of State for Transport approved the expansion of airport capacity from the current 19 million passengers to 32 million passengers. Starting on that date, there is a six-week judicial review period in which there might be arguments being presented against such decision. Once this DCO has been granted, the Luton Borough Council will have to decide how and when that expansion is carried out. These are positive news for us, and as we said in our 2024 results presentation in our call at that moment in time, we would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with the Luton Borough Council to make that project happen.
As you know, in the annual general meeting held back on April 9th, all the resolutions were approved, including our updated Climate Action Plan, the 10-by-1 share split that we expect to execute in the following weeks, and also the dividend payment of EUR 9.76 per share out of our results of last year that was paid last week. Before finishing with this part of the call, I would like to refer to the very serious event that took place on Monday, mainly affecting Spain and Portugal, and referring to the general blackout that affected the country. In this regard, I would like to highlight the robustness and effectiveness of the company operations during that day. All airports were operational in the outage, thanks to the contingent power systems in place at the airports.
The transitions to these backup systems happened without disruptions, and the transitions back to the ordinary power systems also happened without major disruptions. The operations and management of the airports through our network demonstrated once again its strength by helping to keep all the airports operational and coordinated during that day. Overall, the Spanish airports served 93% of the commercial flights that day. I would like to thank all the teams involved and our partners that day. It was a difficult day, but the company reacted in a very positive manner. This is the end of my brief presentation. I will join you, of course, in the Q&A session afterwards. Now I'll give the floor to Carlos to go through the whole presentation. Thank you, Carlos. Thank you, everyone.
Okay, thank you very much, Ignacio. Let me go through some details with respect to traffic and financial performance of the company before moving to the Q&A session. On traffic, our CFO already covered the traffic performance at the group level and in Spain, so I will comment on what happened in our international concessions. Luton Airport handled 3.6 million pax. That's an increase of 7.3% compared to Q1 2024. In our Brazilian assets, ANB managed more than 4.2 million passengers, plus 4.1% year on year. And BOAB recorded almost 6.9 million passengers, 6.1% higher than the previous year. Digging deeper in the Spanish network, the international traffic grew well above the domestic, 6.7% versus 1.0% in the domestic one. Therefore, the market share of international traffic moved from 65.3% in Q1 2024 to 66.6% in Q1 2025.
European traffic represents 84.3% of our international traffic, 0.74 basis points lower than in Q1 2024 because of the extraordinary O&D year-on-year traffic growth with Asia, Africa, Middle East, and to a lesser extent with LATAM. With respect to our main markets, growth from the British market has been 3.8%, German market grew 4.6%, French near 7%, and Italy at a very healthy 15.3% despite the adverse calendar effects. In terms of performance at our Spanish airports, Madrid has an increase of 4.5%, Barcelona 3.2%, Mallorca 1.9%, and the Canary Islands 3.6%. Sixteen airports have achieved a record number of passengers in the month of March, good figures, especially given the challenging base. With respect to the airlines operating in Spain, the top 10 companies carry out circa 50 million passengers. That's an annual increase of 4.6%.
Low-cost traffic grew by 6.7% year-on-year with Iberia Express plus 9.3% and Ryanair 7.8%, leading the growth. Low-cost traffic markets circling to 60.1%. As usual, you have a full disclosure of the passenger breakdown by top airlines of countries in the slides 32 and 31 of this presentation. Let's move to slide 11. Ordinary aeronautical revenue grew by 8.2% year-on-year, mainly due to traffic performance and the year-on-year traffic increase in January and February 2025. The dilution was low, only EUR 3.5 million in the whole Q1 2025, in comparison with the EUR 28.3 million in the first quarter of 2024. Moving on to the commercial business, as Ignacio mentioned before, total sales increased by 10%. That's the double of the traffic growth. On a per-passenger basis, the growth was 5.1%. Total commercial and real estate ordinary revenue grew by 9.7% year-on-year, reaching EUR 467 million, and again, above traffic performance.
This is explained by both higher traffic and higher yield, plus 4.7%, reaching EUR 7.4 per passenger. On slide 13, we see the commercial revenue amounting to more than EUR 473 million, resulting in an increase compared to Q1 2024 of 9.6%. Once again, real estate revenue increased by 9.9% to close to EUR 30 million. Excluding the multi-year straight lining and other adjustments, now we are on slide 14. Commercial and real estate revenue grew by 11.6% to above EUR 452 million, and the revenue on per-passenger basis grew by 6.6%, reaching EUR 7.11 per passenger. I think it's worth analyzing the information along commercial business in lines to comment on some specific details. I would like to start by stating that the sales of our tenants in our core retail activities, duty-free, specialty shops, and food and beverage, grew above traffic. In the case of duty-free, growth was 19%.
In the case of specialty shops, 7%, and in the case of F&B, 6%. The extraordinary performance in duty-free sales is explained by the progress on the construction works, with a vast majority of the main stores completed, especially in Madrid and Barcelona. In Palma de Mallorca, at the beginning of April, the works of 76% of the surface subject to refurbishment in 2025 were completed. We are especially proud of the growth in sales in March, also plus 19%, despite the adverse timing of the extra period. Total business revenue in duty-free grew by 6.8% compared to Q1 2024, reaching EUR 120 million. The Canary Island lots, as Ignacio mentioned before, were the only ones that exceeded the Minimum Annual Guaranteed Rents .
The good performance in food and beverage and specialty shops can be explained by new brands and tenants, the improvement of the commercial mix, and in the case of the food and beverage, additional commercial surface. Total business revenue in food and beverage grew year-on-year by 4.8% to EUR 79 million, and specialty shops by 5.1%, reaching more than EUR 32 million. The growth rate of both businesses is in line with the traffic growth. Taking a look at the tenders of the last nine months, we awarded 23 tenders in food and beverage, with an increase of the Minimum Annual Guaranteed Rents in 2025 and in 2026 of 30% and 32%, respectively, compared to 2024. In specialty shops, the tenders awarded were 30% and the increase of 70% and 74%. These hikes are partially due to some additional premises in comparison to 2024.
In Palma de Mallorca, the premises of both businesses will enter into operation from the end of Q2 2025 until mid-2026. VIP services business revenues keep growing every quarter, 37.3% year-on-year in Q1 2025 to EUR 42 million, with an income per passenger of EUR 0.66, plus 31% compared to Q1 2024. Within this business line, VIP lounges is the main one, representing 84% of the revenue. Its revenue grew by 39% because of the higher number of users, plus 19%, at the higher average price, 17%. As the demand is stronger than ever, the penetration rate increased by 13%, standing at 2.1%. Car rental performance was also outstanding. Sales grew by 9% and the total business revenue by 30.4% to EUR 54.7 million.
The reasons behind this increase are the higher number of contracts, the higher average transaction value of the contract signed by the users, and the more lucrative conditions of the new contract that came into force last November 1st. Car park business revenue grew well above domestic traffic, plus 9.2% to EUR 47.7 million, while domestic traffic increased by 1%. The main drivers behind the revenue growth are the streamlining of the available parking spaces and the pricing policy, which pushed the average ticket by 1.5%. Let's spend some minutes on OPEX. On slide 15, you will see that consolidated operating expenses amounted to EUR 692 million. That's an increase of 4.8% year-on-year, in line with traffic. The main factors behind this increase are related to the staff costs increasing in the group, the growth of the electricity bill, higher maintenance and security costs in Spain, and lower IFRIC 12 accounting in Brazil.
If we look at the Spanish network, operating expenses amounted to EUR 597 million. That's an increase of 6.6%. Staff costs grew by 11% to EUR 142 million, mainly due to annual salary reviews. That's 2.5% higher. Social security costs and the headcount increase. Other operating expenses rose by 5.8%, reaching EUR 413 million. Although OPEX growth was higher than traffic growth, Aena clearly retains the leadership in the OPEX per passenger metric. According to 2024 data, Aena's OPEX per passenger was EUR 6.24, much lower than those of its European peers. Slide 16 shows a higher detail of the main items of the other operating expenses for the network in Spain, both in million euros and in a per-passenger basis. If we look at the cash generated by operating activities, I am referring to slide number 17, they amounted to EUR 820 million. That's an increase of 13.4%.
At the group level, consolidated net financial debt decreased to EUR 4.9 billion. The net debt to EBITDA ratio stood at 1.77 times. In this sense, let me recall you that last Thursday we paid out over EUR 1.5 billion in dividends. In the next slide, slide 18, you can see that fixed rate debt stood at 76% of our total debt compared to 77% in 2024. The average cost of our debt decreased to 2.29% compared to 2.54% in 2024. I will end up commenting on international assets. Starting with Luton, slide 19, we are about to recover 2018 traffic, 98.6% in Q1 2025. The EBITDA stood at GBP 38 million plus 75.3% compared to Q1 2024. Excluding the insurance compensation for the parking fire, the EBITDA margin grows at a healthy 70 basis points to 33.1%. Let's move to Brazil, slides 20 and 21.
I would like to highlight the traffic growth, plus 4.1% in ANB and 6.1% in BOAB. The negligible CAPEX in ANB and the mandatory CAPEX we already began to explain in BOAB. As you know, EBITDA margins are affected by the accounting standard fluctuation. Excluding this impact, the EBITDA margin in ANB stands at 65%, 290 basis points higher than in Q1 2024, and in BOAB at 63.3%, 130 basis points. That would be the end of my presentation. Desiree, if that's okay for you, we are ready to move to the Q&A session. I can see that there are many of you who would like to clear up some doubts about this presentation. In order to give everyone a chance to speak and to keep without this time limit of this presentation, I would be grateful if you could limit your comments to a single question.
As always, the investor relations team is available to answer any further questions you may have. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. If you are called upon to ask your question and are listening via speakerphone on your device, please pick up your handset to ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. Again, press star one to join the queue. Our first question comes from the line of Luis Prieto with Kepler Capital. Your line is open.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks to Aena team for taking our questions. Apologies, I had a technical issue.
Apologies if you've explained this during your presentation. My single question would be electricity costs went up, and I would like to understand what the moving parts are behind this trend, which seems to be a big change versus previous year quarterly trend. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Luis. Happy to hear from you. This is Ignacio. With respect to energy cost, basically average prices for this first quarter of 2025 compared to average prices of 2024 are higher, and that's impacting our line. You know that we have a hedge in place for the medium to long term and also a short term hedge. On average, I would say that we are protected for 2025 for around 50% of our energy cost exposure. Therefore, we are being impacted by those increases. I'm lucky to share with all of you.
I'm happy to share with all of you that we finally signed our first PPA very recently. It's a small one, but I think we are moving in the right direction with a protection for 10 years for part of our supply. I will end up, Luis, just basically stating that we are making progress with our solar farms. Hopefully, in the next 12-24 months, we will start having some energy costs coming from our own production and therefore reducing the exposure to the market. That would be all from my side, Luis. Thank you.
Thanks a lot. Super clear. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Cristian Ne delcu with UBS. Your line is open.
Hi, thank you very much.
I guess speaking to one question, if we look at the very strong spend per pax that we've seen in variable rents, it's 10-11%, as well as in the total commercial revenue, 6-7%. Do you believe that these run rates are sustainable going forward for the next few quarters? Ballpark, is that the right type of growth you would expect to see in commercial? Thank you very much.
Hi, Cristian. This is Ignacio, and thank you very much for your question. I think you know that we don't normally provide guidance for the year with respect to specific items of our P&L or business segments. I think the performance this quarter has been very positive. Traffic has helped, new brands, new units, more space. We have had there some tailwinds that are helping us.
Through the next months, we'll have more surface being open in Palma, and hopefully in the Canary Islands, in some airports , we'll have a better offer. We are hopeful, sorry, that we'll keep working in a positive manner. As you know, through the year, the traffic evolves, the passenger mix changes, and that will likely affect consumption. As I was saying at the beginning at my opening remarks, we are positive with our traffic guidance, but we are seeing some markets that are evolving more positively than others. There will be many factors that could impact that potential, that future performance. Thank you, Cristian.
Thank you very much.
Next question comes from the line of Graham Hunt with Jefferies. Your line is open.
Yeah, thank you very much for the question. I'll just come back to your point around potential traffic weakness going into the summer.
I just wanted to clarify, is that just a general comment around uncertainty that you're seeing, or are there specific data points that you're now seeing in the data or capacity for the summer that would lead you to be a little bit more cautious with regards to Aena? Any commentary? I know it's a small exposure for Aena, but anything you've seen around the US traveler would be interesting. Thank you.
Thank you, Graham. I'm very happy you have made that question because perhaps I was not clear in my opening remarks. I was not saying that, generally speaking, we are seeing a weaker demand. I was referring to some specific indicators in relation to the US market that might show some kind of potential less strong demand.
Having said that, for the U.S., we are seeing more scheduled or more scheduled seats than in the previous year as of today. It is just some early indicators that could result in that less strong or potentially weaker demand. Generally speaking, April is performing well, as I was saying, and the positive trend that we are seeing is there. We are seeing some weakness, sorry, with the domestic market. That is the info that we have in front of us. The first quarter, the Spanish market, the domestic market has grown by 1%. We are not seeing that that trend could go up. It will stay there or could go down, understanding what we are seeing. Generally speaking, no weaker demand for summer.
In summary, the U.S., your second question, looking at the schedule or capacity and comparing that number with the 2024 number at the same date, is higher, but it's true that we are seeing some weaknesses with some other early indicators that could affect those capacity numbers. Having said all that, Graham, we have a current aircraft shortage, potential supply chain issues affecting spare parts, huge economic and political uncertainty, rising prices, especially in domestic prices for the Spanish market. Many things could happen. Apart from the points that I have just shared with you, Graham, that's why we are not anticipating a deviation from the guidance that we provided in February.
Super clear. Thank you.
My pleasure.
Next question comes from the line of Elodie Rall with JPMorgan. Her line is open.
Hi, good afternoon.
My one question would be on this insurance compensation at Luton that you've registered once more in Q1 after the Q4 one as well. I was wondering if we should account for more of these to come for the remaining of the year. Thanks.
Hi, Elodie. If I understood you well, your question is about if we should expect more compensation payments coming from the Luton situation. The company is planning to get full protection with respect to the damage coming or resulting from the fire and also from the loss of revenue because of the lower commercial revenues we are having because that facility is not up and running. We will keep working with our insurance companies in order to have that protection duly paid by the insurance companies in the next months. That's all what I can disclose so far, Elodie.
Okay, thanks.
Next question comes from the line of Andrew Lobbenberg with Barclays. Your line is open.
Hello, hi there. Sorry to stay in Luton. It's not the most glamorous part of your portfolio, is it? Can you help me understand what happens in the event that the government approval for the expansion of the airport is absolutely confirmed and Luton Borough Council needs to get the agreement and get someone to build it? Does the process start with a one-on-one negotiation with you because you're the incumbent, or do we see just a fully open tender and it becomes just equivalent to you bidding for any other new potential airport transaction elsewhere in the world? How will it work, and does your incumbency give you an advantage to potentially win this opportunity?
Thank you, Andy. This is Ignacio.
We do not see the situation as an advantage because we are the incumbent. We see the situation as a win-win for everyone involved in this situation. It is positive news for our grantor, the Luton Borough, and it is also positive news for us given our performance operating and developing that airport and our experience and skills improving airports. We see this as an opportunity, as a win-win opportunity for both parties to be able to look for a solution that allows our grantor to move with the project as fast as possible and in the best possible manner, given that we are already there and we are a second-to-none airport operator and developer. We welcome the opportunity to be able to do it. That is how we see the situation, and hopefully, that is how our grantor will see the situation.
Our concession is expiring in 2032 as of today, and we will have to have many discussions and negotiations in order to look for how we accommodate this new scenario between the two parties. Thank you. Sorry?
It does not become an open tender?
I do not know.
Okay. Thank you.
Our last question comes from the line of José Arroyas with Santander. Your line is open.
Yes, thank you. I wanted to ask you about the aviation tariffs for 2026. Perhaps it is a bit early on in the year, but I wanted to ask you if the effective tariff, the IMAAJ, would rise next year, in particular, given that there was significant dilution. I think there was almost EUR 130 million revenues that were lost due to dilution.
I wanted to, in particular, ask you if the IMAAJ were to rise next year, would it impact the tariff path for DORA III, or it's two separate things? Thank you.
Thank you, José Manuel. This is Ignacio speaking. It's a bit early in the year to start talking about 2026 tariffs. We haven't started the consultation process with our carriers, our partners that are established in the applicable regulation. As you know, the company normally approves at the board meeting of July the applicable tariff for next year. At that moment in time is when we will communicate with all of you where we stand in that regard. With respect to the formula, I think it's a very straightforward one with respect to dilution recovery from the two previous years. That's how it should operate, and it's the formula there.
In 2026, as you know, we will be entitled to recover that dilution given that the caps will not be applicable. That is where we are with respect to tariff 2026, José Manuel.
That concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to Carlos Gallego for closing remarks.
Excellent. Thank you, Desiree. There are no further questions, so I think we can end the results presentation. Thank you very much, everyone, for joining us today. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect.