Good day. Welcome to the Fraport Q2 2026 question- and- answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to hand over to Florian Fuchs, SVP, Head of Finance, and IR. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hello, everybody. Welcome to Frankfurt to our 2Q question- and- answer session. The presentation got released this morning at 7:00 A.M. CET and is available on the web. Right now, as said before, we will have the question- and- answer session. With me at the table, we got Dr. Matthias Zieschang, our CFO. Keeping with the previous quarters and previous releases, please do keep our cautionary language in mind when it comes to forward-looking statements. Having said this, we'd like to hand over back to the operator to start with the Q&A session now.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. We will now take our first question from the line of Carlos Caburrasi from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Okay. Thank you. Hi, Matthias. Hi, Florian. Thank you.
Hello.
Thank you for taking my questions. I'll go ahead with just two questions on my side. First, I wanted to focus on the financial results. In Q2, the net financial expense figure, and here excluding joint ventures, was around EUR 100 million. Should we expect this same level in the coming quarters, or has this been any kind of one-off? Second, I was wondering if you could provide some visibility on CapEx. The reduction appears to be progressing a bit more slowly than anticipated. How confident are you in reaching the EUR 900 million full-year target? Thank you.
Starting with the last topic, CapEx, we are absolutely confident to end up with EUR 900 million. You mentioned the run rate in the first six months, which is, in comparison to further years, a little bit higher, but this has to do that on one side, now we are closing all open contracts regarding Terminal 3. This is a ramp down during the year. Second, we had some refurbishment works at our runway, on the southern runway in our parallel system. Here we had a good outflow for this refurbishment, and that's the reason why in the first six months, CapEx has been relatively high, but this will be fully compensated as planned in the second half, so that we are absolutely confident to end up with a total CapEx number of EUR 900 million. First part was regarding?
The interest result, Q2.
Interest result.
Let me take this fully up, yeah.
Yeah. You have to see that underlying, we have the expenses for our total indebtedness, the average rate of interest for the total debt. There will be no change, perhaps during the year, an increase from 3.4%- 3.6% at the end of the year. This is a minimal increase on one side. On the other side, we had this special effect that we cannot any longer capitalize interest expenses for the construction expenses regarding Terminal 3. This was a step up. Now we have a new balanced level for the next couple of quarters.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Tobias Fromme from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thanks very much for taking my question. I had one on retail. Shopping and services spend per pax dropped by 6% in Q2 and by 4% in Q1, while advertising per pax increased by 25% in Q1 and by another 5% in Q2. I was just wondering, when should we expect the inflection point for the shopping and services spend per pax to grow again? Is that with the return of the Middle Eastern travelers or a change in exchange rates? What do you expect over the next two quarters? Lastly, how resilient is the increase in advertisement per pax? Thank you.
First of all, spend per pax, you mentioned already the elements working in favor of us or working against us. On one side, we had the positive impact from Terminal 3, where as of today, the increase is about 30% spend per pax. Of course, especially driven also an increase of advertisement proceeds. On the other side, we had a significant loss of Middle East passengers with deep pockets and also willingness to spend a lot of money. Looking forward First of all, we see and expect a further improvement of the retail business inside Terminal 3 on one side, and this will be supported by the coming back of Middle East passengers, so that we are also confident that looking forward, the spend per pax will go up based on these two factors.
Regarding sustainability of advertisement, we see a huge demand for billboards, so to say, in Terminal 3, and a very good spending behavior of companies or banks, and even an increase in demand. We are looking where we can install further billboards inside this terminal because we have an excess of demand. Based on this, we are convinced that this is a sustainable trend.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Cristian Nedelcu from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you very much. Could I please ask first on Frankfurt traffic for the winter? Some of the data on airline seat capacity showing Lufthansa seat capacity in Frankfurt in Q4 down around 7% year-over-year. I'm not sure if this data is accurate or if you can make any comments on what you're seeing or expecting on your side. Secondly, just on the free cash flow, could we kindly ask you to comment a bit? You've reiterated the guidance on the free cash flow this year. Is there a range we should have in mind, like low triple digits? Is that a EUR 100 million-EUR 200 million range or a bit more or any color at this stage as we are halfway through the year?
If not so much trouble, could you remind us the building blocks next year, the lower CapEx, the Antalya dividend, and other building blocks? The last one, if you allow me, there's a bunch of international tenders that we see in the press, at least there is speculation around them. I think in the past you flagged potentially Egypt or Greece regional airports may be something of interest. I don't know if there's any update there, if those projects could still be of interest or if there's any timeline there that we should keep in mind to see progress on those tenders. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you for your questions. Starting with your last topic, M&A activities, as you mentioned in the market, it could be that Egyptian airports are coming or these regional airports in Greece. We are going to look at both opportunities, whether they are interesting for us or not. We are doing a deep analysis, and after this analysis, then if they are offered, then we have to decide to go or not to go. In principle, we are looking at these airports, and then we have to see whether this could be of interest to us or not. The rest is not relevant for us because we have our balance sheets and we have our key targets, and we have to bring down indebtedness so our firepower is limited.
Regarding free cash flow, the free cash flow development in Q2 was a little bit disappointing. This has to do with temporary working capital effects, which will level out later on during this year. This was, so to say, up and down like a roller coaster, and especially in Q2, we expect a full compensation in the rest of the year. In other words, our metric and our calculation for the free cash flow guidance for this year is robust. The only impact comes from lower traffic at Frankfurt, and via lower traffic, we have a little bit of reduced EBITDA expectation, and this of course translates also into free cash flow. All the other, what you mentioned, building blocks are stable, are robust, are sustainable.
There is no change compared to this what we said at the beginning of the year, except the weaker traffic at Frankfurt Airport and therefore a little bit reduced EBITDA expectation. CapEx this year is stable with [EUR 900 million] and also going one year forward. Next year, we always said it's about [inaudible ], there is no change. Nothing will be different to this what we said in the beginning of the year. Traffic, when you look on our international assets, traffic is very solid. On average, it's absolutely in line with our planning. Also looking forward, we assume that this will continue, this positive performance. Frankfurt, we are weaker than expected, and we have on one side, Lufthansa running flat or even with reduced seat capacities in the market.
We see Condor delivering what they have guided in the beginning of the year, but of course, due to the size of Condor, this cannot fully compensate the reduction or the weakness of Lufthansa. For the total year, we again see a number which is on the level of the previous year. More interested is what will happen in 2027. We see then from today onward, another delivery of, I think, about 10 Dreamliners coming to Frankfurt, to Lufthansa. We think that this will increase then the seat capacity. Condor is continuing with their growth path. I think we'll see six, is it correct? Six additional A330neos.
I think they leased right now four new, haven't decided yet how many will come, but also A330s will come to the-
Four to six long-haul aircraft. Let me say for 2027, this is not a guidance from today because we have to see what will happen the next couple of months. From today's perspective, we see this number of passengers in 2027, what we saw in the beginning of this year for 2026. Yeah. I think these are the questions, or the answers.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Graham Hunt from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, Matthias. Hi, Florian. Thanks very much for the questions. Maybe just sticking with the free cash flow and CapEx theme. First question, I think you were guiding to around EUR 200 million, I think that had been mentioned at the beginning of the year. Maybe you can just help us with the building blocks. You have the loss of EBITDA that you mentioned, the one-off tax charges. Are you expecting consensus to come down closer to EUR 100 million now? That's question one. Question two, just on your, I think you had a soft target of coming below 5x net debt EBITDA by 2027. Do you still see that under current conditions as achievable? Appreciate that it's difficult visibility-wise in the current market, but as it stands today, does that still seem like a reasonable assumption?
Last question, just a quick one, I guess, on ground handling, any development there around Lufthansa and the contract. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you for your questions. Building blocks of free cash flow calculation. What is stable? Stable is the number of EUR 900 million regarding CapEx, no change. Also, interest expenses on a net basis, EUR 400 million net result, about EUR 100 million tax cash out, as always, no change. On the other side, we have dividend proceeds primarily from Antalya, fully compensated on the other side by fixed concession payments for our assets in the international portfolio. You can say everything is stable except EBITDA, where we come in with our guidance saying up to EUR 1.5 billion. Internally, we had a clear target to meet the EUR 1.5 billion based on 65 million-66 million passengers at Frankfurt Airport.
If you would end up with 63 million passengers, if you would go in the middle of the range, we are going to lose EUR 2.5 million times EUR 15 per passenger. We have on the aviation side, a loss of EUR 40 million, partly compensated by perhaps a better performance on the international side, but just a partly compensation that the final EBITDA on a group level will be clearly above previous year EBITDA level, but it will be below EUR 1.5 billion. This difference, let me say, due to the traffic weakness of Frankfurt Airport, is a negative impact at the end of the day of the absolute free cash flow number, but we are talking about a double-digit EUR million amount. With other words, all the building blocks, what you mentioned, are stable compared to what we guided in the beginning of the year.
A net debt-to-EBITDA number, it will be around 5x , whether it's 4.9x or 5.1x or 5.2x, we have to see at the end of the day. I think we have to see how we end up with the net indebtedness at the end of this year and then going forward on one side and what will be the final EBITDA guidance for 2027, that's for sure. This depends, I think we will not see any surprise on the international side, a continuation of this very good trend and the performance. Let me say, the question mark in the whole calculation will be Traffic recovery at Frankfurt Airport in 2027. You know the metrics, EUR 15 just in aviation, plus a little bit coming from retail if we would have more passengers.
This is the swing influencing EBITDA and via EBITDA, of course, Net debt-to-EBITDA. Ground handling, nothing new. Our contract is on the table. It's a fair offer, based on the approach that all our cost items, including cost of capital, must be covered, and it's up to Lufthansa now. Nothing new.
Thanks. Maybe just very quick follow-up. Just as you mentioned on the net debt, I suppose it was associated with a potential increase in dividend payout. Maybe the question was more, is that still quite a hard limit for you, or it's more of a take into consideration everything in the round?
No. Let me say, one thing is absolutely clear. Next year we are paying [ EUR 100 million] for this year. This is a given and will not be discussed. The question is one year later on, and this is not exactly hard linked to whether it's 4.95x or 5.07x. At the end of the day, we are sitting together in the management team and with the supervisory board and our main shareholders, we are discussing this topic. With other words, it can even be that we are going to kick in the new regime, even if, for example, net debt-to-EBITDA would be, give the number 5.1x. Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Harishankar Ramamoorthy from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe the first one on CapEx. If I look at the cash flows for six months so far, believe you've spent around EUR 650 million. Secondly, maybe the like-for-like number for the full year guide is the EUR 900 million plus the EUR 100 million for IFRS and others, so EUR 1 billion. Could you help me understand what is changing in H2 for you to be hitting the EUR 350 million level run rate rather than EUR 650 million for H1? Secondly, maybe on the wage costs, in aviation, I think it's around 11% increase. But there's not much increase in headcount, so what is this increase driven by, given I think the wage inflation is quite low? And if there are any one-offs here, how should we think about how personnel costs move into 2027? Thanks.
Yeah. With regarding wage costs, when you look on the percentage, it's high, especially in aviation. Here we have three elements which I would like to highlight. We had in so far one-off that we had to increase provision from bonus payments for the whole management team, which was significant in Q2, so one-off. Second, we had higher as normal also expenses from partial retirement or early retirement, and we had also some structural effects by the tariff agreement, which is sustainable of course, because when you look on the average, the tariff agreement was okay, but with in so far a bias that the low income people are receiving relatively more than the high income people. Here there was some impact in aviation, but the main elements are one-off is again the provisions for bonus payments one side and partial and early retirement on the other side.
Looking forward, this is more interesting. We are assuming that this will not continue, this high increase. Also the relative percentage number adjusted by the pension reimbursement from last year, of course, will come down, so in favor of us. Looking forward into 2027, this is so far open because we are waiting for the new tariff agreement. We think given this macroeconomic situation in Germany, increasing unemployment rates, et cetera, no GDP growth at all, we think that this will lead to more modest wage increases compared to the past. With other words, that we will end up with a mid-single digit increase in 2027/2028. Was there a further question?
The first question was on CapEx in H1.
Yeah. CapEx. Again, it was compared to the whole year, it was relatively high. As I mentioned, refurbishment of one runway in Frankfurt. Also, the settlement of open contracts regarding Terminal 3. With other words, looking forward, the CapEx in H2 will be lower. Just to give you could see the increase in the indebtedness in H1. As of today, we have a net debt on the group level of about EUR 8.5 billion. Compared with the net debt from last year, exact the same date, we are about EUR 100 million higher than last year. In last year, we had the first half year proceeds of more than EUR 100 million, driven by the sale of 10% of Delhi Airport, so more income. On the other side, in this year, we paid EUR 92 million dividends to our shareholders.
Both elements had a negative impact, so to say, of EUR 200 million. Today you see just EUR 100 million difference, and this comes from a total CapEx level, which as of today is accumulated EUR 100 million less than previous year. This will continue. For the rest of the year, you will see another EUR 100 million reduction regarding CapEx compared to previous year. This is one of the main effects generating free cash flow as we predicted in the beginning of the year. Total indebtedness, what we said at the beginning, will be a little bit below EUR 8.2 billion.
Thank you.
Everything is running in the right direction, despite the fact that we had this hiccup in Q2.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone. We will now take our next question from the line of Dario Maglione from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for taking my questions. I have three. One on the ground handling contract with Lufthansa. Can you tell us a bit about what alternative Lufthansa have regarding this contract? For instance, I believe they insourced the ground handling in Munich. Could that happen in Frankfurt too? Second question is on Terminal 3 retail performance. During the presentations on the call, you mentioned a 30% increase spend per pax in Terminal 3 compared to Terminal 2. Why is that good? I think previous guidance or kind of soft guidance was that there will be a 50% improvement. Yes, directionally good, but how do you get to 50%? Or what is missing to get to 50%? Last question, around Lufthansa, as you were mentioning the capacity growth doesn't look great. Why is that? Is it just Lufthansa CityLine or something else going on?
Maybe Lufthansa is increasing traffic at other hubs. Yeah, thanks.
The first question, what you mentioned is correct. In Munich, they went for an insourcing. As far as we are informed, they took over the employees from Swissport and to do it on their own payroll. In Frankfurt this is not possible because Swissport has a market share of less than 10%. Even if theoretically they would take over all these guys, this is impossible to handle their fleet. Theoretically, it's possible, in reality, it cannot work. It's gravity. Regarding spend per pax increase, regarding Terminal 3, you mentioned the 30% on one side and the 50% guidance. This is not change of the guidance. The explanation is that when we went for 50% guidance, of course, we had in mind the given mix of passengers and sustainable structure.
We had more or less a total loss of Middle East passengers, knowing that their expense behavior is very good. It's clearly significant above average. Now we realized 30% in the beginning, in a soft opening phase, without more or less Middle East passengers, and we ended now up with 30%. On the other side, we see the recovery or we expect the recovery during the year. In other words, with the recovery of these Middle East passengers on one side and further improvements in F&B and fine-tuning in the shops, we are confident to keep to our guidance of 50% higher spend per pax for the passengers in Terminal 3. Third question, what was it?
Lufthansa capacities.
Lufthansa, as you mentioned, the grounding of Lufthansa CityLine. You can say we had the war in Iran, the exploding of jet fuel prices, reaction of airlines reducing their seat offers on one side, especially with the aircraft which are not so fuel efficient. The grounding of CityLine, and this costs us a lot of seat capacity at Frankfurt Airport, this is the main reason for the weak performance on the Lufthansa side.
Yes. Thank you, Matthias.
Thank you. We will now take our next question from the line of Dirk Schlamp from DZ Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, Dirk speaking. Thanks for taking my question. One from my side, you said that international business on average developed broadly as expected. Could you give us a bit more color on that? Which airports are currently showing the biggest deviation from your initial expectation? Thanks.
Yeah, sure. The day after, the plan is not any longer valid. We have assets which are outperforming, we have assets which are underperforming. Looking back, we have a proven track record of nearly 20 years. When we, at the end of the year, always look to what we have planned for the segment, international activities, and what is the final outcome, you can say it's coincidence. In total, we always reached our EBITDA targets as well as passenger targets, having in mind that always some assets are doing better and other ones underperforming. Now coming to our several assets in the portfolio. We have on the positive side, we have, you can say, as always, Greece with month- by- month, more than 5% passenger growth compared to previous year.
Having in mind that since the pandemic, we had year- by- year a recovery or a growth which has been always better than this what we expected. Greece is in the past and now always on the positive side. Brazil is doing very well. Fortaleza, it's just 1%, but Porto Alegre, 10%. Weighted average, it's about 5%, which is fine. Ljubljana is doing very well with actually a 15% increase. These are the positive drivers. On the negative side, we have Antalya with minus numbers in the beginning of the year because due to the proximity to Iran and the war on one side, and very significant increase on the price side and this hotel business, which dampens the demand. And so far, it's a little bit better that in July, the last number is - 1%, but this is clearly below our expectation.
The beginning of the year also, Lima is underperforming passenger-wise. On the financial side, we are happy because for the full year, we expect an EBITDA improvement to including the EUR 10 million one-off. We expect an increase of about EUR 30 million based on weak traffic, which is a good increase. I hope I have mentioned all numbers. U.S. market is as planned. It's no surprise-
Okay
not to the negative and also not to the positive side.
Thanks.
You're welcome.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone. That's star one and one to ask a question. There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Florian Fuchs.
Yes. Thank you everybody for the good set of questions. Thank you, Matthias, for the answers. We look forward right now to be in touch soon, maybe on the road or via the phone or here on site in Frankfurt. With that, we'd like to conclude the question- and- answer session. Thank you very much, and Goodbye.