Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our third quarter 2026 analyst presentation. Today, I will start my presentation with the key operational and financial highlights of the third quarter and the first nine months. Afterwards, I will provide an update on our international portfolio development, our new Terminal 3 in Frankfurt, and the winter flight schedule. To conclude my part of the presentation, I will focus on our outlook for the remainder year. Matthias will subsequently take you through the financial details. Having said this, let us start with the financial highlights of the third quarter. I am on slide number three. The key message here is the continued strength of our international portfolio. Across the group, we handled close to 69 million passengers in the third quarter, which is an increase of 1.7 million compared to the previous year.
Almost the entire increase was derived from our international portfolio. This growth in operations is also clearly visible in our commercial and aeronautical revenues. Group-wide, retail sales increased by EUR 12 million in Q3, while aeronautical charges rose by EUR 32 million. Again, our international division accounted for the large majority of both increases. In particular, Fraport Greece performed strongly, with growth in retail sales by close to EUR 8 million and airport charges by roughly EUR 60 million, or half of our group increase. Group EBITDA therefore reached close to EUR 600 million, which represents an underlying increase of EUR 36 million. Of this improvement, the lion's share of EUR 28 million was achieved by our international activities. As a result, the share of our business abroad in group EBITDA increased markedly from 47% in the previous year to 54% in the period under review.
These figures demonstrate the increasing earnings contribution and strategic value of our diversified airport portfolio. Let us now take a look at the underlying traffic performances. I am on slide number four. Our main site, Frankfurt, remains resilient despite a challenging operating environment. Passenger volumes increased by around 1% in the third quarter and were broadly flat after the first nine months. The reported figures were affected by strikes, weather, and the war in the Middle East. Adjusted for strikes and weather, passenger traffic in Frankfurt would have increased by around 1.3% in the first nine months and by 1.1%, including the passenger performance in October, which was flat. Outside of Frankfurt, traffic momentum remained overall positive. Our international airports recorded passenger growth of 3.1% in the third quarter and 2.6% in the first nine months.
Fraport Greece continued its growth story and was up by 5% on a very high basis. Lima Airport recorded growth of 6% in the quarter and 3% in the first nine months. Fraport Brasil grew by 5% in Q3 and 9% year-to-date. Ljubljana Airport remained particularly strong, with double-digit growth of 17% and 16%, respectively. With this growth, Ljubljana Airport will conclude the year above the value of 2019, a remarkable result, bearing the absence of a national flag carrier in mind. Fraport Twin Star Airport Management AD also delivered solid growth in the mid-single-digit percentage area. Antalya, on the other side, was an exception. Traffic declined by 1% in the quarter and by 3% after nine months. This reflects the airport's proximity to the Middle East region and the related impact on demand.
Overall, passenger traffic increased by almost 3% in the third quarter and shows that our diversification provides an important stabilizing effect against the current macro and geopolitical background. Turning to the financial performance in the first nine months, I'm on slide number five. Group revenues increased by more than EUR 150 million -EUR 3.35 billion. Our international activities contributed more than 2/3, or EUR 106 million, to this increase. Group EBITDA reached another record high at EUR 1.18 billion and was some EUR 23 million above the prior year. Our international segment delivered an increase of EUR 69 million, more than offsetting the weaker Frankfurt development, which was positively impacted by a EUR 50 million pension refund in the prior year. Correspondingly, the share of our international segment in group EBITDA rose to just under 50% in the first nine months.
Net income amounted to some EUR 315 million and was therefore down by close to EUR 130 million. This development mainly reflects around EUR 110 million higher depreciation and amortization, and a EUR 54 million impact from the accounting of the borrowing cost. These effects are connected with the commissioning of our major investment project in Frankfurt and Lima, and are non-cash items. Thanks to the operational growth and lower capital expenditure across the group, free cash flow improved by EUR 45 million - EUR 93 million. The improvement came despite a higher burden from interest payments and working capital, which Matthias will talk about in more detail. In summary, our operating performance remains robust. International activities are increasingly driving group earnings, and the reduction in capital expenditure is now visibly supporting free cash flow. Let me now provide a brief update on our international portfolio on slide number six.
This year, we are expanding our international footprint with two small regional airports in attractive tourist markets. In Brazil, we successfully commenced operations at Jeri Airport on September 1st. The airport serves an attractive tourism region close to one of Brazil's most visited national parks. Jeri complements our existing Brazilian portfolio and provides us another presence in a market with clear long-term tourism potential. In Greece, the operational takeover of Kalamata Airport is planned for Friday this week, so November 6th. Following the takeover, we intend to launch a modernization program and develop the airport in line with the successful approach we have already applied across our Greek portfolio. At the same time, we are preparing for the commencement of the new Antalya concession on January 1st, 2027. These developments strengthen our portfolio with targeted additions and extends the long-term earnings base of our international portfolio.
Coming back to Frankfurt, slide number seven provides you with an update on the performance of our new Terminal 3. Despite the additional complexity created by the European Entry and Exit System, the operational start has been smooth. This is an important achievement for our teams and confirms our internationally well-known expertise to create and run airport infrastructure. Regarding the financial performance, we remain encouraged by the early Terminal 3 performance. Retail revenues per person were up around 30% in Q3 relative to T2, and by even 40% in the month of September, especially thanks to further advertising activities. This is an important step ahead despite a drop in passengers from Middle East of around 21%. At the same time, the overall process for Pier G is underway.
This will prepare us to operate all three piers from summer 2027 onwards and unlock the next stage of Terminal 3's capacity and retail potential. Slide number eight shows the current capacity picture for Frankfurt during the current winter season. Overall, seat capacity is expected to decline by 2% in winter, while aircraft movements are expected to decrease even stronger by 5%. While these figures are not great, the development is, however, mixed. Long-haul capacity remains robust, with seat capacity up 5% and movements up by 7%. The development of long-haul capacities are in particular strategically important to Frankfurt, as long-haul capacities will also come with a spillover to short-haul routes and vice versa. In contrast, short-haul capacities are expected to decline by 6% in seats and 9% in movements, mainly reflecting the impact of CityLine closure.
The reduction is predominantly seen in the domestic market, where seats are expected to be down by 18% and movements by 24% versus last winter. Besides the CityLine grounding, we continue to see an increasing seasonality in demand between the leisure-oriented summer and the more off-season winter. Therefore, due to rising jet fuel prices and high governmental costs, we are seeing short-haul capacities being down this winter. Due to the overall negative development of seats and movement capacities, we are now responding with further efficiency measures in Frankfurt. To enhance our OPEX development, we want to make further use of AI and digitalization to strengthen our Frankfurt market position. These measures will result in a step-by-step reduction in overhead costs and support our financial growth path in the upcoming years. We will provide further details on these measures with our full-year results in March next year.
Let me conclude my part of the presentation with our full-year outlook on slide number nine. Based on the development in the first nine months, we confirm our outlook for fiscal year 2026. For the group, we continue to expect passenger growth compared to the previous year. For Frankfurt, we expect passenger volumes to remain at around the level of last year, so about 63 million passengers. Group EBITDA is expected to grow over the previous year, but to remain below EUR 1.5 billion. We continue to expect net income to range between EUR 300 million - EUR 400 million, more likely at the lower end. The year-on-year decline mainly reflects the accounting effects following the opening of the new terminals in Lima and Frankfurt. We also maintain our target to improve our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio from the 2025 level of 5.7x .
Overall, despite the geopolitical backdrop, the third quarter confirms the resilience of our business model. The international portfolio is delivering strong operational growth, and as our major CapEx programs came to an end, free cash flow is improving. With that, I will hand over to Matthias for the detailed review of our financial performance.
Thank you, Stefan, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen, also from my side. Today, on slide 11, I would like to start with very positive numbers, the cash flow development in the third quarter and our indebtedness at the end of September 2026. Operating cash flow reached EUR 633 million. This is around EUR 50 million below the previous year's quarter, first due to higher net interest paid. Second, it is important to bear in mind that the third quarter of 2025 included a positive one-off effect of more than EUR 50 million. Against that strong comparison base, the operating cash flow generation remained solid. The main change can be seen in our investment activity. Total CapEx decreased by 41% to EUR 195 million, while brick-and-mortar CapEx was down by 37% to around EUR 185 million. This reflects the clear ramp-down following the completion of the major construction programs.
Capitalized interest expenses under IAS 23 also came down from around EUR 26 million in the previous year to zero. Together with dividends from at-equity companies, this resulted in a record third-quarter free cash flow of EUR 461 million, an increase of 24% against a very high previous year basis. Consequently, net financial debt decreased by around EUR 430 million during the quarter, from EUR 8.7 billion at the end of June to less than EUR 8.3 billion at the end of September. Our leverage ratio therefore improved to 5.7x net debt-to-EBITDA, and the gearing ratio declined to 152%. On my next slide, I would like to give you an update on our available funds and repayment profile. At the end of September 2026, total available funds, including committed credit lines and project financing, amounted to around EUR 4.4 billion.
The largest part continues to be held in Frankfurt, with EUR 3 billion of liquidity and EUR 460 million of committed credit lines. Our average cost of debt remains at around 3.5% despite increasing interest rates and continued refinancings. This is because we are not just going for long-term money at the moment but also revived our commercial paper program to save on interest cost. We continue to follow a clear repayment strategy. Over the coming years, we intend to use existing liquidity together with parts of our free cash flow to reduce gross debt rather than rolling all maturities forward. In the medium term, our objective remains to normalize the level of our cash position and to keep a comfortable maturity profile.
Moving on to the segment reporting, I would like to start with aviation on slide 30. Segment revenues remained stable at EUR 382 million in the third quarter.
Aviation charges increased by around 2% to EUR 296 million, supported by the price increase and slightly higher passenger volumes. This was offset by lower security revenues due to lower cost in the business. Personnel expenses increased to EUR 75 million. However, the previous year's quarter included a positive one-off effect of around EUR 14 million from the supplementary pension plan refund. Adjusted for this effect, staff cost was broadly on the previous year's level, despite running more terminal capacities. Other operating expenses decreased by around EUR 7 million, among others due to lower security-related costs. EBITDA therefore reached EUR 152 million, which is EUR 10 million below the reported previous year figure. Again, the comparison is affected by the pension refund in 2025. On an underlying basis, EBITDA increased by EUR 4 million. D&A rose sharply following the commissioning of Terminal 3.
As a result, EBIT came in at EUR 90 million. For the full year, our segment outlook remains unchanged. We continue to expect aviation EBITDA in the mid-to-high single-digit percentage area below the previous year level, reflecting traffic numbers as well as T3 startup cost and wage-related cost inflation. Moving from aviation to our retail and real estate segment on slide 14. Segment revenues increased by more than 4% to EUR 152 million, despite passenger growth of just under 1%. Retail revenue rose slightly to EUR 55 million, and real estate also contributed around 2% growth. Parking developed very well, with revenue increasing by 8% based on higher volumes and price adjustments. Retail revenues per pax improved slightly to EUR 3.08 in the third quarter.
The first full quarter of Terminal 3 operations provided a positive contribution and almost compensated for the ongoing weakness in traditional airport shopping and the pressure on the passenger mix due to the war in Iran. As usual, you find more detail on the retail components on my next slide. In general, we continue to have strong advertising results, especially driven by Terminal 3. Going a bit more into detail and looking at the duty-free performance, it is interesting to see that we have around 35% more customers in the Terminal 3 non-Schengen area if compared to T2 last year. On average, however, those customers show a lower spending behavior, compensating for some of the actual uplift potential. This reduction we linked to the lower number of high-spending passengers from the Middle East on the one side, and some lower disposable income of passengers on the other side.
Despite the lower average shopping basket, the positive development of Terminal 3 was having a compensating effect on the overall Frankfurt Airport retail performance. All in all, the revenue from shopping and services per pax was therefore just mildly below the previous year's level. Coming to the cost side, personnel expenses increased to EUR 15 million. The previous year's quarter, however, benefited from a positive one-off of around EUR 4 million. Adjusted for that effect, staff cost was broadly on the previous year level, despite a slightly higher number of employees. Other operating expenses increased, mainly because the third quarter of 2025 included a non-recurring reimbursement of utility costs in the high single-digit million euro amount. Reported EBITDA therefore amounted to EUR 103 million, compared with EUR 113 million in the previous year. Adjusted for the prior year one-offs, the segment achieved underlying EBITDA growth.
Higher depreciation and amortization following the Terminal 3 commissioning reduced EBIT to EUR 71 million. Our full-year outlook is unchanged. We continue to expect EBITDA at the 2025 level or slightly above. Coming to our ground handling segment on slide 16. Segment revenues increased by around 3% to EUR 243 million. Price adjustments supported the top line, while fewer aircraft movements had a negative impact on the revenue generation in our operational business. Ground handling revenue itself decreased slightly, while central infrastructure revenue increased to EUR 117 million. Reported personnel expenses rose to EUR 157 million. The previous year's quarter included a positive one-off effect of around EUR 16 million from the supplementary pension plan. Adjusted for this effect, the underlying staff cost increase was around 9%, driven by higher FTE numbers, the wage agreement, and structural effects.
Other operating expenses decreased by around EUR 6 million or 8%, mainly due to the continued reduction in external personnel. This partly compensated for the higher internal staff cost base. EBITDA reached EUR 21 million compared with EUR 37 million in the third quarter of 2025. On an underlying basis, after adjusting the previous year pension effect, EBITDA was broadly stable. Higher depreciation and amortization following the Terminal 3 commissioning led to an EBIT of EUR 7 million. Our outlook for the segment remains unchanged. For the full year 2026, we continue to expect a positive EBITDA at around the levels of 2025. Lastly, let us look at our international activities and services segment on slide 17. Underlying revenues, excluding IFRIC 12, increased by around 10% to EUR 593 million. This strong development was mainly driven by the airports in Lima, Greece, and Fraport Brazil.
Other income increased to EUR 34 million. This includes a EUR 6 million effect from the re-equilibrium mechanism in Brazil and EUR 24 million from the disposal of our shares in Medical Airport Service GmbH. This non-core at equity consolidated subsidiary provided medical services to employees at other companies. As we had the chance to dispose of our shares at a good price to our co-shareholder, we took the opportunity benefiting last quarter's financials. Staff costs, on the flip side, increased to EUR 101 million. The previous year's quarter also included a positive pension-related one-off in the Frankfurt Services division. Adjusted for this effect, underlying staff cost increased by around 3%. Other operating expenses, excluding IFRIC 12, rose by approximately 11%, mainly due to higher variable concession charges in Lima and Greece, in line with the strong operational development. All in all, EBITDA increased to EUR 320 million.
Adjusted for the one-off effects in both periods, the increase amounted to around EUR 28 million or 11%. Despite higher D&A, underlying EBIT increased by around EUR 20 million. Finally, our full-year outlook for the segment remains unchanged. We continue to expect solid EBITDA growth in the mid to high single-digit percentage area. With this, I would like to conclude today's presentation and look forward to our live Q&A session this afternoon. Have a nice day and goodbye.