Welcome to our company's full year results of this year. I will host this presentation together with Lukas Brosi, our company's current CFO and designated CEO. The presentation is also available on our website. Today's agenda is as usual and as follows. I will start with a short business update before our group CFO will provide you with information on our financial performance, followed by the outlook. At the end, we will have enough time to answer your questions. Please submit your questions, if possible, already during the presentation, which helps us to cluster them. Stefan Weber will moderate the Q&A session at the end. In 2022, we have experienced a long-awaited significant recovery.
While volumes were still low at the beginning of the year, passenger numbers and flight movements have steadily increased over the course of the year, as you can see on the top left graph comparing the monthly passenger development between 2019 and 2022. On the right-hand side, you see that the seat load factor is back on pre-crisis level and was especially high in the traditional leisure period summer and autumn. Flight movements reached more than 80% of pre-crisis levels on a monthly basis in the second half of the year. Freight volumes, which are not that important for our PNL have taken a little different path with strong figures in the first and second quarter, and a rather challenging environment in the second half of the year. Here, the normalization of sea freight supply chains plays an important role.
We summarize the business milestones for the full year of 2022 as follows. The 22.6 million passengers in 2022 correspond to a year-over-year increase of 120%. The recovery continues and stands slightly above 80% of 2019 at the end of the year, and as we reported yesterday, last month at 85%. Landside commercial turnover is above pre-pandemic levels in the second half of the year. Airside commercial turnover and parking revenues are recovering along traffic figures. Real estate revenues are on all-time high, also thanks to the successful Circle Project. In the international business, the main focus is on Noida International Airport in Delhi, where construction and project progress according to plan.
This greenfield project in India's most important economic region with high growth potential, has the full support of all authorities. Indian key airlines such as Air India and IndiGo have placed record plane orders with a very dynamic growth ahead of us in India, supporting also the fundamentals of the Noida project. We also saw a robust performance at our Latin American business, about which I will provide more details later also. Last year, we also opportunistically bought back a portion of our traded bonds in Swiss francs and prepaid the fixed part of the future concession fee for our airport in Florianopolis in Brazil in order to profit from a substantial discount on concession fees offered by the authorities. We will talk more about these two one-off items later in the presentation. The return to profit allows for the payment of a dividend.
The ordinary dividend is based on the previous payout ratio of around 40% of net product profit, excluding one-offs. An additional dividend will also be paid with the aim of distributing the remaining capital contribution reserves in full over the next three years. As a company, we strive to minimize fossil fuel consumption at all our sites in order to lower the associated greenhouse gas emissions. During the year under review, we brought forward our previous target of reaching net zero by 2050. It's now our ambition to achieve net zero 10 years earlier by 2040 on all our sites. As a result of our measures on climate protection, Zurich Airport attained the highest level of the Airport Carbon Accreditation program of ACI. Our airport is consequently among the leading 10% of airports accredited at the highest levels for their climate protection efforts.
The airports in Florianopolis, Vitoria, and Macaé as well received ACA accreditation and aim to meet the requirements of the next higher level in 2023. As outlined on the previous slide, we moved our net zero goal forward. Overall, we pursue a dual strategy. The first goal is to reach the net zero target for Scope 1 and 2 for our company. To achieve this ambition, we are taking various measures such as upgrading buildings and installing modern energy supply systems that use renewable energy sources wherever possible. In the longer term, we will replace all fossil fuel energies with alternative fuels. The second goal is to assist, guide, and support other aviation industry partners, both locally at Zurich Airport and nationally, as well as internationally to reduce their emissions, which are included in our Scope 3 figure.
Let's quickly have a look at some key figures of the financial year. The rebound in traffic volumes and increased footfall in our commercial centers had a positive impact on revenue, seeing it pass CHF 1 billion for the reporting year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization, EBITDA, increased to CHF 556 million compared with CHF 19 million. EBITDA stood at 87%. The consolidated profit benefited from a number of one-off effects, on which Lukas will elaborate later, and amounted to strong CHF 207 million. In the reporting period, our investment projects totaled CHF 235 million, of which CHF 208 million were invested at our Zurich base. Let's go through our main business segments, starting with the aviation.
Especially in summer and autumn, the demand for air travel was very strong, with peak days of above 90,000 passengers a day. While the total of 22.6 million passengers is still substantially below the 19 figures, we have to consider that the first quarter was still heavily impacted by travel restrictions. In December 2022, the figures stand at 82% compared to pre-crisis levels. This is still positive trend, as you could see on our figures published yesterday. Airlines are now serving almost as many destinations as before the crisis. Thanks to the very good interaction and great effort of all partners, the operation could be ensured with a high quality, even during peak times in summer. The cited chaos at the airports was largely absent in Zurich.
We also welcomed new airlines to our airport that did not fly before to Zurich, Ethiopian and Saudia. They connect important growing economic centers to Switzerland. Ethiopian is also an important link to Africa overall. Following a pandemic-related interruption, Cathay Pacific is also back in Zurich since December. Swiss just recently started to fly to Shanghai. Again, clear signs of a normalization with China as well. The outbreak of the war in Ukraine more than one year ago has had little direct impact on Zurich Airport to date. Flight routes to Asia have become longer as a result. On the next slide, we will provide you with an overview about our commercial and real estate business. Our real estate and commercial centers at the Zurich site are key planks of our corporate strategy as their revenues contribute significantly to the diversification of our revenues.
Real estate, in particular, proved to be a stable revenue stream even during the coronavirus crisis and is stronger than ever before. Since opening in November 20, The Circle has had a significant impact on value creation. According to a recent study, it had generated around CHF 1.6 billion per year for the local economy after just one year in operation. 50 enterprises employing over 5,000 people have now leased premises in The Circle. The two Hyatt Hotels and the conference center are reporting also very positive progress. Overall, letting rate stands at 90% and the focus will remain on marketing the remaining space over the next few months. In 2022, The Circle generated revenues of CHF 64 million in total. The Circle also boasts excellent sustainability credentials.
It is the highest-rated LEED Platinum certified building in Switzerland, utilizing efficient alternative energy sources. For example, solar power or heat pumps with systematic heat recovery and underground terminal energy storage. On the next slide, you can find some additional information on the real estate business in Zurich which we have not published in the past. The acquisition of the Priora portfolio in 2019 and the completion of The Circle have positively affected our portfolio. As part of our corporate strategy, we invest in high-quality properties at the airport itself. Our portfolio today consists of operational buildings, hangars, freight and logistic units, but also investment properties with mostly long-term contracts. 40% of our contracts mature after the year 2030.
The revenue generated is at the record high and contributes significantly to the financial stability of our company. Please note that the revenue figures shown on the slide do not include energy and utility cost allocation and cleaning and other real estate revenues. By disclosing these additional metrics, we hope to provide you with a better understanding of this important business. In the commercial business in Zurich, turnover on airside rose in line with passenger volumes. In the public, publicly accessible areas, sales is above pre-crisis levels now. Bars and restaurants in particular contributed also to this positive growth. For the full year, airside turnover was back at 76% compared to 2019 levels, whereas landside turnover stood already at 98%. Last but not least, let's look at our international business. As indicated in the past, the recovery in Latin America has been much faster than in Switzerland.
In Brazil, declining COVID case rates and the resulting relaxation of travel restrictions led to strong growth in Brazilian air travel in 2022. In aggregate passenger volumes for the whole year at all three majority-owned subsidiaries consisting of Florianopolis, Vitoria, and Macaé, reached approximately 87% of pre-crisis levels. Taking the month of December alone, the numbers recovered to 94%. The traffic at our airport in Chile is closely linked to the commodities industries exploited in the north of Chile and recovered quickly following the pandemic, with a strong resurgence in domestic flights. With a total of 3.8 million passengers, traffic volumes at the two airports in Chile grew 32% year-on-year, reaching 2019 levels. Let's have a closer look at some of the activities in Latin America.
We, on the one hand, received top awards for the whole country for the quality of the infrastructure we provide there with the best airports in terms of passenger satisfaction. Relaxation of travel restrictions in Brazilian neighboring countries led to the addition of regular international flights from Florianopolis to Santiago de Chile and Montevideo. The domestic route network was further extended in 2022 as well. In Macaé, we are still working on the new runway, where the majority of investments will occur this and next year, with the expected completion in 2025. In Belo Horizonte, the refurbishment of terminal 1 was completed in December with an investment of around CHF 35 million. Some unforeseen events happened in Iquique in Chile, where we are currently building a new terminal.
Since the EPC contractor filed insolvency, we took over the completion of works, which are almost at its end. Remaining CapEx of CHF 10 million is required, and we are mitigating the financial and operational impact as much as possible. At the end, it's in the very low CHF 1 million figures. Moving on to Noida International Airport in India, in June of the reporting year, the contract for building the terminal runway and associated landside and airside infrastructure was awarded to Tata Projects as main contractor. Construction started shortly thereafter. At the beginning of this year, first concrete was poured, as shown on the picture on the top. At the same time, construction works for the runway are progressing to be in a position to open the new airport at the end of 2024.
In the last months, we also concluded some sub-concessions, namely the fuel facilities, the hotel, and air cargo. All counterparties share our optimistic view of the greater Noida area, and we are excited working together with them. The future airport organization is gradually being established with marketing to airlines, logistics, and commercial partners going well. Another milestone is planned for this year. We intend to submit the proposal for the airport charges in the second half of this year. On that base, we aim to provide you also some additional disclosures, especially related to the traffic volumes and some key financial assumptions, in summer. Our application, also called AERA order, will then be in public domain, presumably at the beginning of 2024. With this, I'm handing over to Lukas for the financial part of the presentation.
Thank you, Stephan. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome also from my side. I will now give you an overview of the financial performance of the company. To begin, I would like to shed some more light onto the four one-off effects that have influenced last year's annual result. The first one is an impairment at our airport in Iquique in Chile due to the bankruptcy of the EPC contractor. The new terminal building will be completed slightly delayed and with a small rise in cost. As a precautionary step, we have decided to impair the book value by CHF 4 million. The second one-off, which is more positive, is the purchase of nominal CHF 35 million of our bonds maturing in 2035. We issued this bond at the beginning of 2020, right before COVID hit us.
Due to rising interest rates in Switzerland and the very long duration, we were able to buy back parts of this bond at around 76% of the nominal value, resulting in a book profit of approximately CHF 8 million. The third one-off, also very positive in our view, was the prepayment of the fixed concession fee for our airport in Florianopolis in Brazil. As part of the pandemic related state aid program, the Brazilian government offered the discounts to prepay future fixed concession payments. We deemed this offer, which was valid until the end of 2022, as financially lucrative and prepaid the full amount of fixed future concession payments, resulting in a book profit of roughly CHF 8 million. The fourth and last one-off in 2022 was a positive effect due to the restructuring of our international holdco.
As a reminder, all our international assets are held in a fully owned separate Swiss entity called Zurich Airport International AG. In the last year, we executed a debt-to-equity swap with positive tax implication of around 14 million CHF. As you can see on the slide, the total of the one-offs amounted to 24 million CHF, which positively impacted our reported results. Moving on to the annual results, the traffic recovery led to significantly higher revenues, especially on the aviation side, where aviation revenue more than doubled to 491 million CHF. Aviation revenues hence reached 74% of 2019 levels. Non-aviation revenue increased by 21% to 532 million CHF, roughly 97% of the figure of 2019.
EBITDA increased to CHF 556 million, which stood compared with 2019 at 87%. The consolidated result for the past year increased markedly to a profit of CHF 207 million. By factoring out the before mentioned one-off effects, the adjusted consolidated result amounted to CHF 183 million. Let's have a closer look at the non-aviation figures. Total commercial and parking revenue rose by 20% year-on-year to CHF 240 million. While parking benefited from increased frequencies, growth of commercial revenue was slower due to the rent concession granted in accordance with IFRS 16 during the pandemic. Real estate revenue continued to climb, rising by 10% to CHF 168 million, as well as inflation adjustments.
This rise is principally attributable to additional rental income from The Circle and higher energy and utility cost allocation. Primarily, as a result of higher passenger volumes, revenue from services increased by 37% to CHF 43 million. The increase in revenue from international airport business to CHF 81 million is due to the more rapid recovery at foreign airport holdings, along with slightly higher income from construction project, the so-called concession accounting. Factoring out the EBITDA neutral revenue from construction projects, revenue from international airport business climbed by 43%. On the cost side, the ongoing strict cost discipline counteracted inflation-related cost increases and rising energy prices. As in particularly, the option of short time working compensation was discontinued at the end of February 2022. Personnel expenses rose by 15% compared with the prior year period to CHF 197 million.
Costs for police and security rose by 24% to CHF 105 million due to higher passenger volumes. Energy and waste costs showed a significant rise of around CHF 12 million to CHF 34 million, reflecting factors such as higher raw material prices for heat generation. It was, however, possible to pass on around half of the price increases to tenants, as shown in higher revenues from energy and utility cost allocation. In comparison with the previous year, it should also be noted that various operational adjustments, such as for example, the temporary closure of parts of the infrastructure in 2021, were reversed. Total operating expenses increased 23% year-on-year to CHF 468 million.
The cost base is excluding expenses for construction project, was still 7% lower overall than in 2019, including additional costs of the Priora real estate portfolio and The Circle. I will now outline some key financial ratios. Net financial debt, excluding the Airport Zurich Noise Fund, decreased, and net debt to EBITDA came down to 2.3 times. The higher earnings also had a positive impact on our return on investor capital, which increased to 4.7%. The solid business performance affected also our cash generation positively, with operating cash flow more than doubling. We likewise experienced a solid positive free cash flow generation last year. The next slide shows the largest projects we have been working on last year.
Owing to the many uncertainties arising as a result of the pandemic, several infrastructure projects were slowed or paused during the year under review. It was possible to resume construction activities and step up investments again. Work on upgrading the package sorting system is proceeding. Milestones reached in the year on the review were the inauguration of the new early bag store and the new X-ray scanners. The overall cost of the project remained within the expected range, phased introduction is still on track for the winter 2023, 2024. The renovation of Runway 10/28 was successfully completed. Mild weather enabled the construction work on this project to be completed earlier and within budget. Although open since 2020, there are still some smaller payments for The Circle outstanding, we will advance the final payment as soon as the remaining deficiencies have been corrected.
In Noida, CapEx has started to pick up last year and is expected to increase further this year and next year. Let's turn on to the outlook. The recovery in international travel is expected to continue this year, and passenger numbers around 26 million are anticipated at Zurich Airport. Aviation revenue will mirror traffic volumes while positive growth in non-aviation revenue is also expected. Rising passenger numbers at Zurich Airport will lead to slightly higher commercial revenues. In addition, a further increase in revenue from rental agreements and from international business activities is anticipated. An inflation-related increase in operating expenses is likely this year, especially for personnel and security related costs. Higher energy costs are likewise to be expected again. Overall, we expect to make a higher profit in 2023 than in the financial year just ended.
Regarding investments at the Zurich site, CapEx will amount to approximately CHF 250 million in 2023. Investments at subsidiaries abroad are likely to be around the CHF 300 million mark, with construction of the new airport in Noida set to pick up pace in particular. As communicated in the past, we expect passenger volumes to return to 2019 levels by 2025, from when, thanks to growth in non-aviation revenues, in particular, the company will achieve higher profitability than before the crisis. Although the inflationary environment increases the cost base faster than previously expected, we reiterate our EBITDA guidance for 2025, when we expect an incremental EBITDA of CHF 100 million compared to 2019. For the past months, we have often been asked where our priorities in terms of capital allocation are.
After the recovery has taken shape, the resumption of our project in Zurich have priority. We have restarted most of the projects recently. We expect CapEx in Zurich between CHF 250 million-300 million per annum in the years to come. Our second priority is debt reduction and the payment of dividends in parallel. In 2022, we have been able to make already good progress towards these two goals. We repurchased part of our bonds and will further reduce debt in Zurich next month when we will repay a bond coming due. Since the maturing bond has the highest coupon of our outstanding CHF bond portfolio, we will achieve some interest payment savings in Zurich. We will talk more about our dividend plan on the next slide, followed by additional information regarding our expected debt situation.
Our third priority are investments in the growth areas of our company, especially in the international business. At the moment, we are rather in a digesting mode, focusing on the construction in India and the portfolio management in Latin America. We remain cautious about new commitments for the time being, are examining opportunities in our focus markets of India and Brazil. In the years before the pandemic, Flughafen Zürich AG was an attractive dividend payer, paying out an ordinary dividend of around 40% of profits and topped it up with an additional dividend out of capital contribution reserves. It has proven to be a good mechanism to stay independent and have financial flexibility when needed.
As a precautionary measure, we waived the payment of a dividend for the 2019 financial year and for the years 2020 and 2021, which ended with a loss. The dividend policy of the past was certainly a key factor why we mastered the pandemic without the need of government funding. Given the positive result, we will resume shareholder remuneration. We will continue to pay out around 40% of our adjusted consolidated profits and, as stated on the slide, at the same time plan to distribute the remaining CHF 117 million of capital contribution reserves over three years as an additional dividend. With the growth of the international business, our debt composition will see changes in the future.
We have always tried to keep leverage in Zurich rather low to have flexibility in unforeseen situations and benefit from potential opportunities. Internationally, however, we accept higher debt ratios from local financing, helping us to mitigate our currency exposure. In the past, our international projects have been rather small compared to Zurich. With Noida in India, this is going to change. The total project costs are expected to be around CHF 750 million, of which roughly 70% will be debt-financed. Hence, this will add a few hundred million CHF equivalent in debt. As debt is more expensive abroad than in Switzerland, the consolidated borrowing cost will increase with the opening of Noida Airport. With this, I'd like to turn back to Stephan.
Thank you, Lukas. As communicated earlier, there are some important changes at board and management level happening at the end of next month. Andreas Schmid, who has been our chairman for the last 23 years, will retire at the end of the next general annual meeting. The board proposes Josef Felder as the new chairman of the company. He has already served on our board since 2017. He has also exercised supervisory roles on other prestigious boards for over 15 years. Having been CEO of our company right after the privatization from 2000 2008, he has also a deep understanding of our business and the company specifically. This change also allowed a smooth succession planning at the next level.
After 15 years in the management board and my 9th as a CEO, time has come for me to move on as well. I will start as CEO of the listed Swiss real estate firm, Allreal, and leave therefore Zurich Airport by the end of April. I am very happy that the board selected, with Lukas Brosi, an internal candidate as my successor. I'm sure that the company is in very good hands with him and the seamless transition is ensured. The board is currently evaluating several candidates for the new CFO position, and we can hopefully announce some good news there as well soon. To give you a thorough update regarding our strategic way forward, our new Chairman, Josef Felder, and Lukas will hold an an investor day on September 4th this year at Zurich Airport.
A save the date has already been sent out, and the personal invitations will follow within the next weeks. With this, I thank you also all for your guidance and trust over all the years. I always enjoyed the interaction with industry experts, having a global view and helping us to keep focus on the value drivers of our business. With this, we are at the end of our results presentation and now start with questions and answers. I hand over to Stephan Weber, Head of our Investor Relations, who will moderate the Q&A session.
Thank you very much. Welcome also from my side. We have received a number of questions, and we start straight away. First question is from Daniel Bürki from Zürcher Kantonalbank. Do you still expect full recovery in passenger numbers till 2025?
Short answer is yes. We made this guidance very early in the crisis, and it has been proven during the recovery path that 2025 is still the number that we plan to have the same volumes as 2019.
His second question is on the cost development. What increase in overall operating costs can be expected?
There are basically two components, which is the inflation itself, which has a certain time lag. We are now in, for example, on personal expenses, compensate for the inflation last year. We will increase the salaries in total by 3%, starting from April. Same is true for security costs, which is also inflation-linked on top of additional volume-related increases. The second component consists of the energy prices, where we had, like, a historic number of roughly CHF 20 million for this line item, which increased now over CHF 30 million, and we expect another increase in the same amount, plus or minus for 2023, mainly driven by higher electricity cost.
The next questions are from Dario, from Exane. In February traffic, so the numbers that we've just released yesterday, traffic jumped to 85% of 2019 levels after six months of around 80%. Why this increase? Are there any one-offs?
I wouldn't call this one-off. In February, we had a vacation in Switzerland, and I think given or going one year back, we had still the COVID regimes in place, mainly in February last year. I would say that, let's say, a main impact comes from the vacation, which is simply easier to travel this year. Also, Asia is recovering. Might be the two main drivers for the good numbers in February.
The next one is on the spend per passenger, which was above average for quite some time now. In February, it was now CHF 23 per departing passenger. Why is it now getting lower?
We have expected this development as we have seen relatively high numbers of the average spending per passenger, mainly as a combination of a passenger being rather early at the airport, having more dwell time from check-in to boarding. This is going to be normalized, which is good. It was never the intention of the airport to have like 3-hour waiting time of passenger. We have to get back to the old efficiency of our system. The second impact is that we also experienced a certain ramp-up situation when people start to travel again two years, that their journey really started at the airport and there was a high spending behavior and willingness at the airport.
For the first one, this is due to the situation uncertainties, more time needed at the airport. The second one is more like a ramp-up effect, which is now going to rebalance to historic levels, which was anticipated.
He's asking a question on the EBITDA margin to expect going forward for the non-regulated business.
It's not disclosed in detail. We haven't separated them in the guidance normally between aviation and non-aviation. It's different also in the individual segments of the non-aviation business. No more details or guidance on that for the time being.
Next question is on tariffs. When do you expect to negotiate tariffs for 2026 onwards? When could they potentially be in place?
Depends on the outcome of the negotiation when we will, when the tariff will be in place. The current regime provides of a situation that we say we have to start negotiation in April 2025 latest, which is the time, the timing that we currently assume. If you find an agreement with the airline, it might be a relatively short period for the introduction of the new tariffs, 2026. If we have to go to the fallback option where we have to provide a proposal to the regulator, this will take more time.
The next set of questions is from Pascal Furger, Bank Vontobel. He has calculated a retail concession rate of 25.4% for 2022, which is higher than what we've had in the past. What would be the normalized concession rate, and what can we expect for 2023?
This might be a question that we have to follow up, to be honest. last year, I would say as a general remark, the concession rate consists of turnover-based rent, but also on a share of a minimum annual guarantee, which brings you to a higher number than comparing it to historical values. we do not disclose this in detail for the next years, but, if you have your calculation, you can share it with us, and we will make like a double-check for any mistakes.
On the real estate rental income, are we able to pass on inflation to the tenants, or the rental agreements linked to the consumer price index?
No, the vast majority, is 100% linked, yes.
A question on The Circle. The value creation of CHF 1.6 billion from The Circle is impressive. The pre-letting stands at roughly 90%. Do you see even more potential if fully let?
Yeah, I think now the goal is to stick to the strategy. I think overall, we are very happy with The Circle. I think we have a good mix of tenant, good quality of tenant, and therefore, we aim now to complete the marketing activities for the last 10%. Also, the value creation of The Circle is something that we are very happy with. We also disclose the market valuation of The Circle, which is significantly higher than the book value.
It depends on the last 10%, but there is still a way to go and I expect that when we were able to really find additional good tenants which fit to the mix of the existing ones, that there is even more value creation from The Circle and the employees in The Circle, which also generates frequencies to the commercial, to the existing commercial businesses.
Last year, the return on invested capital stood at 4.6%. How does this compare to our cost of capital that we have?
We assume we have to distinguish between the individual segments. We have cost of capital in the regulated area of 5% going up for commercial business to six, 6.5%, in that range.
A question on the dividend. Could you please confirm again that we aim to pay out an additional dividend over the next three years to fully pay out the capital contribution reserves?
That's the plan, yes. If circumstances allow for, I mean, if there is a downswing, which we don't have, on the radar right now, then we always have the option to stop the extraordinary dividend, but for the time being, that's the plan, yes.
Next question is from Patrick Hasenböhler from ZKV. What is the reason for the lower investments than initially announced a year ago?
Again, if you look into Q1 last year, we were in the middle of Omicron. We were in another downswing situation at the beginning of the year, when we, yeah, we remained more cautious than initially expected. We started to ramp up projects later than we initially expected during 2022. It's something that was actively managed by us.
Next set of questions is from Marcin Wojtal, Bank of America. Could you please be a bit more specific on OpEx increases that you anticipate in 2023? Any percentage range?
I think I have to repeat what I mentioned before. Most of it is inflation-linked, besides the energy cost, where we expect another CHF 10 million+ cost increase.
Can you provide an indication of what range of EBITDA contribution can be expected from Noida in its first full year of operation?
Not yet. You have to be patient until the second half of this year when we will disclose the key metrics of the project.
A question on the commercial spending behavior. What percentage of the commercial revenues pre-pandemic was actually coming from Chinese travelers?
That might be a good question, final question for Stephan, no?
Oh, come on. Do it here.
I mean, Chinese travelers are important for the commercial business, without doubt. Beside the duty-frees, we don't have, like, precise data on the spending per destination. One can expect that with the opening of Asia in general, that this will have a definitely positive impact on the spending on air side, we don't have much more information on that to disclose.
The next questions are from Stefanie Dürr from RBC. The Circle has generated total revenues of CHF 64 million last year. Are you happy with the performance, given that the target is to generate between CHF 65 million-CHF 70 million after ramp-up?
Yeah, I think overall we are happy, of course, with the performance. There are a few elements in the business plan which are also volume-linked, like especially the hotel and convention business. Of course, there we are still in a recovery and ramp-up phase. Then we are moving up from 85%- 90% letting quota, and next year, hopefully to 95%, which is quite close on that guidance that we have given. Of course, it has its variable element also on the hotel business.
Another cost-related question, are we hedged on energy prices?
We are not hedged in particular. We buy on the forward mechanism electricity costs. We already buy now installments of 2024 or even further. There's not a general hedging on energy costs.
Next questions are from Cristian Nedelcu from UBS. The first one is on traffic. As Lufthansa capacity recovery is lagging peers, is there any chance to increase incentives and bring a higher LCC presence to Zurich?
I mean, it's important that we have also good competitive price structures on European routes. And there we are always attractive to the carriers in Zurich with our pricing levels, and at the same time, we are limited on our capacity in the peak, where we are also convinced that being an intercontinental hub, we have also to make sure that the hub carrier can function in the peak. We will never be a very attractive place for LCCs since we don't have the capacity. In the waves outside of the peaks, I'm sure Zurich will also be able to attract additional carriers just because we have very good pricing and very good economy working.
We will keep the current levels and try to increase some LCC carriers, outside of the peaks, but we will not have now a concrete LCC strategy.
The next question is on regulation. Are there any initiatives in place to convince the regulator that the WACC should increase going forward? For example, changes in the input or parameter definitions. Is it possible to implement some sort of risk-sharing mechanism, probably some sort of rollover going forward?
Well, I think it doesn't need an initiative. In my view, the cost of capital is increasing, the WACC is increasing, the interest rates are increasing as a main driver. We have also seen during the crisis, what the industry-related risks are that goes into the model. From today's perspective, I would be surprised if we have to agree on a lower WACC for the next tariff period. The rollover can always be part of an agreement that we find with the partners in this agreement phase for the next tariff period.
On the capital markets day in September, what topics can the community expect to be covered by this event?
Well, from today's perspective, we would like to show you The Circle, especially for those who have not been able to see The Circle since the opening. Regulation, we are coming closer to the moment when we have to prepare ourself for the negotiation. Commercial centers, our planning for the new Dock A. We will have a slot on sustainability. Obviously, last but not least, also an update, which I hope it manage from the timing for Noida, where we can disclose further information.
The next questions are from Patrick Kluge from Credit Suisse. Have you had any negative effects from the recent strikes at Fraport?
No negative effects.
On the international business, is it reasonable to expect a return on invested capital of at least 10% by 2025?
Yes.
The development of commercial and parking business was pretty strong last year. Besides the passenger volumes that are recovering, what key drivers will drive this business further up in the next years?
Didn't get the question. Can you repeat, please?
The commercial and parking business showed a pretty good performance last year. What drivers will push this business further besides the traffic recovery?
Maybe on the parking, one thing driving it is also the convention business, increasing at Zurich Airport, besides the normal additional 50 companies located at the airport with The Circle. We also are very successful in a flexible price structure in parking, where we can fill the non-peak times in car parks with discounts given by online sales. More than 70% of our car park business for consumers is sold online in the meantime, which allows for a much more flexible revenue model. On the one hand, it's the airport as a business location with convention offices, and on the other hand, it's the flexible revenue pricing strategy that we can do, thanks to online sales on the, on the parking.
On the commercial business, I would say, in the short term, of course, it's the recovery of the traffic. The fact that we have made more commercial sales last month than before the pandemic, we still reduced, we still home office practiced more regularly than before the pandemic, shows that there are more people working at the airport now. We are very happy that also on the land side, this business is above 19 levels. Now we are building this so-called project ELP, the project expanding the airport shopping on the land side. This will be a midterm driver. Then in the long term, meaning 10 years, it will be the
50% more airside retail space that come with our project for the new Dock A, which will be a booster on the travel sector again. Short-term, mid-term, and long-term, I think commercial centers can grow above the travel pattern.
Next question is from Andrea Frey, Credit Suisse. Is there any net debt to EBITDA guidance for this year and the years to come?
I would say that net debt EBITDA remain below three times. I expect a neutral free cash flow this year as a combination of higher volumes, higher operating cash flow, but also higher CapEx, mainly as a combination of high CapEx in Zurich and Noida in particular.
The next questions are from Angel from HSBC. He argues that the traffic guidance looks a bit soft compared to our peers despite the fact that leisure traffic dominates, the traffic here in Zurich, and he also asked about the impact of the opening of China and broader Asia.
Our traffic guidance for this year mainly is mirroring the 85% capacity announcement of Swiss for the summertime table. I think we have a certain combination of economic downswing in Europe, high seat load factors already, so it also depends on how fast additional aircrafts will come to the market. It's still possible for Swiss, for example, to bring back aircrafts in the in the long-term park, in the long-term parking. We have some constraints, obviously, in the operation, in the ground handling that we have to have more visibility for for a higher guidance, which I might be very happy to adopt during the year. From today's perspective, this 26 million passengers seems the most reasonable number.
The next one is on, inflation. How easy or difficult is it to pass on cost inflation to the customers?
One has to distinguish between the individual segments. The easiest one is the real estate, where we have almost a complete inflation link. Second best is international, where we have an automatic annual adoption of the inflation rates with a certain time lag. Given in the concession, there's an automatic adoption to inflation. In the commercial business, which is mainly turnover-based, we have more like indirect inflation protections by higher prices, higher turnovers as a base of our concession fee. In the regulated business for tariff, we have this tariff period, which normally are between four to five years. After then, we can adopt on higher operating costs because of inflation.
The next question is from Johannes Braun from Stifel Europe. It's on The Circle. Is there any update on the trend of the rents you are currently able to achieve with new contracts, and what to expect for the remaining 10% that's not yet leased out? By when do you expect full, that it's fully let?
If your question goes into if there is a pricing pressure to observe in the marketing, that's not, that's not reality. We are still on these contracts. We are now negotiating and signing, convinced that we can fulfill the assumption of the business plan also for the remaining 10%. We assume a full rental of The Circle by 2024, 2025. More important to me, as it has always been, is the quality of the tenants rather than a very fast ramp-up of the remaining 10%.
The next question is from Maria, from Standard & Poor's. It's on the financial metrics. Considering high interest rates, how is the CapEx in India expected to be financed while maintaining healthy financial metrics?
Well, for the time being, we have a fixed agreement with the State Bank of India regarding the interest rate during the construction, so there's not an immediate risk of higher financing costs. Same is true for the construction contract, which is also a fixed lump sum payment without inflation risk. After the operation, inflation goes into the calculation of the tariff.
Another question from José from Santander. It's on Noida. There are discussions about this airport becoming a hub for airlines connecting within Asia-Pacific. Is this a realistic development, one could expect during phase one of the concession, or should we rather expect Noida to focus on domestic traffic only?
Let's call it a realistic concept for phase two, maybe, of the airport. At the beginning, I think, domestic traffic will be the dominated traffic. Noida is a part of the Delhi Metropolitan area, covering about one-third of the city. For them, it's the closest airport, and this one-third will definitely already at the beginning start with domestic travels out of this airport. Because we have a capacity limit at the existing airport, and the new airport, of course, has a master plan with a more logical setup, we also try to convince be it an IndiGo, having besides its domestic traffic, also international traffic, to start some international routes out of the airport for Southern Delhi and then link such international routes too.
Hopefully also other carriers, including Air India, will then have international routes out of Noida. It's more a gradual development. Maybe you can compare it also with the London metropolitan area, where, of course, in Gatwick, you would also have international routes, but maybe not as many as in Heathrow. We are a kind of the Gatwick of that Delhi region in a second, third phase of the airport. Starting mostly with domestic traffic at the time of the opening, I believe.
Next question is from Charles, from Kempen. It's on retail performance in combination with the expansion of the landside area. Is it possible to quantify the impact from closing shops for the time of the construction period?
That's not an information that we disclose. Obviously, there is an impact of the construction, which is ov erall, not that meaningful. It's a high single-digit million CHF amount.
Okay. That's it. I think it's also time to move on as Fraport call just started few minutes ago. That's all the questions.
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Thank you for covering us. We close the call now. Thank you.