Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the conference call for the first-half results of Vienna Airport. This call is recorded, and a replay will be available online shortly after the session. Joining me today are CFO and Co-COO Mr. Guenther Ofner (Günther Ofner) and Co-CEO and COO Mr. Julian Jäger. As usual, Mr. Ofner will begin with the financial results, followed by Mr. Jäger, who will discuss the operational performance.
Good afternoon everyone. Today we published our results for the first six months of 2025. As shown in the presentation, revenue increased by 7.4%, net profit by 6.2%, and EBITDA by 3.3%. This comparison indicates a slight loss in productivity regarding our EBITDA margin, mainly due to significant cost increases across the board, especially in personnel expenses, which I’ll address later. On the positive side, Malta performed above expectations and continues to grow rapidly. Financial results also exceeded expectations in the first half of 2025. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect a fundamental change as the COVID special regulation for airport tariffs expires and the statutory formula comes back into effect.
This change will lead to an expected reduction in passenger charges of about 4.6% and landing fees by roughly 2.15%. To address this, we will implement a company-wide program focused on cost reduction and efficiency improvement. We’re confident that we can offset most of the impact from lower tariffs through higher productivity and greater efficiency.
Please turn the page.
Following this, the next chart shows the earnings improvement. Despite cost pressures, net profit grew slightly below revenue, on the background of 4.7% passenger growth. Expenses increased across the board: consumables and services up 5%, personnel expenses up 12% due to non-consolidation of Gate 2 (~$7 million). Combining this with $8.4 million gives an overall 12% rise. The company employs over 260 staff, and the latest collective agreement increased salaries by 3.3% starting May 1, 2025.
Costs for materials and third-party services increased, while maintenance declined slightly. EBITDA margin is slightly below last year. Net liquidity fell from $511 million to $398 million due to $147 million in dividends. Equity decreased by ~$43 million, but the equity ratio remains strong at 68.7%. Decline in operating cash flow was mainly due to corporate income tax, while free cash flow improved from investment disposals. CapEx rose to $140 million, with full-year projections around $300 million or below.
Terminal 3 Southern Expansion is on time, within budget, and expected operational by H1 2027. $34.4 million of CapEx went to Malta International Airport, part of a multi-year $300 million investment program. Southern Expansion construction is ongoing: building shell complete, technical systems and infrastructure underway, interior prep and tenant setup in progress. Groundwork for the centralized logistics center (Centralized Logistics Center) has started. Airport city (Airport City) city projects are progressing well, including attracting three satellite device companies.
The satellite companies are fast-growing and use innovative systems for orbit operations, expected to expand quickly. The nearby logistics park (80,000+ m²) opened in June. The new 510-room hotel is nearly complete, with final works finishing by late 2025. Approximately 17,000 m² of high-quality office and conference space will be added to Office Park 4, replacing outdated Office Park 3 by 2030.
Putting all together, we can confirm the financial guidance for 2025 in regard to revenue, EBITDA, net profit, and CapEx. Hopefully, there will not be another severe international crisis affecting our operations. Maybe there is an optimistic light somewhere in the east if it would be possible to get a peace agreement, Russia-Ukraine. This clearly would be an upside to traffic and business whenever it comes and peace starts again. We would have a positive effect out of that. On the other hand, a depressing fact still is regulation, especially European regulation, Fit for 55, but also sustainable aviation fuels (Sustainable Aviation Fuels) and certificates. All of that is a big burden that really, if it's not changed, maybe increase ticket prices by 25% or even more, which in the coming years would be a negative factor in regard to growth expectations. I hope still that it should be possible to convince the parliamentarians and the EU Commission to change their plans and to go a more pragmatic and aviation-friendly way in the years to come. That's from my side. I hand over to Julian Jäger.
I hope still that it should be possible to convince the parliamentarians and the EU Commission to change their plans and to go a more pragmatic and aviation-friendly way in the years to come. That's from my side. I hand over to Julian Jäger.
Hi. Good afternoon. I will continue with the traffic results. The first six months of this year saw an increase in passenger numbers in the group of 4.7% to 19.6 million. In July, we saw a slight decrease in Vienna, minus 1.2%. Malta still strong growth, plus 8.8%, and Košice plus 1.3%. Overall in the group, we were growing by 1%. Looking at the difference between August 2025 and July 2025, it's obvious that now Tel Aviv is open again. We see quite strong traffic from Tel Aviv via Vienna. Overall, I would say, without spoiling too much about our August figures, I think August should end at a better note than probably July. Overall in the group, January till July, plus 4%, 24 million passengers. Let me continue with the next slide, talking about details in Vienna in July.
I think you can see here very clearly that transfer passengers were down 7%. This is the side effect of the reduction in the Middle East in July. Local passengers were flat. I hope that with a boost in transfer passengers from the Middle East via Vienna to North America, August should look a bit brighter. Overall, seat load factor (Seat Load Factor) was down as well, minus 2 percentage points. ... One thing I would like to highlight are the tank stops (Tank Stops) by India. Overall, we have around 100,000 transit passengers (Transit Passengers) in our figures so far this year. Transit passengers are not paying passengers.
Therefore, we earn on the tank stops (Tank Stops), we earn a charge on the throughput for the fuel. We earn the landing charges, but it's not the same revenue per passenger as the normal passengers. That's why there's a slight dilution in here in terms of revenue compared to the passenger numbers. We still have three to four Air India aircraft here on the ground every day who are just coming here for adding fuel to continue their flights to North America. As you can see here, I think the strongest development in H1 was the Far East, plus 32.5%. We got ANA back last year. We've got capacity increase on Bangkok. We've got Chengdu. Additionally, we got last year Shenzhen back. We have more capacity on Beijing. Overall, Far East is recovering. It's later recovering than the rest. Overall, I think we can be very happy with this development.
Western Europe, a bit flat. Eastern Europe, a bit stronger, plus 2.7%. Middle East, plus 3.6%. Overall, I think a picture with what's pretty much expected at the beginning of this year. We are very much in line with our projections. One very good thing which happened this year is that Scoot started a direct flight to Singapore. I would expect next year some more capacity on Scoot. I think the initial results on the route are very good. Overall, I think East Asia is doing. Let's continue with the airlines. I think overall, no major surprises. What is important, Lufthansa Group, close to 50%, low-cost carriers, a bit above 30%. Everything within our expectations. No major surprises in this respect. Still focus a lot on quality. I think our operational performance is even significantly better than last year. We are much more punctual this year.
On the one hand, due to increasing staff, mainly in ground handling, but as well security staff. On the other hand, we are a bit lucky with the weather. We have less thunderstorms around the airport in Vienna. The good result we see here is that between January and May, we were the third most punctual airport in Europe, above 25 million passengers. Austrian is week on week, by far the most punctual airline within Lufthansa Group. I think the operational excellence of Austrian is continuing. This is a clear sign that the cooperation here between Austrian Airlines and Vienna Airport as a service provider works pretty well. Coming to our traffic forecast for 2025, I don't think that we will have to change this guidance in the course of this year. As we already assumed in January, it's a bit of a flatish development with slight growth.
I think we will end the year around 32 million passengers, maybe slightly above, maybe slightly below the 32 million. That looks pretty well. In the group, we still expect the 42 million. There are no major surprises to be expected this year. I see 2026 is, from today's perspective, a bit more of a question mark. It's far too early to speculate about where we will end the year 2026. We are still in 2025. Overall, what we feel is that the competitive pressure from airlines is increasing. Austrian, I think, gets quite some pressure from Lufthansa Group on their results. The low-cost carriers don't get that much additional capacity in the years to come. There are some countries which reduced or completely removed their aviation taxes, like Hungary, like Sweden. We had an increase in our aviation tax on the short-haul segments between 2019 and today.
We feel that there's quite some pressure from airlines. Therefore, next year is a bit more of a question mark than probably 2025 was 12 months ago. We will have a lot of intense discussions, and then we will see with which capacity we'll end up in summer 2026. Probably we won't know before the end of the year or even January. I would say the heat is on. One additional thing you might have heard in the last few days is that we've had a change in strategy again. Now they are not getting more than 40 XLR, but they are reducing this number to less than 10 XLR. I think the main reason is that they don't really see a market from Central Europe. The only market would be India, because Pakistan and Afghanistan are, from a security perspective, probably not a great destination.
The Arabian Peninsula, you don't need an XLR. There's only India left, because further east, then you need the XLR doesn't take them long enough. You can't get from Central Europe to North America. Therefore, I think they changed this strategy. Overall, we will see what this means for Vienna Airport. I will carry on with our business segments. I think the airport segment did very well. Revenue of €245 million, plus 4.8%, EBITDA plus 3%, EBITDA plus 7%. I think, as Flughafen Wien AG already mentioned, the most important development here in the next year will be the reduction of the passenger and landing fees. Passenger service charge minus 4.6%, landing fees minus 2.15%. This has obviously a very significant impact, and this is due to our airport charges formula, which will be implemented again from January 1 next year as it's stipulated in the Austrian airport charges law.
Overall, I think a very good result in H1 2025. The one segment which is more difficult is handling and securities. I think we can see here two trends. One, increasing staff costs really have an impact on this segment. This is by far the most staff-intense segment with ground handling, with security, with ground handling for general aviation, with our terminal services. Overall, passenger handling, everything very staff-intense. Therefore, we see the pressure here first. Secondly, all the ground handling services are contracted, but we have no contracts which allow us to simply put in the inflation. Therefore, we have competition in this segment. Therefore, we have more difficulties in this segment. I think Q3 should be better with growing passenger numbers and overall a higher density of traffic. Overall, challenging and the EBITDA of $0.5 million in H1 compared to $2.3 million in H1 2024.
Coming to retail and properties, I think this is a segment where we see very good results. Revenue, center management and hospitality plus 9%, parking plus 8%, rentals plus 7%. Within center management and hospitality in particular, VIP lounges, F&B, and shopping did very well. VIP lounges even plus 16%, VIP plus 11%, F&B plus 9%, shops plus 10%, duty-free plus 6.6%. Overall, I think we're looking at really good results here. What is important in this segment is that we are right now tendering 10,000 or let's say 7,000 square meters of the additional 10,000 square meters we will bring on the market with the opening of the southern extension in two years from now. Most spaces should be leased by the end of this year. We see a lot of interest both from the F&B side and on the shopping side. I'm really looking forward to this project.
I'm sure we will put together a significantly improved F&B and shopping offer at Vienna Airport. Malta, continuing the success of recent years, EBITDA plus 11%, $36.8 million, revenue plus 11.6%, five new airlines in 2025, more capacity from Ryanair and Wizz, very good and close cooperation with the local tourism industry. Overall, again, looks like an excellent year for Malta International Airport with the strong passenger growth. I mean, we were growing since 2011, I think, from 3.5 million passengers to 9.8 million passengers this year. Obviously, there's a need for significant CapEx both in the terminal, parking positions for aircraft on the airside, office space, hotel space. Overall, we will see there in the coming years a very strong CapEx program. That's it from our end. Now we're happy to take your questions.
Yes, a bit much to our outlining of the H1 results. For the Q&A session, please raise your virtual hands. Some are already doing so. Let's take in the questions according to how they came in. Carlos, you're first today. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Thank you for the presentation and for taking my questions. Just two quick ones from my side. Regarding traffic at Vienna, we've seen negative performances in both June and July. You're pointing towards the Middle East. I was wondering if you could tell us what has been the share of Middle East traffic in both months and what would have been the development excluding Middle Eastern routes. Second, on future airline capacity, do you have any updates on aircraft deliveries to Vienna? Thank you.
I think the important development here is, and we're already seeing always significantly better figures, is it's not only the Middle East because many passengers from the Middle East, in particular from Tel Aviv, are going via Vienna to the U.S. It's not only the direct market between the Middle East and Vienna. Essentially, those passengers count four times in many times. We can give you the exact figures for the Middle East now for June and July in the coming hours or tomorrow. Overall, we see already that with growing transfer passengers, I think the remainder of the summer will look much better. In a second instance, we saw in July a reduction in load factors. August points here to a significant improvement as well. Overall, we think we are very well set for that plus minus 32 million for the full year.
In terms of capacity, there are no news yet for next year. I think we are happy that from the low-cost carriers, there are a lot of discussions going on in terms of Austrian. What has been communicated, they will get the 12th long-haul aircraft for Vienna at Range 787, which is a positive development. I expect slight seat growth in Vienna from Austrian next year. What has been communicated as well is that they will change their fleet. They will farm out the Embraer. They will have only a two-year aircraft fleet, I think, from 2028 onwards, 787-320neo. They will have more wet-lease aircraft. Overall, I think we will be looking at an increase in seat capacity here from Austrian airlines in the coming years.
Okay. Cool. Thank you, Julian. Vladimira, please shoot. Carlos, I come back with Middle East numbers.
Yes. Hello. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one will be related to your announcement that you want to offset the impact of the reduction of passenger charges via cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Could you a little bit shed more light? What kind of measures do you prepare in this respect? The next question would be, during the last call, you mentioned that in 2026, you anticipate a drop of charges of around 3% year on year. Is this still valid, or is there any change in that expectation? For this year, you said 3% net increase. Are these still numbers in place or not? My last question, the perennial question, new runway in Vienna, any progress on that? Are we waiting for some regulatory decisions or decisions from your side, or how does it look like? Thank you.
Yeah. In regard of measures to offset the impact, I would not be so optimistic that we will be able to fully offset in 2026. To a very high extent, we will try to offset this development. The measures will affect all our operations. Given the fact that maybe 50% of our cost base can be influenced because depreciation, taxes, and other fixed costs cannot be influenced, it would be a major part to reduce these costs to an extent that would offset maybe two-thirds or something like that of the overall effect. From these costs we can influence, personnel costs are roughly two-thirds. One of the main issues, as always, will be personnel costs. We saw this deepest increase in personnel costs in recent years. Efficiency-enhancing measures will be necessary to cool down this personnel expenditure hike and to get more efficient.
I mean, you saw it's also a slight decrease in our EBITDA margin. We will try our best to offset that. The next month will be the period where we prepare for that endeavor. Let's hope we are successful for next year and the following years.
Perhaps if you continue with the third runway before going back.
Yeah. I mean, there is no new development in that regard. The highest administrative court is still dealing with the issue whether an enlargement of the building period is part of the permission process and offers also specific rights for the parties of the permission process or not. This is a very important question for all projects that have been realized since the new law is effective. In the last 25 years, electricity lines, streets, windmills, and things like that. All of these projects which needed an increase of the building period would be in limbo, although they have been already realized, because a party that has legal rights but has not been invited to put forward these rights expires never. This is a very, very strange angle how the higher administrative court in the first instance decided this.
It's now already 16 months since the motion was put to the highest administrative court. I'm not sure if they even opened the letter already or it's still lying there. Nobody can really predict when they will decide and what they will decide.
Okay, thank you for that.
Obviously, Vladimira fell out. Would be open for the tariffs when she comes back. We come back on this question. Philip, your turn.
Thanks a lot. Maybe just a quick follow-up on the potential cost savings for 2026. You mentioned a lot of the cost savings should be coming from personnel expenses. Do you think you can execute such personnel expense savings while maintaining the current punctuality of the airport, or will this come to the detriment of punctuality? This would be the first question. The second is regarding personnel costs for the second half of the year. Is it a correct assumption that the large CLA increases are behind us? Now in the second half, we should be looking at roughly 3% personnel expense increase from salary increases, and that hiring is slowing down, given you expect roughly flat passenger growth for the remainder of the year in Vienna.
We will not hire now. There might be some very specific functions that have to be replaced, but in a broader sense, we will not hire additional workforce. It's the sum of small movements and measures everywhere put together that result in a good effect. This is the work we have to do. We are, to a certain extent, experienced because we survived Corona, which was a much more severe issue. I think we learned also in that time that maybe we can do things more informal and can improve our processes and especially can speed up with automatization, with robots, with artificial intelligence, and all the things. Nothing standalone will fill the gap, but the sum of all the parts should help us to fill the gap. Quality, yeah, that always is a trade-off between expenses and quality.
I think it will be wise to find the right balance between the different goals: quality, financial results, but also stakeholder issues. All of these goals have to be integrated and well balanced.
I think to add on that, I think this will be the most difficult discussion we will have in the next two or three years when we are doing the budget because it's the intention to become less punctual. I don't think that this has necessarily to be the case. We want to become more efficient. Obviously, it's easier to become more efficient if there's growth. If we should not see growth next year, it will be even a bit harder. I think to strike the right balance between quality and costs will be definitely a challenge for the coming months. I think we saw in Corona that we could change the way how we operate. The major difference with Corona is that we have now 32 million passengers. During Corona, we had between a couple of million and 10 million passengers.
Obviously, the challenge I think we see now is probably even a bit harder because we have to readjust our costs in running at a pretty high gear. Let's see. We will do our utmost to cut as much cost as possible in the coming months.
Thanks a lot. Maybe if I can ask one more question regarding passenger growth for 2026 or the potential for passenger growth in 2026. Do you have numbers on where China stands in the number of passengers compared to 2019?
I think we're still below 2019. Let me briefly check. Overall, I think in terms of total numbers, China is not that relevant, to be perfectly honest. If you look at the total, let me just check. If you look at the total of East Asia, we are talking, I think, about 3.6% market share. Overall, China is not that important.
Okay. I understand.
Although we hopefully have some growth from China, it doesn't have such a relevance, to be honest.
I understand. Okay, thanks a lot. Thanks also for the presentation.
Thank you.
Any further questions or any follow-ups? It seems not to be the case. I thank everyone for the interest in our company. Thanks for participating in the conference call, for outlining your questions. Keep in touch. Have a good afternoon. Goodbye.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Bye. Thank you.