Hello and good afternoon. Welcome everybody to our results call for the preliminary 2025 results. With me in the call, our CFO, Mr. Günther Ofner, who will now start and present the 2025 accounts, and COO Julian Jäger, who is reporting about the segment development and of course, the traffic building the base for our business. I hand over to you, Mr. Ofner. Go ahead.
Good afternoon to all of you. We presented today our business results of 2025 and gave also an outlook for 2026. If we go to the first slide, you'll see the headlines. We had a rise in our revenue of 7.2%, which reflects a very good business performance. In all division and in all our daughter companies, we had positive contributions to earnings. Saying that, we have to remind you that the project of the third runway was abandoned. Out of that, we have roughly EUR 55.9 million of assets that are now removed from our balance sheet. Therefore, net income, EBITA, are negatively affected.
Net income is down from 239 - 210. As you can see, in these figures, it was possible by a better operating performance to offset half of this negative effect. It was only relative to the expectation, EUR 26 million that are now offset and EUR 29 million that came through to the net income. As these the recognition of assets is a one-off effect and has no cash impact, we decided to keep the dividend stable, and the proposal is to pay EUR 1.65, as it was the case in 2024.
That equals a payout ratio of 75%, which is above our dividend guidance so far, but I think is justified given that we had a very good development of the business overall. If we go more into the details, you see that the financial result was again, positive in 2025. We had less as it was in 2024, so from EUR 15.5 - EUR 11.1. This is reflecting the fact of lower interest rates. We foresee that our net cash position will be substantially reduced in 2026, as we have a new record high in regard of CapEx and investments of EUR 330 million.
What is interesting is that we see a growing contribution of Malta Airport to our group net profit, roughly one-fourth, in million, EUR 49.8 coming already from Malta operation. If we look at the development of our costs, you see that consumables and services used, especially energy, was more or less flat compared 2024 - 2025. Personnel expenses unfortunately went up around 12%, including Gate Two, which was now only included in an equity consolidation instead of full consolidation. If we add that, it's a little bit more than 12%. Other operating expenses are up slightly plus the 59, 55.9 due to the third runway cancellation. They are included in other operating expenses.
Clearly, EBITDA margin is down from 42% to 36.5%, and also EBIT margin is down from 29.1% to 24.8%. If we move on, you see that the development of our cash flow from operating activities was down roughly EUR 110 million. On the other side, free cash flow is up at EUR 45 million, and CapEx was EUR 281 compared to EUR 189 last year. We have been able to increase by roughly EUR 100 million. Net liquidity is reduced from EUR 511 - EUR 413 due to our payout of the dividend and also the investments. Equity is up to EUR 1,626, and equity ratio is slightly up at 71.6%.
One of the reasons why our operating cash flow is reduced is that we have had a higher payout for taxes. This will continue also in 2026. That's due to the fact that we had lower prepayments in the COVID area period. Now we have to fill this gap with cash payout for taxes in Malta and in Vienna. As I already mentioned, dividend yield of 3%, payout ratio of 75%, and a stable dividend. It's in line with our general attempt to have a sustainable dividend policy and let's hope that we can fulfill this promise also in the next 2 years. Maybe more important for you is the outlook for 2026.
Clearly, we have to digest the revenue reduction of 4.6% and also the anticipated passenger decline in Vienna. On the other hand, we see good growth both in Košice and in Malta. For the group, a major part of the expected decline in Vienna will be offset by new destinations or by growth in Malta and in Košice. How is it possible to guide an stable net income of EUR 210 million and after minorities of EUR 185 million? The reason for that is that we decided a company-wide cost optimization program and cost reduction program. With that program, we have more or less offset the effects of the lower revenues we expect for 2026.
Hopefully, we can realize all the cost-cutting measures. If we do so, we will end up most likely more or less where we ended up in 2025. Summing up our financial guidance for 2026, we expect revenue at approximately EUR 1.50 million. EBITDA approximately EUR 415 million. Group net profit, EUR 210 million. Group net profit after minorities, EUR 185 million. CapEx around EUR 330 million. EUR 330 million includes also Malta. The best guess is that we will have EUR 65 million investment in Malta and EUR 265 million here in Vienna. What are we doing with the EUR 330 million?
South extension, it is in time, in budget, and it will most likely be opened as expected in the second quarter of 2027. We had the groundbreaking for our new office park, the work has already started there. The new building should be finalized end of 2027 and should start operation beginning of 2028. We built the central logistics center there are many other projects on the way, especially after the South extension, the extension of Pier North with additional gate positions. In Malta, there is a terminal expansion and modernization of the runway and also a new business park and a new car park. That all sums up to roughly EUR 330 million in 2026. Our airport city is developing very well.
We have increased our leased space in the last 10 years by 100%, so from 100,000 sq m to 200,000 sq m. We have around 20 new companies who settled in 2025 at the airport. One specific initiative is our space hub. It is developing very well in cooperation with the European Space Agency. Additional to the three companies that are already operative and are growing very fastly, five new space companies will come to the airport in the coming weeks. The first satellite built by GATE Space will be sent to the orbit throughout this year. Very important innovations are on the way from these companies.
Not only the new turbo for satellites, the Ion motor, but also the possibility to re-tank satellites. GATE Space is working on the project to refill the energy for satellites who run out of their fuel, which is a very, very attractive and productive business case because the costs of refueling a satellite are several percent compared with bringing it down and send up a new satellite. Our development zone west is also a very huge project with 47 hectares of additional space for especially logistic facilities, and hopefully we can start throughout the year. There is very, very high interest for a lot of companies to come to the airport and we will be able to fill it very, very quickly.
All together, and also our new hotel is opening in the next weeks. It's ready. It just waits for the start of the operator. All together, we see that the business there will be very attractive. Aviation still is a growth factor, the growth sector. European regulation is very substantially hindering equal growth in Europe compared to other parts of the world. We think it is very, very essential to change the current regulation in the review process that is planned for 2027. Especially, the Green Deal, I think has been so far a failure. No other region in the world has followed Europe's approach.
The hubs outside the European Union are growing, and Europe is more or less stagnating. Therefore, I think the regulation has to be substantially changed, and also the attitude towards the aviation sector of the European Commission has to be changed. Hopefully the discussion will bring some progress there. Especially the sustainable aviation fuel regulation is counterproductive. It's too little, it's too costly, and there is no major investment to provide for the necessary amount of SAF that would be needed under the current regulations starting from 2030 on. There is a lot of work to be done there, and hopefully the decision-makers join those ideas that will bring additional growth for Europe. That's from my side, and I hand over to Julian.
Hi, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Before I start with the current with the segment report, just a few words regarding the current situation. Right now, we have roughly 5,000 passengers which are on a daily basis affected by the cancellations due to the closures of several airports in the Middle East region. Over the weekend, there were 9,000 passengers affected, 43 cancellations and roughly 5,000 more passengers will be affected now day by day. We've got a couple of aircraft parked here in Vienna right now. Essentially the only thing we can do is to wait and see how this conflict will play out.
Far, we are hopeful that the military actions will not think longer than a couple of days or weeks. Therefore, we have not changed yet our passenger forecast of roughly 30 million passengers. Overall last year, the Middle East was 5.7% of our overall passenger numbers. This year, we expected it to be roughly 6% of the overall passenger numbers. As we said, we think that right now it's too early to jump to any conclusions. Looking at last year results, I think you know already, record passenger numbers in all three airports in our small group. Excellent quality performance in Vienna and throughout the group.
We're looking forward to open in the 2Q of next year, our south expansion of Terminal 3. Those are the highlights for this year. Let's go to the airport segment. Overall, good results in 2025, given the situation that this was the segment which was hit by the derecognition of assets due to the third runway or the cancellation of the third runway project. Overall revenue plus 6%, EBIT minus 24%. If you adjust it for the derecognition of assets, the airport segment delivers the highest EBITDA contribution in our group at 48%. This year, obviously, the segment will be hit quite hard by the reduction in passenger numbers and the reduction in passenger and landing fees.
Overall, we expect this year, obviously, some changes in this segment. Let's come to quality. We are very happy that we've been announced just a couple of days ago by ACI again as best airport at departures in the bracket of 25 million- 40 million passengers in Europe. We got for the fifth time, we got the best airport staff by Skytrax. We were again the third most punctual airport above 25 million passengers in Europe. Ground handler of the year from Payload Asia. Overall, I think, really good results and with the south extension of Terminal 3, we aim at the fifth star from Skytrax in the year to come.
Ground handling segment had a good year as well. One part of the handling and security services segment is ground handling. Obviously, for the third consecutive time, we were in the positive territory there after the pandemic. Overall ground handling, cargo handling, security service, all were driving the external revenues. Overall, this is from a margin perspective, obviously a very, very difficult segment, tough competition in ground handling, high cost pressure, and overall an EBIT of EUR 8.7 million. This is a slight increase over 2024. Vienna Airport Handling is still the by far biggest ground handling operator at the airport with a market share of 86%. Retail and properties, good development as well.
The biggest share of revenue in this segment comes from center management and hospitality, so F&B and retail and the lounges, which were all operated by Vienna Airport with a share of 53% of revenue, parking 30% revenue and +4% growth in 2025, rentals 17% share and +3%. Overall, revenue's up 6%, EBIT up 3.5% to EUR 97.2 million. 25% share of the consolidated EBITDA in the full in the group. We already confirmed the F&B operators for the southern expansion with a lot of Austrian and Viennese top F&B operators like DO & CO, Figlmüller, Landtmann, and so on. Overall, the food offer will improve significantly with this area.
We have not yet finalized the contracts regarding retail, regarding the retail offer, but the last month have proven that luxury brands are really, really difficult to get due to the crisis in the luxury segment. We expect to sign the contracts in the next two months, and we'll inform you then accordingly about these new contracts. Malta, again, if you look just at January after a record result with 10 million passengers, again, significant growth by 17% in January 2026. Overall, revenue's up nearly 10%, EBITDA up 9%, EBIT up 7.6%, overall 20% of the consolidated EBITDA in the group, so really excellent development.
I think the major challenge here will be to invest now in the coming years without jeopardizing our ongoing operations. We will invest here in Malta. Maybe we can jump to the next slide. In the terminal building, but as well on the land side. We urgently need more terminal space. There will be more retail space. There will be more. The check-in space will more or less double. We will get more gates. Overall, this is the major challenge in the next few years, and this year only we will invest EUR 70 million in Malta.
Košice had a good development as well, more than 800,000 passengers and huge growth in January, with +35%, mainly due to the connection between Košice and Bratislava, which is now operated 13 x per week. We are hopeful that we will surpass the 1 million passenger mark, which would be a record as well. We are making roughly EUR 2 million net in Košice, and we will invest there due to passenger growth as well in the modernization of the terminal in the expansion of the current capacity. As we said, so far, we don't see a reason to change our passenger guidance. We will obviously follow the current events in the Middle East very closely and monitor the situation.
If need be, we will obviously get back to you with a revision, but so far we think this would be premature. Still, we want to grow in the future, despite the difficult situation we face in 2026, where we expect the reduction in passenger numbers in Vienna by 2.5 million to roughly 30 million passengers, and we expect more than 41 million passengers within the group. Overall, we expect in Vienna to grow until 2035 to roughly 40 million passengers. This would be roughly growth on top of the 30 million we expect in 2026 of roughly 3%.
We are right now in really good discussions to adjust the strategy of Austrian Airlines and Vienna Airport, and we are working on a common hub strategy, Vienna Airport 2030+. Overall, we are committed to invest further in quality and capacity. Right now we are rolling out the new CT scanners, which should be installed at all security checks by summer 2026. The terminal south expansion is on its way. We will furthermore extend Pier North and add five new Pier Gates and nine gates in total, which should be finalized by 2031.
Overall, we are committed to invest and we will discuss with Austrian Airlines in the coming months all our contractual relations, and we are optimistic to come up with a joint strategy to develop and grow the hub in Vienna. What's needed for this as well is a bit of political support, therefore we are doing our utmost to, if not a complete abolishment of the ticket tax, at least a significant reduction. This is obviously going to be difficult discussions and negotiations, we are convinced that this would be not only help the aviation industry in Austria, this would help tourism industry in Austria.
This is something the regional airports in Austria need, and therefore, we hope that we manage to convince government that it's not only about budget consolidation, but it's about growing the economy as well. I think this would be a relatively small investment with quite the huge impact on important industry here in Austria. By summer we will know if we have been successful, so we will definitely do our utmost to convince government to move in this direction. That's it from our end, and we are now happy to take your questions. Let's come to Q&A and the discussion. I see virtual hands raised, one, two, three already. Vladimira , please go ahead.
You have been the first one. Vladimira, cannot hear you.
Can you hear me now?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes, now it works.
Yes. Okay. One little question regarding your guidance. You are navigating us to net profit before minorities of EUR 210, after minorities EUR 185, same figures as we had seen in 2025. At the same time, you are talking about above average growth at Malta especially. Indirectly, it implies that we would see minorities at the same position. I would like if you could elaborate maybe on that discrepancy. Next question would be related to that impact of the reduced presence of low-cost carriers in Vienna. In your opinion, how this will impact revenue per passenger, because you will have a slightly different maybe change in structure of passengers. By the way, what were revenues per passenger in 2025?
Where do you ex- and what is the expected development in 2026? Last but not least, it's related to your cost reduction efficiency improvement program. If you maybe could share with us a few numbers, what do you want to achieve, especially in the area of personal costs, because you will have definitely also some negotiations or discussions, regarding wage increases from 1st of May. What is the visibility here? What is the targeted figure for personal cost in 2026? Thank you for now. Thank you.
To start with your last question, definitely an agreement that is below inflation rate and overall personal expenses in 2026 should be flat to 2025. It will mean that we reduce headcount and that we lower the cost increases that are more or less built in the structure. To understand the Malta, Vienna Airport relation, in Malta, we will see additional depreciation due to the fact that the investments already started, investment phase started two years ago.
Although they will have a very substantial growth, as it looks from now in 2026, this will partly be absorbed by higher depreciation and also by starting interest costs because Malta needs credits for their investments. In Vienna, we will invest out of our liquidity reserves and will not see substantial debt maybe before 2029. The cost saving program is concentrating in Vienna, so it's not made for Malta or for Kosice because both of them are still growing and expanding and therefore, the cost saving program is directed to Vienna, and it is related to all kind of costs, so personal costs, materials and services. All over the board, we see reductions.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let me continue.
Thank you.
... with the average revenues per passenger from the aviation segment. We had in 2024 roughly EUR 15.50 net revenue per passenger. In 2025, we will be a bit above EUR 16, so an increase of roughly 3%. 2026 is now really difficult to guess, but my best guess would be that we were, that we are somewhere in between EUR 15.50 and EUR 16. I mean, we have on the one hand, we have a downward pressure due to the decrease in our charges. On the other hand, Ryanair and Wizz Air were eligible for the volume discount, so their cost per passenger net is a bit below the average.
I would guess, we will be somewhere in between EUR 15.50 and EUR 16. Although with, you know, with all the current developments, this is really difficult to guess. Overall, I mean, you asked regarding the low cost carriers, I expect, and we saw a good development or a better development than expected in January and in the first half of February. Obviously everything has changed, but overall the reductions of the low cost carriers will kick in with the summer flight plan, from April, Therefore, even today our best guess is, that we will be around the 30 million passengers.
I think the strategy of Ryanair will depend a lot for the future on the political circumstances and tax burden. We've seen in Germany that with the announcement of government that they will reduce the ticket, the German ticket tax, Ryanair started to put more capacity into Germany. If there's no change in Austria in the coming years, I would expect that they would probably reduce even a bit further. Not completely leaving the market, but slowly but surely reducing capacity. We have to wait as well, and then probably we will know more in the second half of this year.
Thank you very much.
Let's continue with Elias.
Yes. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two questions. I'll take them one at a time. The first one on CapEx. You're guiding for around EUR 330 million for 2026. Could you just give us a sense of how you expect that to evolve in the outer years, so perhaps 2027 and beyond? I think you mentioned 2026 should be the peak, but just any visibility beyond that would be very helpful.
I mean, 2026 definitely will be a peak because the main part of the south extension will be included. Given the scope of our projects, we will have a higher level also in the following years compared to 2023 or 2024. I would expect it will definitely be more than EUR 200 million also in the following years. Peaking then again once we are realizing Pier North extension. The exact plans for that are still work in progress.
Great. Very clear. A second question on Malta. I mean, you saw great 2025 in terms of traffic in Malta. Could you perhaps just give us some color on your expectations for 2026? I mean, January was again a very strong month in terms of traffic. Do you expect this trend to continue in 2026? Should we see another year of double-digit traffic growth?
I mean, that would be nice, but I wouldn't bank on that. I'm sure that when summer comes, the growth rates will significantly go down and I would expect something between, yeah, around 5%, maybe a bit more, but single digit numbers.
Great. Very clear.
Depending, obviously, I mean, in Malta we've got some Middle East connections as well, depending obviously on the political environment as well.
Great. Thanks.
Let's continue with Stella. Simon. Sorry. No, I mentioned Stella first, so let's stick to my word. Stella, please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. I have two questions, and I will go one by one as well. The first question is, could you please share with us the dividend guidance for 2026? Will it be maintained at the same level as of 2025?
What? I didn't get it.
My question is for 2026.
Yeah.
Could you please share with us the dividend guidance? Will it be the same level as in 2025?
We will try our best. If our expectations are fulfilled, it should be more or less at the same level, yes.
Okay. Thank you. My second question is: in terms of the energy cost hedging considerations, are there any impacts foreseen to the 2026 cost base under the current disruption scenario?
I would not see it for now. I mean, the price development of oil is very cautious, I would say. It was roughly $78 for Brent several hours ago. This is mainly affecting the airlines. Gas prices now went up fiercely in Europe, but I hope that the crisis should be very short-lived, so that more or less within one month, maybe, normality should come back. Electricity prices, we are not exposed at all because we bought the electricity we need from outside sources already 18, 24 months ago. We are producing roughly 50% of our electricity consumption by our own photovoltaic production.
That is not at all affected from any of these price developments.
That's very clear. Thank you for your answers.
Thank you.
Simon, I apologize strongly, but now the floor is yours. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Hello, everyone.
Hi.
I have two topics that I wanted to discuss or get your opinion on, and that's firstly, if you could explain a bit more the Iran conflict impact onto your business. To start off with the clarification, as a base case, yeah, 6% of passengers are at risk as long as the airspace in the Middle East is closed. Is that correct? Then follow-up, how do you rate the chances to benefit as a hub, for example, from catering to the Asian region when airlines redirect their capacities? Thirdly, also in this bracket, do you plan any additional cost adjustment measures due to the conflict? And also with respect to your guidance, it's a point estimate. I mean, I know it's an approximation, but at what level would you adjust your guidance?
I don't know, is it two weeks of conflict, one month of conflict with closed airspace? Is that a EUR 1 million deviation you consider sensible to be the implied range? What's your thinking here? I go with the dividend question thereafter. Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Look, I think overall it's much too early to jump to conclusions at this point in time. My best guess today would be that this conflict will not have a material impact on this year's results. If in three months from now or in four months from now, we are still in the same situation, then I have to apologize, then I was wrong. I think we have to really wait now for 1 or 2 weeks how the whole conflict plays out, if there will be a regime change in Iran. I think it's by far too early. Overall, I think if this conflict and the current...
The impact on the aviation industry of this conflict would be maintained over weeks and months. I would not underestimate the impact on the overall world economy, essentially. I mean, on the one hand, obviously, the Strait of Hormuz is a major issue. On the other hand, if really Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi as global hubs would be taken out of operation for months, I think this would be huge impact on the whole world economy. Overall, as long as we have these airspace closures in the Middle East, obviously there would be additional impacts.
On the one hand, yes, we expected this year that 6% of our passengers would come from the Middle East or go to the Middle East. But a lot of passengers, for instance, from Tel Aviv, they are going on to North America, to the US mainly. You would have an additional impact on certain flights because of transfer in Vienna. On the other hand, there would be a kind of positive impact if the hubs in the Middle East really would be out of operation for a longer period of time because there would be more passengers looking for direct flights to East Asia, which would be a positive impact.
In the end, my best guess still would be that in a couple of weeks, we will be back to normal. On the other hand, the situation in the Middle East and in terms of air traffic was not normal last year and the year before last year. We had many, huge impact on Tel Aviv in current years. Overall, it's simply too early to come up with.
With calculations, it's really. I think it's too early to jump to conclusions, but rest assured we will monitor the situation very closely. But it's too early to jump to conclusions.
The latest news are, Israel already opened up again its airspace, and the airports are operating again, and the same is for Dubai. Dubai Airport already restarted operations, and I think we will see it's a very minor issue.
Okay. Thank you very much. The second topic was also on the dividend. I wanted to follow up on Stella's question, and in particular, the outlook for 2026 and probably also the years thereafter. You now mentioned that you aimed, or that it would be a sensible logic, yeah, to keep it more or less stable, the dividend, whereas I'm also wondering to what degree you do this for political purposes because you will have some workforce reductions, and you also demand a ticket tax adjustments, and to what degree it reflects your truly perceived cash needs. What's the combination here? Also from a financial engineering standpoint, it can make sense to have some net debt, and I wanted to see what's your underlying logic here also going into the next years.
Yeah. I think, if we look in general to the maybe next 10 years up to 2035, we will see some rebalancing of our balance sheet. That means that from today's perspective, we will not, for the whole period, be able to finance all the projects that are planned just out of the pocket. Yes, there will be maybe starting with 2029, a new debt. For the dividend policy, I would not fundamentally change our general guidance that the payout ratio should stay between 60% and 70%.
Given the fact that the third runway project had no cash impact, yeah, we decided to keep the dividend stable, because if you look at our revenue and at our business results, without this depreciation, we would have also fulfilling the 65% perception of last year, we would also end up with roughly 165. From that point of view, I think it's very consistent, and for the years to come, we should be in the corridor of 60% to 70% payout ratio, given the respective business results and also the development of our projects.
For the time being, and I would even say for the next 10 years up to 2035, if not really extraordinary shocks hit us, it's a very stable, sustainable, and calculable development.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Are there any further questions or follow-ups? Seems not to be the case. No virtual hand raised. I thank you all for participating in our results conference call for the Q&A. If there are any further questions, please come back to me and contact me. Otherwise, I wish you a good afternoon, and enjoy the rest of the week. Goodbye.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.