Flughafen Wien AG

gave also an outlook for 2026. So if we go to the first slide, you see the headlines. We had a rise in our revenue of 7.2%, which reflects a very good business performance and 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 and out of that we have roughly 55.9 million of assets that are now removed from our balance sheet and therefore net income EBITDA are negatively affected. So net income is down from 239 to 210. And as you can see in these figures, it was possible by a better operating performance to offset half of this negative effect. So it was only relative to the expectation 26 million that are now offset and 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 €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 24, so from 15.5 to 11.1. This is reflecting the fact of lower interest rates and 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 330 million. What is Interesting is that we see a growing contribution of Malta Airport to our group net profit. So roughly one fourth in million 49.8 are coming already from Malta operation. If we look at the development of our costs, you see that consumers and services used, especially energy, was more or less flat compared 24 to 25. Personal expenses unfortunately went up around 12%, including gate two, which was now only included in an equity consolidation instead of full consolidation. So if we add that, it's a little bit more than 12%. Other operating expenses are up slightly, plus the 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. So if we move on, you see that the development of our cash flow from operating activities was down roughly 110 million. On the other side, free cash flow is up at 45 million. And CAPEX was 281 compared to 189 last year. So we have been able to increase by roughly 100 million. And net liquidity is reduced from 511 to 413. due to our payout of the dividend and also the investments. Equity is up to 1626 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 higher payout for taxes. And this will continue also in 2026. And that's due to the fact that we had lower repayments in the COVID period. And 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 stable dividend. And 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 three years.

So 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 Kosice and in Malta. So 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 Kosice. So how is it possible to guide a stable net income of 210 million and after minorities of 185 million? The reason for that is that we decided company-wide cost optimization program and cost reduction program. And with that program, we have more or less offset the effects of the lower revenues we expect for 2026. So hopefully we can realize all the cost cutting measures. And if we do so, we will end up most likely more or less where we ended up in 2025. So summing up our financial guidance for 2026, we expect revenue at approximately 1.50 million, EBITDA approximately 415, group net profit 210, group net profit after minorities 185, and capex around 330 million. 330 million includes also Malta. So the best guess is that we will have 65 million investment in Malta and 265 here in Vienna.

What are we doing with the 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. and 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. And there are many other projects on the way, especially after the south extension, the extension of Pier North with additional gate positions. And in Malta, there is terminal expansion and modernization of the runway and also a new business park and a new car park. That all sums up to roughly 330 million in 2026. Our airport city is developing very, very well. We have increased our leased space in the last 10 years by 100 percent so from 100 000 square meters to 200 000 square meters and we have around 20 new companies who settled in 2025 at the airport and one specific initiative is our space hub It is developing very well in cooperation with the European Space Agency. And 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. And the first satellite built by Gatesbase will be sent to the orbit throughout this year. And very important innovations are underway from these companies, so not only the new turbo for satellites, the Yonen motor, but also the possibility to re-pank satellites. So, Gates 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. And 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. So 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 and all together we see that the business there will be very attractive. Aviation still is a growth factor in the growth sector. On the other hand, 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. So especially the Green Deal I think has been so far a failure. No other region in the world has followed Europe's approach and the hubs outside the European Union are growing and Europe is more or less stagnating and 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 and 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 subs that would be needed under the current regulations starting from 2030 on. So 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.

So that's from my side and I hand over to Julian. Hi, good afternoon.

Ladies and gentlemen, before I start with the current 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. But essentially the only thing we can do is to wait and see how this conflict will play out. So far we are hopeful that the military actions will not take 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. But as we said, so 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, and we're looking forward to opening the second quarter of next year our self-expansion of Terminal 3. So 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. So overall revenue plus 6%, EBIT 9 is 24%. But 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. So, 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 to 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. So overall, I think really, really good results. And with the self-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, yeah, an EBIT of 8.7 million. This is a slight increase over 2024. And yeah, V&A airport handling is still the 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 operated by Vienna Airport with a share of 53% of revenue, parking 30% revenue and plus 4% growth in 2025, rentals 17%. share and plus 3%. Overall revenues up 6%, EBIT up 3.5% to 97.2 million and 25% share of the consolidated EBITDA 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, Friedlmüller, Landmann and so on. So 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 has 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, yeah, again, if you look just at January, after a record result with 10 million passengers, again, significant growth by 17% in January 2026. Overall, revenues up nearly 10%, EBITDA up 9%, EBITDA up 7.6%. over 20% of the consolidated EBITDA in the group. So really excellent development and 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. So we urgently need more terminal space. There will be more retail space. The check-in space will more or less double. We will get more gates. So overall, this is the major challenge in the next few years, and this year only we will invest €70 million in Malta. Kosice had a good development as well. More than 800,000 passengers and huge growth in January with plus 35%, mainly due to the connection between Kosice and Bratislava, which is now operated 13 times per week. So, we are hopeful that we will surpass the 1 million passenger mark, which would be a record as well. We are making roughly 2 million net in Kosice, and we will invest there, due to passenger growth as well, in the modernization of the terminal in the expansion of the current capacity. Yeah, 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. 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 Peel North and add five new peer gates and nine gates in total, which should be finalized by 2031. So overall, we are committed to invest, and we will discuss with Austria and 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, so therefore we are doing our utmost to, if not a complete abolishment of the ticket tax, so at least a significant reduction. obviously going to be difficult discussions and negotiations, but we are convinced that this would not only help the aviation industry in Austria, this would help the tourism industry in Austria, this is something the regional airports in Austria need, and therefore we hope that we managed to convince government that it's not only about budget consolidation, but it's about growing the economy as well. And I think this would be a relatively small investment with quite a huge impact on important industry here in Austria. But 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. So that's it from our end and we are now happy to take your questions.

Yes, let's come to Q&A and the discussion. I see virtual hands raised. One, two, three already.

Vladimir, please go ahead. You have been the first one. Can you hear me now?

One little question regarding your guidance. You are navigating us to net profit before minorities of 210, after minorities 185, same figures as we had seen in 25. At the same time you are talking about above average growth at Malta especially. So indirectly it implies that we would see minorities at the same position. So 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 slightly different maybe change in structure of passengers. And by the way, what were revenues per passenger in 2025 and what is the expected development in 2026? And then last but not least, it's related to your cost reduction efficiency improvement program. So 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 to definitely also some negotiations or discussions. regarding wage increases from 1st of May. So what is the visibility here? What is the targeted figure for personal cost in 26? 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 and it will mean that we reduce headcount and that we lower the cost increases that are more or less built in in the structure. And to understand the Malta-Vienna airport relation, In Malta we will see additional depreciation due to the fact that the investments already started, the investment phase started two years ago. So 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, so all over the board we see reductions.

Let me continue with the average revenues per passenger from the aviation segment. We had in 2024, we had roughly €15.50 net revenue per passenger. In 2025 we will be a bit above 16 euros, so an increase of roughly 3%. And 2026 is now really difficult to guess, but my best guess would be that we are somewhere in between the 1550 and the 16. I mean, we will 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, so I would guess we will be somewhere in between 1550 and 16 euros, although with all the current developments, this is really difficult to guess. uh overall i mean you asked regarding the low-cost carriers um i i expect um and and we saw a good development or a better development than expected in january and in the first half of february now obviously everything has changed um but but overall the reductions of the low-cost carriers will kick in with the summer flight plan uh from from april and 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 German ticket tax, Ryanair started to... 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. But this is there. We have to wait as well, and probably we will know more in the second half of this year.

Thank you very much. Let's go dinner 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, so you're guiding for around 330 million for 2026. Could you give us a sense of how you expect that to evolve in the outer years, so perhaps 2027 and beyond? Because I think you mentioned 2026 should be the peak, but just any visibility beyond that would be very helpful.

Yeah, I mean, 2026 definitely will be a peak because the main part of the south extension will be included, but given the scope of our projects, we will have a higher level also in the following years compared to 23 or 24. So I would expect it will definitely be more than 200 million also in the following years, peaking then again once we are realizing Peel North extension. And the exact plans for that are still a work in progress.

Great, very clear.

And a second question on Malta. I mean, you saw great 2025 in terms of traffic in Malta. Could you perhaps just give us some colour 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? So should we see another year of double-digit traffic growth?

I mean, that would be nice, but I wouldn't bank on that. So I'm sure that when summer comes, the growth rates will significantly go down. And then I would expect something between, yeah, around 5%, maybe a bit more, but single digit numbers. 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.

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. So 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?

I didn't get it.

My question is for 2026, could you please share with us the dividend guidance? Will it be the same level as in 2025?

We will try our best.

So if our expectations are fulfilled, it should be more or less at the same level, yes.

Okay, thank you. And my second question is, In terms of the energy cost hedging considerations, are there any impacts we're seeing 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. So it was roughly $78 for Brent several hours ago. And this is mainly affecting the airlines. And 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. And electricity prices, we are not exposed at all because we bought the electricity we need from outside sources already 18, 24 months ago. And we are producing roughly 50%. of our electricity consumption by our own photovoltaic production. So 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 and hello everyone. Hi. So 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 on to your business. To start off with the clarification, as a base case, 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 agent 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 one million deviation you consider sensible to be the implied range? What's your thinking here? And I go with the dividend question thereafter.

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 that I was wrong. But I think we have to really wait now for one or two weeks how the whole conflict plays out, if there will be a regime change in Iran. So 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 – the world economy, essentially. I mean, on the one hand, obviously, the Strait of Hormuz is a major issue, but on the other Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi as global hubs would be taken out of operation for months. I think this would be a huge impact on the whole world economy and overall as long as we have these airspace closures in the Middle East. Obviously, there would be additional impacts, so 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 U.S. mainly. So 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. So, 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. So overall, it's simply too early to come up 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. So Dubai airport already restarted operations and I think we will see it's a very minor issue.

Okay, thank you very much. And then the second topic was also on the dividend and I wanted to follow up on Stella's question and in particular the outlook for 26 and probably also the years thereafter. You now mentioned that you aimed or that it would be a sensible logic to keep it more or less stable, the dividend. Whereas I'm also wondering to what degree you do this for political purposes because we have some workforce reductions and you also demand ticket tax adjustments and to what degree it reflects your truly perceived cash needs. what's the combination here because 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. So yes, there will be maybe starting with 29. a new debt and for the dividend policy I would not fundamentally change our general guidance that the payout ratio should stay between 60 and 70 percent given the fact that the third runway project had no cash impact. 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. So 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 percent payout ratio given the respective business results and also the development of our projects. But 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.

Thank you very much. Are there any further questions or follow-ups?

seems not to be the case, no virtual hand raised, then 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.