Flughafen Wien AG

The main results and we had a moderate revenue and earnings increase in Q1 26. Revenue up 6.1%, EBITDA up 8.2% and group net profit up 5.3%. We saw overall positive traffic development in the group with 5.3% plus, especially resulting in strong growth in Malta and Kosice. In Vienna it was 1.6% including Air India transit passengers in the refueling stops. We saw a positive non-mediation performance, higher de-icing revenues and no winter incentive compared to 2025, which positively contributed to our results. We successfully implemented and are still in the process of implementation of our cost saving and efficiency measures. And I hope we can realize all the plans throughout the year. Clearly, The Middle East conflict is increasing uncertainty for the coming month and hopefully these negative effects will stop very soon. What might be of more importance mid-term at least are the effects of higher fuel costs. which might result in some airline capacity adjustments and also higher ticket prices by many of the carriers to offset these additional costs. Despite all that uncertainty we can confirm our passenger and financial outlook for 2026 so far and I hope that the rest of the year will not prove us wrong. If you move on you see that Our financial results are positive, although reduced by half due to the fact that interest rates came down on the one hand and On the other hand, we are spending cash, so the overall amount is also slightly melting down. The termination of the winter incentive last year had a positive effect. For this first quarter and overall development was also supported by higher de-icing revenues as we had a very harsh winter in January and February. If we move on. You see a slight margin improvement and overall good cost discipline. Personal costs still are slightly going up, which is the result of the salary increase last year. and we now will see step by step the effects of a decline in the number of employees throughout the year. Our new collective agreement with the trade unions was signed and is valid starting 1st of May and it includes a salary rise of 2.4%, which is 1% below inflation. We saw higher maintenance expenses and additional expenditures for environmental measures for our neighbors. Overall EBDA margin and EBIT margin was slightly increased and moved in a positive direction. Looking at the cash flow, you see not dramatic changes. CAPEX is up to 85.8 million and the biggest project is the south expansion. But we already also started Office Park 4 and investments in Malta with 11%. The decline in the cash flow from operating activities is attributable to higher income tax payments, a reduction in liabilities and payments of incentives for the financial year 2025. Net liquidity remains at 407 compared to 413 year on year and it will be substantially reduced now due to the dividend payment. which will follow the approval of our dividend proposal by the annual general meeting on the 3rd of June. Despite the reductions in traffic we will see in Vienna this year We continue investing in quality and capacity, especially in our terminal projects and the total capex for 2026 will amount to roughly 330 million and will most likely continue in the following years. It will very much depend on the framework whether we see growth and we see positive expectations. So we started the planning of the different projects and the realization will then be subject to the Actual figures and expectation when we come there. So the main projects are the terminal 3 southern expansion, the remodeling of parts of terminal 3 due to this new building and following then the extension of pier north. Office Park 4 Next, which is already under construction and important projects will be the development of a new zone for settlements and an increase of the land used by our airport, but also apron electrification, grid expansion, the icing areas, Expansion of aircraft parking positions at Pier Nord and the renewal of passenger boarding bridges. In the case of Malta, the terminal is expanded due to the very, very substantial growth. The runway is modernized and also the airport apron is expanded and the Skypark 2 office building is on the way and also the car park expansion. You see a lot of projects will be on our schedule for the coming years. Our biggest project is PIRBL-3 southern expansion and it is proceeding on schedule and we hopefully will have it operational in one year from now. Also the airport city is growing fastly. We have new companies in the space sector who come and settle down on the airport. We are on the brink of developing additional cargo areas and the new hotel after some delays will now open in June. So, putting all together, we can confirm the financial guidance for 2026, which is known to you and there is no change necessary right now.

So that's from my side. I hand over to Julian. Julian, are you muted?

Julian, you are muted.

Can you hear me now?

Now? Yes, it works now.

It was the wrong microphone, sorry. Yeah, good afternoon from Mainz. I'd like to continue with traffic results and the segments. I mean, starting with Q1, which does not reflect, unfortunately, the future development of 2026. Q1 was actually better than expected and we saw some growth in Vienna here as well. Vienna had a growth rate of 1.6% despite the removal of Wieser and despite the bad Middle East traffic starting in March. Malta did extremely well, 15.4% growth, Kosice 40% growth. So overall we saw 5.3% growth in the group. and April then changed the picture minus 8% in Vienna due to Low-cost reduction, Middle East and Easter being in March and not in April in 2026. Still more, so that's very well, plus 13.5% in Kozice, plus 66%, mainly driven due to the new connection between Bratislava and Kozice, which is doing very, very well. So overall we stand with slight growth until the end of April, minus 1.5% in Vienna and 2.9% growth in the group. Maybe a closer look at the Vienna figures. I think what is interesting is cargo, which I would say is holding on, although there is now we see growth in the road feeder service and reduction in X-rail air freight. mainly due to the reduction in white-body planes from the Middle East. We've got a very significant reduction in capacity from Dubai, from Qatar, from Abu Dhabi. So this obviously reduces air cargo. and overall we saw in the first four months of this year a reduction in 1.5% in passenger numbers, 4% in aircraft movements. and we saw a slight growth in cargo overall. What's positive is the seat load factor plus 2.5 percentage points over last year and this is a bit of a counterweight to the reductions from the Middle East and the reduction from the low-cost carriers. All the other flights are really, really full. What I would like to point out as well is that we saw growth from refueling stops over India in the first four months, but from May onwards, We will see a reduction in transit passengers. As you know, transit passengers don't pay a passenger fee. So we have roughly 20% of the average fees there. But now due to the high kerosene price, Air India decided to reduce capacity to North America. So that's why they have less tank stops now in the coming months. And they reduced capacity to Vienna as well from four to three weekly flights. In April, Middle East, we saw a reduction of 83%, Eastern Europe minus 17%, Eastern Europe due to WISEA moving part of its capacity to... from the total removal from Vienna and part of the capacity went to Bratislava and Middle East in April was minus 83% in terms of passenger numbers. In between we are at about 70%. So still the capacity is not where it was before the war in Iran and load factors are significantly lower than they used to be. So overall we stand right now at roughly 30% of the passenger numbers. Just a brief look at the regional passenger development in Q1. Europe was still growing. I mean Eastern Europe will look different in the month to come. North America growing. Middle East, you already see the effect of the war. Far East doing very well, plus 19%. Africa doing reasonably well, 8%. And what we see now is, as I said, a slow recovery of the Middle East traffic. So the airlines are announcing that they want to come back and they are putting more planes in, but the load factors are still very low. So that's why we stand right now at minus 70%. Far East is doing pretty well, very good load factors, and we see some weakness towards Turkey, towards Egypt. So I think we see a mix there in high oil prices and lower demand than last year. But overall, I think from a booking perspective, the summer still looks good. I think I mentioned most of the information on this slide already. So, eight airlines to nine destinations are planned for this summer. As I said, load factors are still relatively low. I think the positive situation we have here, and this is significantly better than in many other airports, is the kerosene supply. We have a refinery just four kilometers away. We've got a pipeline from this refinery to Vienna airport. So as long as they have crude oil, we will have kerosene here at Vienna airport. And there's no reason to believe that We should have any shortages in the month to come. obviously still there's a high level of uncertainty around this conflict and yeah I have to stress that now after the war in Ukraine which affected roughly four percent of our overall markets now we have a war in the Middle East which affects six percent of Our overall passenger numbers, so overall we have a very significant reduction in potential passengers due to this geopolitical situation. So we definitely hope that over the course of this year there will be peace in the Middle East and let's hope that sooner or later there will be peace or at least a ceasefire in Ukraine as well. I would see both conflicts subduing passenger numbers right now, but I would see both conflicts as potential growth destinations for the future. Maybe just a few words about the current airline developments. You know that Ryanair reduced their stationed aircraft by 4 to 14. Wizz Air closed their Vienna base, which were 5 aircraft. So we see significantly less LCC or ultra LCC traffic here in Vienna this year. Austrian Airlines is growing. They get a new 787 Dreamliner as of June 26. Two more expected until the end of this year, which is in principle a positive development. We saw now China Eastern connecting Vienna with Xi'an, Royal Jordanian want to come back and connect Vienna with Amman. We got the connection to Cluj, we get the connection from Zalamea to Muscat. Air Baltic is growing to Tallinn and Air Corsica is launching Ajaxio and Bastia. We stick to our passenger guidance of Roughly 30 million passengers. So in our definition, roughly 30 million means something between 29 and 31 million passengers. I'm still optimistic that we will be pretty close to the 30 million. Partly due to the high load factors which we saw in the first four months of this year. So what we saw in the first four months that we had a better passenger development than expected in January. Now, obviously, we have a significant hit in the Middle East overall still with increased load factors on the long haul market. and in the short haul market within Europe. Overall, I'm optimistic that despite the situation in the Middle East we will be around 30 million passengers and therefore we stick to our passenger forecast and as Gunther already explained we stick to our financial predictions for or guidance for the year 2026 and I don't have to stress that with all the Heightened uncertainty in the current geopolitical scenario. Obviously, the situation would significantly change if there's not enough kerosene to cater for all flights. Right. If there is... Well, it could be better, because while doing the work, they set fire to Paris. or if there is another significant hike in kerosene prices. And obviously I think looking forward into 2027, which seems still far away It's impossible to predict at this point, but obviously what we all have to be aware of that with every week when airlines are not hedging at current kerosene prices, obviously the uncertainty for 2027 is increasing and I think what's extremely important that we will see in the second half of this year Thank you very much. So our guidance, Vienna around 30 million passengers, the group roughly 41.5 million passengers and we can confirm this today. I think the quality situation in Vienna is significantly better. We got an ESQ award for best airport at departures, 25 to 40 million passengers. We got another award for lounge of the year. Our Vienna lounge got an award again. Overall, the level of on-time performance, the level of waiting times, everything is really, really good. Next year, with the opening of the South Extension, which we highlighted more than once, we will improve the quality for our passengers further and we're still set to become a five-star airport until 2030. A few words regarding our segments. We saw a reduction in the airport segment in Q1, EBIT minus 11%, mainly due to reduction in passenger numbers. There was a reduction in airport charges and there was probably not that much expected positive impact of the removal of the winter incentive, but overall we saw a decrease in EBITDA and EBIT and a slight increase in the external revenue. The handling and security services did pretty well, mainly due to substantially higher de-icing income and slight traffic growth. So, revenue grew by 14.6%, EBITDA nearly doubled, and EBIT increased by nearly 200%. Unfortunately, there won't be any... There won't be any de-icing in the month to come, so we have to wait for next November, December again. The coming months will be dominated by the reduction in traffic as well. Retail did pretty well, plus 1% parking revenues, plus 2% rental revenues, and plus 7% center management and hospitality. Even now in April and May, I think the spend per passenger is holding on, actually. I think many other airports struggle in this respect. In our case, the revenue per passenger is holding on pretty well in the duty-free shop area. and in F&B sector. So I hope this remains the case in the rest of the year and overall a pretty good development with plus 19% EBIT and plus 14% EBITDA. Overall, we are in the final stages to conclude the last contracts for retail in the New South Extension. Retail is, you know, the environment is right now much more difficult than it used to be in prior years. So luxury is really in a difficult environment. But overall, I'm under the circumstances, I would say, I'm satisfied with with the contracts we are signing right now. F&B better than expected to be honest and better than predicted. I think we concluded already contracts for all the available outlets and we are expecting high quality and high return from this area. Malta still doing very very well growth rates will go down over summer and the focus is really there on increasing the capacity of the terminal this is of utmost importance but overall Very good development, plus 11% revenue, 17% EBITDA and 14.7% EBIT. So overall an excellent development. And yeah, we are looking at a very good year for Malt Airport in 2026 as well. That's it from our end. So we are happy to take your questions now.

Yes, please, floor is open for questions. I see the first hands raised. Elias Huring first, please go ahead.

Yes, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got three questions. I'd like to take them one at a time. So perhaps first starting off with Ryanair and carrier capacity. It looks like Ryanair has further reduced capacity for the summer schedule from 15 aircraft to 14. Do you see any further risk of capacity cuts, either from Ryanair or other carriers? And how are your discussions with airlines evolving, particularly surrounding the Austrian aviation tax? Do you see any potential for change here in the short term?

I mean, this is really a difficult question. Budget discussions in Austria are currently ongoing and I think the Minister of Finance gives his speech on the 10th or 11th of June, if I'm not mistaken. As an industry we are pretty much united on this and we are trying to convince government to at least reduce our thicket tax in the years to come. I cannot say if this will be successful. Obviously, the budget situation is very, very tight. But, I mean, this decision is extremely important for the future development overall for the aviation industry in Austria, not only for Vienna Airport. Probably some regional airports will be hit even harder. but I mean I obviously I cannot exclude further capacity reductions in the years to come if there's no reduction in the tax actually if there's no reduction it's pretty likely that there might be further reductions and we will have to see and wait what's happening on this front But knowing Ryanair and you all follow the developments in Berlin, the discussions Ryanair is having with Fraport in Greece, so obviously there will be lots of pressure on capacity if the cost situation in terms of tax is not improved in the years to come. I don't foresee any significant cuts or otherwise from other airlines, but obviously, I mean, within Lufthansa Group, Austrian is always fighting for their position. Within Lufthansa Group, profitability is not where Lufthansa wants to see Austrian, so I don't think that we would see any immediate change if If the tax environment stays where it is, but obviously this could have an impact on future growth or will have an impact on future growth as well.

Understood. And perhaps coming to my second question, which would be coming back to the traffic guidance for 2026, to understand there's obviously a lot of uncertainty about how the situation in the Middle East will evolve, but just sort of wondering what assumptions you've currently baked into the traffic guidance for the Middle East. Are you Are you sort of assuming a similar impact as we saw in April maybe for the remainder of the year? Or are you kind of currently assuming that the conflict will cease and that will return to normal levels of traffic within the next few years? I mean, yeah.

In our prediction for... The approximately 30 million passenger forecast does not include a full recovery until the end of this year. So the underlying assumption is that there will be recovery, but a slow recovery. So we assume that from the 30% we see now, we will see a slow but sure recovery over the year, but Not seeing the levels before the war, before next year.

Okay, that's helpful. And finally, on the sort of cost saving side, so looking at your personal costs, they still increased in Q1 year on year up around 6%, headcount also slightly increased. So just wondering, do you still expect personal costs to remain stable for 2026 compared to 2025? And then also on the material side, how do you expect material costs to evolve in 26? I mean, they were also slightly up in Q1. So shall we expect... Material costs to be down for the full year compared to 2025 as you were guiding previously?

Material costs from my perspective will stay more or less stable and personal costs might be slightly higher than 25 but should also come down Thank you very much.

Okay, great, I'll get back in line. Thanks. Thank you, and I hand over to Vladimir.

Yes, hello, good afternoon. Just two quick questions. First one would be, you mentioned that spending passenger is holding well, so where we spend currently and what do you expect for the full year maybe? And maybe also a slight look into the future once the Terminal 3 extension will be finished. Do you expect any boost to this spending per passenger? And then next question would be related to the cost savings program. Do you have any overall figure of how much you want to achieve this year, maybe next year, or... Where to find some overall target in this respect? And then last but not least, these winter incentives, you mentioned that impact was bigger. How much was it in absolute terms? And do you plan to continue with any winter incentives program in future?

We have stopped the winter incentive and for the time being we don't plan to bring it on again. Maybe Bernd could deliver the exact number of last year later on. Regarding spend, I mean overall we are right now roughly 2% up per passenger and to be honest it fluctuates a lot per week but overall if we could remain for the full year and you have to have in mind as well that we have significantly less passengers to the Middle East and they are drivers of revenues Special in retail as well. So if we would end the year up by 2% in spend, I think this would be very positive. Obviously, yes, we expect revenue per passenger to grow. Thank you very much. So we will update our guidance on that with the H1 figures.

Regarding our cost saving program and efficiency program, it was built in into the budget. And if you look at it very grossly, you see that The result of 2025 in 2026 compared to lower overall revenue, you can somehow estimate the amount that should be the result of all the programs and all the measures that we have designated.

Okay, thank you.

Simon, happy to take your questions now.

Hello, good afternoon.

Thank you for taking my questions. I have three. The first one is on passenger growth. Again, so similar to Elias' question, but slightly different, I hope. And that's, I mean, clearly there's uncertainty regarding the Middle East situation, but how should we think currently about passenger growth trajectory at Vienna from here on? Essentially, what I'm wondering is, I mean, was April the trough in growth, excluding further Middle East uncertainty, or is there any further pressure from the summer schedule fully phasing in? My next question is then on the fuel supply situation, because you highlighted that there is no known fuel supply shortage at Vienna, because of your proximity to the refineries. Now, does this have relevance for the airline partners in allocating capacity to you, i.e. are they increasing capacity potentially, because that's an advantage they see with Vienna Airport? And then my last question is on CapEx, because you brought up your Pipeline into 2030, and I'm wondering, will it gradually decline from this 26 peak, or is there any logic that you can further share with us here? Thank you.

What was the last question again, please?

On CapEx, what's the pacing here into 2030?

Okay, no, I leave this up for Gunther. I mean, I think in terms of absolute numbers or absolute reduction, minus 8.2% in April, I'm optimistic that the reduction in passenger numbers in terms of percent will be lower in the months to come. So I think this should have been the peak, but I have to say, I mean, it's too early to say anything about November, December, so that's... That feels even further away than usually at that point in the year. But in the end, November, December, they don't have this much of relevance. So overall, I think the reduction in passenger numbers should have peaked. We should see a slow but sure recovery from the Middle East. and therefore we are pretty optimistic at this point in time that we will be close to the 30 millions we guided in January especially due to the high load factors we are seeing right now and in terms of if it's an advantage To have a relatively safe fuel supply here in Vienna, to be honest, I would not see this as an upside, but I think this is, let's say, this is a risk reduction regarding a potential downside. So, I don't think... I mean, airlines, on short, they don't switch aircraft and capacity that fast, so I don't think that this will mean anything positive for the summer schedule for us. But on the other hand, it reduces the likelihood that airlines have to cancel flights because of fuel shortage. So I think this should be pretty neutral for our projections of this year.

Yeah, and regarding investment, I mean, you saw the projects that are considered necessary in the coming years. The planning will be started step by step and some of the projects already are in realization. And given... Our expectations for the coming years, each project that is further down the road will be decided then when we come there, if it is economically viable and if we think that it's the appropriate time to start the project. So we will drive by sight. But I think it is essential to have everything ready and to be able to start once we think it's necessary and it's wise to do it.

All right. Understood. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Are there any further questions? Obviously not.

So I thank everyone. for dialing in, following Wien AG upward, showing the interest in our results. I close the call and wish you a good afternoon. Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye-bye.