By Corina Pons
MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish airport operator Aena reported a 33% rise in net profit in the first half of the year as passenger traffic grew faster than expected due to rising numbers of tourists in the country.
The company, which operates Spanish airports and is the world’s largest by passenger numbers, said on Wednesday that it had posted a net profit of 808.6 million euros ($875 million) in the first six months of the year.
Aena’s commercial revenues grew faster than its airline business during the period, mainly due to strong sales in duty-free shops, higher rental contracts and special services for passengers, the company said.
However, Aena shares fell 5.68 percent after the announcement, heading for the biggest one-day loss in two years. Some analysts raised concerns about a preliminary government agreement in Catalonia that would give the region a greater say in the management and financing of the planned expansion of Aena’s airport in Barcelona.
CEO Maurici Lucena said the board had decided to hire legal experts to examine the political agreement and its possible implications. “The company will undoubtedly defend its interests,” he said in a conference call with analysts, adding that the airport’s ownership was not in dispute.
In the first half of the year, around 144 million passengers passed through Aena’s Spanish terminals, 11.4 percent more than in the previous year. In view of the record numbers in the Spanish tourism industry, the operator revised its forecast for the full year upwards last month.
According to official data, the recovery of tourism in Spain after the pandemic remains strong, even if mass tourism in summer hotspots such as Barcelona or the Balearic and Canary Islands is causing increasing resentment among residents.
Total passengers increased by 10.5% to 172 million, including flights via Aena’s airports such as London Luton and a number of terminals in Brazil.
Aena’s revenues from shop rents, parking and other business at its airports as well as from flight operations rose, as expected, by 18 percent to 2.75 billion euros compared to the first half of the previous year.
Aena said its board had approved a 5 cent increase in fares to 10.40 euros per passenger from March 2025. The increase still needs to be reviewed by the Spanish competition authority, but Lucena expressed confidence that it would be approved.
(1 dollar = 0.9242 euros)
(Reporting by Corina Pons; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and David Holmes)
