Vinci's Q3 revenue jumps on traffic boost

Vinci posted a sharp rise in quarterly revenue on Tuesday, with the French infrastructure group citing continued recovery in airport passenger numbers and motorway traffic. As coronavirus-related travel curbs eased across parts of the world, motorway and airport traffic rebounded, boosting the group’s quarterly revenue to E16.70b, up 26% on an actual basis from a year earlier. Europe’s biggest construction and concessions company said that traffic levels at its motorways were above those recorded before the pandemic in 2019 despite higher fuel prices. “In October, the light vehicle traffic has been impacted by the shortage of petrol in France,” head of investor relations at Vinci Gregoire Thibault said on a call. “But now the situation is, let’s say, resolved (...), so I don’t rule out a catch-up effect,” he added. Vinci also benefited from an accelerated recovery in passenger numbers at almost all of its airports. “Momentum was particularly strong in Europe, South America and the Caribbean,” the group said in an earnings statement. “Passenger numbers returned to levels equal to or higher than those achieved in 2019 at several airports, particularly in Portugal, Serbia and the Americas.”<br/>