Spanish airport operator Aena's net profit soars as traffic surges

Spanish airport operator Aena said on Thursday its net profit in the first nine months of the year jumped as passenger traffic in Spain surpassed pre-pandemic levels, pushing its share price up. The Spanish airport operator’s net profit rose 71% from the same period of last year to E1.14b while revenue between January and September grew 20% from the same period a year ago to E3.7b. Aena added it expects traffic will keep on growing through the winter following a strong summer, forecasting full-year traffic in 2023 to be 2% above the 275m passengers registered in 2019. The company had forecast a year ago traffic at 92% of pre-pandemic levels this year. It expects traffic will continue to grow to reach 300m in 2026. Aena’s financial results were in line with analysts’ expectations. “Aena’s cashflow is performing better than expected. The significant improvement in traffic levels, already above 2019, mainly in the most tourism areas, allows a strong rebound in revenues,” Angel Perez, an analyst at brokerage Renta4, said in a note to clients. Tourism worldwide strongly recovered in 2023 after a couple of years of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. In Europe, the recovery was led by travellers from cooler climates seeking warmer temperatures in the south, according to the Spanish airline association. Traffic to other European countries, where business travel represents a bigger share, was still slightly below pre-pandemic levels.<br/>