Intermoney | The company (Buy, PO €205) announced yesterday with the market open the traffic figures for the past month of August. In that watertight period, Aena handled 32.1 million passengers, implying an increase of 7% year-on-year, or 9% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
By airports, Madrid-Barajas grew by 5%, while Barcelona El Prat remained virtually stable compared to August 2023. In general, the tourist airports recorded increases of between 5 and 10%, with Alicante and Tenerife Sur registering increases of around 15%. During the year to August 2024, Aena’s traffic grew by 10% compared to 2023, up to 208 million passengers, with similar increases in both Madrid and Barcelona, while among the rest of the facilities, Alicante once again stands out with 17%, with Tenerife and Malaga both in the region of 13%.
Assessment: No surprises in the August traffic data, which show again a relaxation of the year-on-year growth, which reached 15% at the end of Q1. Thus, we expect an increasingly demanding comparison with respect to 2023, already affected by the huge growth in tourism, to limit passenger growth for 2024 as a whole to around 8.5%, in line with Aena’s own guidance. By 2025 we expect more moderate increases, close to 4%. These good figures, combined with the strength of the commercial business and the contribution of the new international assets (ONCE in Brazil), we expect to boost Aena’s consolidated EBITDA by 18% this year compared to 2023 to €3.56bn, implying on the other hand almost 30% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
