The airport manager Groupe ADP saw its turnover grow by 81.1% year-on-year during the first nine months of the year thanks to the “strong dynamics of traffic”, approaching the level of activity prior to the health crisis.
The company, saying it is more optimistic for certain annual targets, achieved a turnover of 3.38 billion euros in the first three quarters of 2022, it said in a press release on Thursday.
This figure compares with 3.5 billion euros in the same period of 2019, before the waves of Covid-19 that torpedoed world air transport, although in the meantime the perimeter of the group has grown with the Almaty airport in Kazakhstan.
76% of 2019 customers
The group controlled by the French State and which manages 29 airport platforms in the world received 204.7 million passengers between January and September, an increase of 92.4% in one year, finding more than three quarters (76.6 %) of customers in 2019.
Sur ses platformes vedettes de la région parisienne, Roissy et Orly, ce ratio est meilleur, à 77.2% de 2019, les 63.8 million passagers représentant same a bond of 142.6% par rapport à la même période de l ‘last year.
Even more encouraging, during the third quarter, including the peak summer season in the northern hemisphere, Paris airports saw 86.8% of their 2019 passengers.
“Passenger traffic and the results recorded since the beginning of the year allow us, for the second time this year, to improve our financial forecasts (…) for 2022”, greeted the general director of the Augustin de Romanet, quoted in the press release.
ADP revised downwards its ratio of net financial debt to gross operating surplus (Ebitda) to a range of 5 to 5.5 at the end of this year, compared to 5.5 to 6.5, in a context of reduction of planned investments, between 500 and 550 million euros, compared to the 550 to 600 previously planned.
The group also narrowed its traffic forecast ranges at the top of previous estimates, already revised higher at the end of July.
Salary increases
It estimates that in 2022 it will recover between 77 and 83% of its global number of passengers in 2019, compared to the 74-84% previously forecast. At its Paris airports, it now sees traffic evolving between 78 and 82% of the 2019 level, while previously it had forecast between 72 and 82%.
Finally, ADP sees its Ebitda margin exceed 34.5% this year. It has been reported so far in a range of 32 to 37%.
The group “has achieved a solid performance since the beginning of the year,” chief financial officer Philippe Pascal said during a conference call with analysts.
According to Pascal, ADP calculates the cost of the extensions and revaluations of the networks granted after a strike by its employees at the end of June and beginning of July at 26 million euros in a full year.
The group still expects a return to 2019 passenger traffic levels, respectively, between 2023 and 2024 for its entire perimeter, and between 2024 and 2026 for the Paris facilities.
Without waiting for these deadlines, it intends to return to green throughout the 2022 financial year, after having lost 248 million euros in 2021 and 1,170 million in 2020. It has already obtained a net profit of 160 million euros during the first half.
Source: BFM TV
