Fraport Aktie

Yes. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Frankfurt to our 2Q question-and-answer session. The presentation got released this morning at 7:00 a.m. CET and is available on the web. And right now, as said before, we do have the question-and-answer session.

With me at the table, we got Dr. Matthias Zieschang, our CFO. And keeping with the previous quarters and previous releases, please do keep our cautionary language in mind when it comes to forward-looking statements. Having said this, we'd like to hand over back to the operator to start with the Q&A session now.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take our first question from the line of Carlos Caburrasi from Kepler Cheuvreux.

I'll go ahead with just 2 questions on my side. First, I wanted to focus on the financial results. In Q2, the net financial expense figure and here excluding joint ventures, was around EUR 100 million. Should we expect this same level in the coming quarters? Or has there been any kind of one-off? And second, I was wondering if you could provide some visibility on CapEx. I mean the reduction appears to be progressing a bit more slowly than anticipated. So how confident are you in reaching the EUR 900 million full year target?

Starting with the last topic, CapEx, we are absolutely confident to end up with EUR 900 million. You mentioned the run rate in the first 6 months, which is in comparison to further years a little bit higher, but this has to do that, on one side, now we are closing all open contracts regarding Terminal 3. So this is a ramp down during the year.

And second, we had some refurbishment work at our runway, on the southern runway in our parallel system. And here, we had a good outflow for this refurbishment. And that's the reason why in the first 6 months, CapEx has been relatively high, but this will be fully compensated as planned in the second half. So that we are absolutely confident to end up with a total CapEx number of EUR 900 million. First part was regarding...

The interest result Q2.

Interest results. Yes, you have to see that underlying, we have the expenses for our total indebtedness. You know the average rate of interest for the total debt, there will be no change perhaps during the year, an increase from 3.4% to 3.6% at the end of the year. This is a minimal increase on one side. On the other side, we had this special effect that we cannot any longer capitalize interest expenses for the construction expenses regarding Terminal 3. So this was a step up. And now we have a new balanced level for the next couple of quarters.

We will now take the next question from the line of Tobias Fromme from Bernstein.

I had one on retail. Shopping and services spend per pax dropped by 6% in Q2 and by 4% in Q1, while advertising per pax increased by 25% in Q1 and by another 5% in Q2. I was just wondering when should we expect the inflection point for the shopping and services spend per pax to grow again? Is that with the return of the Middle Eastern travelers or a change in exchange rates? And what do you expect over the next 2 quarters? And then lastly, how resilient is the increase in advertisement per pax?

First of all, spend per pax, you mentioned already the elements working in favor of us or working against us. On one side, we had the positive impact from Terminal 3, where as of today, the increase is about 30% spend per pax, of course, especially driven also by an increase of advertisement proceeds.

On the other side, we had a significant loss of Middle East passengers with deep pockets and also willingness to spend a lot of money. And looking forward, first of all, we see and expect a further improvement of the retail business inside Terminal 3 on one side, and this will be supported by the coming back of Middle East passengers so that we are also confident that looking forward, the spend per pax will go up based on these 2 factors.

And regarding sustainability of advertisement, we see a huge demand for billboard, so to say, in Terminal 3 and a very good spending behavior of companies or banks and even an increasing demand, we are looking where we can install further billboards inside this terminal because we have an excess of demand. And based on this, we are convinced that this is a sustainable trend.

Our next question comes from the line of Cristian Nedelcu from UBS.

Could I please ask first on Frankfurt traffic for the winter. Some of the data on airline seat capacity showing Lufthansa seat capacity in Frankfurt in Q4 down around 7% year-over-year. I'm not sure if this data is accurate or if you can make any comments on what you're seeing or expecting on your side?

Secondly, just on the free cash flow, could we kind of ask you to comment, I mean, you've reiterated the guidance on the free cash flow this year. Is there a range we should have in mind like low triple digit? Is that a EUR 100 million to EUR 200 million range or a bit more? Or any color at this stage as we are halfway through the year? And if not so much trouble, could you remind us the building blocks next year, the lower CapEx, the Antalya dividend and other building blocks?

And the last one, if you allow me, there's a bunch of international tenders that we see in the press, at least there's speculation around them. I don't know if -- I think in the past, you flagged potentially Egypt or Greece regional airports may be something of interest. I don't know if there's any update there if those projects could still be of interest or if there's any time line there that we should keep in mind to see progress on those tenders.

Yes. Thank you for your questions. Starting with your last topic, M&A activities, as you mentioned, in the market, it could be that Egyptian airports are coming or these regional airports in Greece. So we are going to look at both opportunities, whether they are interesting for us or not. And we are doing a deep analysis. And after this analysis, then if they are offered, then we have to decide to go or not to go. But in principle, we are looking at these airports and then we have to see whether this could be of interest for us or not. The rest is not relevant for us because we have our balance sheet and we have our clear targets, and we have to bring down indebtedness. So our firepower is limited.

So regarding free cash flow, so the free cash flow development in Q2 was a little bit disappointing. This has to do with temporarily working capital effects, which will level out later on during this year. So this was, so to say, up and down like a roller coaster and especially in Q2. So we expect the full compensation in the rest of the year. So with other words, our metric and our calculation for the free cash flow guidance for this year is robust. The only impact comes from lower traffic at Frankfurt and via lower traffic, we have a little bit of reduced EBITDA expectation. And this, of course, translates also into free cash flow. But all the other what you mentioned, building blocks are stable, are robust, are sustainable. So there is no change compared to what we said at the beginning of the year, except the weaker traffic at Frankfurt Airport and therefore, a little bit reduced EBITDA expectation.

CapEx is, as I mentioned, this year is stable with EUR 900 million and also going 1 year forward. Next year, we always said it's about EUR 700 million. So there is no change. So nothing will be different to what we said in the beginning of the year. Traffic, when you look on our international assets, traffic is very solid. In average, it's absolutely in line with our planning. And also looking forward, we assume that this will continue this positive performance. Frankfurt, we are weaker than expected. And we have on one side, the Lufthansa running flat or even with reduced seat capacities in the market.

On the other side, we see Condor delivering what they have guided in the beginning of the year. But of course, due to the size of Condor, this cannot fully compensate the reduction or the weakness of Lufthansa. So that for the total year, we again see a number which is on the level of the previous year, more interested is what will happen in '27. We see then from today onward, another delivery of, I think, about 10 Dreamliners coming to Frankfurt to Lufthansa. And we think that this will increase the seat capacity. Condor is continuing with their growth path. They are, I think, will see 6 correct, 6 additional A330neos?

Yes. I think they leased right now 4 new, haven't decided yet how many will come, but also A330s will come to the...

Total 6 long-haul aircraft. And so that -- let me say, for '27, this is not a guidance from today because we have to see what will happen in the next couple of months. But from today's perspective, we see this number of passengers in '27, what we saw in the beginning of this year for '26.

Our next question is from the line of Graham Hunt from Jefferies.

Maybe just sticking with the free cash flow and CapEx theme. I think first question, I think you were guiding to around EUR 200 million. I think that had been mentioned at the beginning of the year. Maybe you could just help us with the building blocks. You have the -- then the loss of EBITDA that you mentioned, the one-off tax charges. Are you sort of expecting consensus to come down closer to EUR 100 million now? That's question one.

Question two, just on your -- I think you had a sort of soft target of coming below 5x net debt to EBITDA by '27. Do you still see that under current conditions as achievable? I appreciate that it's difficult visibility-wise in the current market. But as it stands today, does that still seem like a reasonable assumption? And then last question, just a quick one, I guess, on ground handling, any development there around Lufthansa and the contract?

Yes. Thank you for the questions. Building blocks of free cash flow calculation. What is stable? Stable is the number of EUR 900 million regarding CapEx and no change. Also interest expenses on a net basis, EUR 400 million net result, about EUR 100 million tax cash out. So as always, no change. And on the other side, we have dividend proceeds primarily from Antalya, fully compensated on the other side by fixed concession payments for our assets in the international portfolio. So you can say everything is stable, except EBITDA, where we coming with our guidance saying up to EUR 1.5 billion.

Internally, we had a clear target to meet the EUR 1.5 billion based on 65 million to 66 million passengers at Frankfurt Airport. Now if you would end up with 63 million, so we -- if you would go in the middle of the range, we are going to lose EUR 2.5 million times EUR 15 per passenger. So we have on the aviation side, a loss of EUR 40 million, partly compensated by perhaps a better performance on the international side, but just a partly compensation that the final EBITDA on a group level will be clearly above previous year EBITDA level, but it will be below EUR 1.5 billion.

So this difference, let me say, due to the traffic weakness of Frankfurt Airport is a negative impact at the end of the day of the absolute free cash flow number, but it's -- we are talking about a double-digit million amount. So in other words, all the building blocks, what you mentioned are stable compared with what we guided in the beginning of the year. The net debt to EBITDA number, yes, it will be around 5x, whether it's 4.9 or 5.1 or 5.2, we have to see. At the end of the day, I think we have to see how we end up with the net indebtedness at the end of this year and then going forward on one side and what will be the final EBITDA guidance for '27. That's for sure.

And this depends. I think we don't -- we will not see any surprise on the international side, a continuation of this very good trend and the performance. And let me say, the question mark in the whole calculation will be traffic recovery at Frankfurt Airport in '27. And you know the metrics, EUR 15 just in aviation plus a little bit coming from retail, if we would have more passengers. This is the swing influencing EBITDA and via EBITDA, of course, and net debt to EBITDA.

Ground handling, nothing new. Our contract is on the table. It's a fair offer. So we -- based on the approach that all our cost items, including cost of capital must be covered and it's up to Lufthansa now. So nothing new.

Maybe just a very quick follow-up. As you mentioned on the net debt, I suppose it was associated with a potential increase in dividend payout. So maybe the question was more, is that still quite a hard limit for you? Or it's more of a take into consideration everything in the round?

No. Let me say, one thing is absolutely clear. And next year, we are paying EUR 1 for this year. This is a given and will not be discussed. And the question is 1 year later on. And this is not exactly hard linked to whether it's 4.95x or 5.07x. At the end of the day, we are sitting together in the management team and with the Supervisory Board and our main shareholders, we are discussing this topic. So with other words, it can even be that we are going to kick in the new regime, even if, for example, net debt to EBITDA would be -- give a number, 5.1x.

We will now take the next question from the line of Harishankar Ramamoorthy from Deutsche Bank.

Maybe the first one on CapEx. If I look at the cash flows for 6 months so far, I believe you've spent around EUR 650 million. Now maybe the like-for-like number for the full year guide is the EUR 900 million plus the EUR 100 million for IFRS and others, so EUR 1 billion. Could you help me understand what is changing in H2 for you to be hitting the EUR 350 million level run rate rather than EUR 650 million for H1?

And then secondly, maybe on the wage costs. In aviation, I think, it's around 11% increase. But there's not much increase in headcount. So what is this increase driven by, given I think the wage inflation is quite low? And if there are any one-offs here, how should we think about how personnel costs move into 2027?

Yes. With regarding wage costs, when you look on the percentage, it's high, especially in aviation. Here, we have 3 elements which I would like to highlight. We had insofar a one-off that we had to increase provision for bonus payments for the whole management team, which was significant in Q2, so one-off.

Second, we had higher as normal also expenses for partial retirement or early retirement. And we had also some structural effects by the tariff agreement, which is sustainable, of course, because when you look on the average, the tariff agreement was okay. But within so far a bias that the low-income people are receiving relatively more than the high-income people. And here, there was some impact in aviation. But the main elements are one-off is, again, the provisions for bonus payments one side and partial and early retirement on the other side.

Looking forward, this is more interesting. We are assuming that this will not continue this high increase, also the relative percentage number adjusted by the pension reimbursement from last year, of course, will come down in favor of us. And looking forward into '27, this is so far open because we are waiting for the new tariff agreement. But we think given this macroeconomic situation in Germany, increasing unemployment rates, et cetera, no GDP growth at all, we think that this will lead to more modest wage increases compared to the past. So with other words that we will end up with a middle -- mid-single digit increase in '27/'28. A further question...

The first question was on CapEx in H1.

Yes, CapEx. Again, it was compared to the whole year, it was relatively high, as I mentioned, refurbishment of one runway in Frankfurt, also the settlement of open contracts regarding Terminal 3. So with other words, looking forward, the CapEx in H2 will be lower. Just to give you -- you could see the increase in the indebtedness in H1. As of today, we have a net debt on the group level of about EUR 8.5 billion as of today and compared with the net debt from last year, exactly the same date, we are about EUR 100 million higher than last year. But in last year, we had in the first half year, proceeds of more than EUR 100 million, driven by the sale of 10% of Delhi Airport, so more income. And on the other side, in this year, we paid EUR 92 million dividends to our shareholders. So both elements are a negative impact, so to say, of EUR 200 million.

But today, you see just EUR 100 million difference, and this comes from a total CapEx level, which as of today is cumulated EUR 100 million less than previous year. This will continue. So for the rest of the year, you will see another EUR 100 million reduction regarding CapEx compared to previous year. And this is one of the main effects generating free cash flow as we predicted in the beginning of the year. Total indebtedness, what we said in the beginning, will be a little bit below EUR 8.2 billion. So in other words, everything is running in the right direction despite the fact that we had this hiccup in Q2.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take our next question from the line of Dario Maglione from BNP Paribas.

I have 3. One on the ground handling contract with Lufthansa. Can you tell us a bit about what alternative Lufthansa have regarding this contract? For instance, I believe they in-sourced the ground handling in Munich. Could that happen in Frankfurt too?

Second question on Terminal 3 retail performance in the presentation on the call, you mentioned a 30% increase spend per pax in Terminal 3 compared to Terminal 2. Why is that good? I think previous guidance or kind of soft guidance was that there will be a 50% improvement. So yes, directionally good, but how do you get to 50% or what is missing to get to 50%?

And then last question is around Lufthansa. You mentioned the capacity growth doesn't look great. Why is that? Is it just CityLine or something else going on, maybe Lufthansa is increasing traffic at other hubs?

First question, what you mentioned is correct. In Munich, they went for an in-sourcing. So they -- as far as we are informed, they took over the employees from Swiss ground and to do it on their own payroll. So in Frankfurt, this is not possible because Swissport has a market share of less than 10%. So even if theoretically, they would take over all these guys, this is impossible to handle their fleet.

So it's theoretically, it's possible. In reality, it cannot work, [ it is ] strategy. And regarding spend per pax increase regarding Terminal 3, you mentioned the 30% on one side and the 50% guidance, this is not change of the guidance. So the explanation is that when we went for 50% guidance, of course, we had in mind the given mix of passengers and sustainable structure. Then we had more or less a total loss of Middle East passengers, knowing that their expense behavior is very good. It's clearly significant above average. And so we -- now we realized 30% in the beginning in a soft opening phase without more or less Middle East passengers, and we ended now up with 30%. On the other side, we see the recovery where we expect a recovery during the year.

And with other words, with the recovery of these Middle East passengers on one side and further improvements in F&B and fine-tuning in the shops we are confident to keep to our guidance of 50% higher spend per pax for the passengers in Terminal 3.

Third question, what was it?

Lufthansa capacities.

Lufthansa, as you mentioned, the grounding of CityLine. So you can say we had the war in Iran and the exploding of jet fuel prices, then reaction of airlines reducing their seat offers on one side, especially with the aircraft, which are not so fuel efficient. And then the grounding of CityLine and this costs us a lot of seat capacity at Frankfurt Airport. And this is the main reason for the weak performance on the Lufthansa side.

We will now take our next question from the line of Dirk Schlamp from DZ Bank.

One from my side, you said that international business on average developed broadly as expected. Could you give us a bit more color on that? Which airports are currently showing the biggest deviations from your initial expectations?

Yes, sure. As always, we have -- in the beginning of the year, we have a plan, and the day after, the plan is not any longer valid. So we have assets which are outperforming. We have assets which are underperforming. But looking back, and we have a proven track record of nearly 20 years. And when we, at the end of the year, always look to the -- what we have planned for the segment, international activities and what is the final outcome, you can't say it's coincidence, we always -- in total, we always reached our EBITDA targets as well as passenger targets, having in mind that some -- always some assets are doing better and other ones underperforming.

So now coming to our several assets in the portfolio. We have -- on the positive side, we have, you can say, as always Greece with month-by-month more than 5% passenger growth compared to previous year, having in mind that since the pandemic, we had year-by-year a recovery or a growth which has been always better than this what we expected. So Greece is in the past and now always on the positive side. And also Brazil is doing very well. Fortaleza, it's just 1%, but Porto Alegre, 10%. So weighted average is also -- it's about 5%, which is fine. Ljubljana is doing very well with actually 15% increase, so these are the positive drivers.

On the negative side, we have Antalya with minus numbers in the beginning of the year because due to the proximity to Iran and the war on one side and very significant increase on the price side in this hotel business, which dampened the demand. Now in so far, it's a little bit better that in July, the last number is minus 1% but this is clearly below our expectation at the beginning of the year. Also, Lima is underperforming passenger-wise. On the financial side, we are happy because for the full year, we expect an EBITDA improvement too, including the EUR 10 million one-off, we expect an increase of about EUR 30 million based on weak traffic, which is a good increase. And I hope I have mentioned all numbers, and U.S. market is as planned. It's no surprise. Not to the negative and also not to the positive side.

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Florian Fuchs.

Yes. Thank you, everybody, for the good set of questions. Thank you, Matthias, for the answers. We look forward right now to be in touch soon, may it be on the road or via the phone or here on site in Frankfurt. And with that, we'd like to conclude the question-and-answer session. Thank you very much, and goodbye.

Yes. Thank you, Heidi, and warm welcome also from my side to the Q1 question-and-answer session. With me at the table, we got Dr. Matthias Zieschang, our CFO. And as always, with our presentations, please keep our cautionary language in mind. Risks and opportunities may arise with forward-looking statements. [Operator Instructions] Having said this and without further ado, I'd like to hand over to Heidi to commence with the question-and-answer session. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Elodie Rall from JPMorgan.

Well, I'll try to limit to two then. So okay. On the presentation, you discussed a lot the jet supply -- jet fuel supply potential constraints, and that is clearly a downside risk to your guidance. So maybe could you elaborate the conversation that you have with the German government and on reports that we've seen on disruption to supply through the NATO pipeline and maybe comment on where the refinery is supplying, the pipeline source, where they source their crude from? That would be quite helpful to understand the risk around the jet fuel supply issue.

And just a second quick question on Lufthansa strikes. What kind of level of disruption did you assume in the rest of your -- in the guidance for the rest of the year?

Yes. Thank you for your question. Regarding your question, what's new regarding availability of jet fuel? Clear answer is, we don't know. We are looking forward based on the working hypothesis that there is always an availability of jet fuel given we are in close contact with the German government. They told and they tell us that there's enough jet fuel available that there is, in the moment, no risk. This is the information which we have, and we base all our guidance on these assumptions and these informations.

Back to facts. When you look on the refinery capacity in Europe, that's a problem, so to say, in Europe -- the overall refinery capacity in Europe is below 100%. So it's in the core countries like U.K., France, Italy, Germany, it's about 50% own production. So in other words, 50% must come from other sources, wherever these sources are located. And at the end of the day, it's also a question of willingness to pay relatively high prices for jet fuel. And based on this assumption, we assume that the availability is given, of course, based on very high prices.

Another fact which is given we are receiving jet fuel via 2 pipelines, primarily via 2 pipelines. One pipeline is a so-called NATO pipeline who is servicing also the U.S. bases with jet fuel. And also based on this fact that we have this direct link, we assume that if there would be a shortage, then of course, there must be what the people are going to tell triage, priority system, and this perhaps unlikely event that we will be delivered with the highest priority due to the critical infrastructure case of our airport. Yes, I think I have Lufthansa strike...

For the guidance for the...

Yes, Lufthansa strike, this is -- we gave a range, and now we made a correction in such a way that today, we are saying we are ending up at the lower end of the range, and this has to do exactly with Lufthansa. Let me say, on the good side, we see as planned and as scheduled, the ramp-up of the capacity of Condor. So they are, so to say, delivering what they have promised. We also see positive elements from other airlines. For example, yesterday, we received the information that the German government, together with the Chinese government, has increased the bilateral numbers of flights from and to Germany. So for example, now Air China up from now -- are increasing their frequencies, Frankfurt to Beijing from 10 to 12 frequencies, China Eastern is going to increase up from the 7th of June from 7 to 9 frequencies, Frankfurt to Shanghai. We have China Southern going from 3 frequencies to 7 and increasing Guangzhou on one side and opening a new route to Urumqi. So these are good news. And so we will see more incoming traffic from China. This is good for the number of passengers. It's always good. It's also good for the purchasing power inside our shops. So these are the good news.

On the bad side, so to say, on the negative side, we have the reduction of Lufthansa and we have to see what is the net impact. We assume still a positive increase of offered seats during the full year, but of course, not the volume which we had in mind when we made our financial plan in the beginning. And that's the reason why we have a little bit reduced the guidance regarding the passenger expectation for Frankfurt Airport. At the end of the day, we have a seat capacity or an increase of seat capacity, which is lower than this, what we assumed in the beginning of the year. On the other side, we have the question mark regarding seat load factor. There's always a second variable in the system, but we are still optimistic that we will see a lower but solid growth of passengers at Frankfurt Airport and always subject to this base assumption that jet fuel is available.

We will take our next question. The question comes from Carlos Caburrasi from Kepler Cheuvreux.

First, I was wondering if you could give us some indications of the early days of Terminal 3 in terms of retail and commercial trends. I was just wondering if the performance so far is in line with your expectations? And if you could quantify the improvement you have observed on a per passenger basis.

And second, a follow-up on what you were just discussing on airline capacity. I mean, given what you've mentioned about Condor's plan, I assume there's no risk at all. But I was just wondering if you've had any discussions with them regarding a potential delay in the allocation of new aircraft or something like that due to the jet fuel uncertainties.

Yes. First question, retail performance in T3. So what we have today is -- today, the second wave has been reallocated from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 and further 2 waves will happen in the next 6 weeks. So this -- what we have now as data is anecdotal evidence, but because the number of passengers, the volumes are very low. And you have to see the first wave was determined by Middle East carriers, which have, given the crisis and the war in Iran, relatively low seat load factors in the moment. So the number of passengers is not the biggest one, but the first sentiment or feedback from retailers is positive. But again, this is anecdotal evidence. We have to see when all the waves are through, what are the final numbers. But again, in the moment, it looks very positive. And again, numbers we will have when the fourth wave is through, then we have the first weeks with -- on an annual basis then 10 million passengers. So the whole bunch of airlines reallocated and then we will see in the first weeks what is the final outcome of our new concepts in the new marketplace.

Regarding Condor, there is no threat of availability of new aircraft because they just run A330neos on one side for the long-haul destinations. And on the other side, they have A320 and A321s, also neos, for continental as well as domestic flights. So the short-haul aircraft are there. They are increasing by reallocating aircraft from other German airports to Frankfurt. So it's just a management decision. And regarding the long-haul fleet, they are expecting -- how many is it? How many A330s? 8 further A330s coming from Airbus. There is -- what we have said there's absolutely no risk that there will be a delay. So in other words, the ramp-up part of Condor is protected by the delivery pipeline of Airbus, and we don't see any risk or threat that they are not delivering what they have promised to us. Jet fuel availability is again the same as Lufthansa. Jet fuel is given or is not given, but we assume that it's always given in the next couple of months.

We will take our next question, and the question comes from Graham Hunt from Jefferies.

Two questions from me, please. Just again, staying on jet fuel, apologies. But maybe if we could just go to the other platforms in your portfolio and just give us a little bit of color in terms of maybe the conversations you've had there with the local governments and the status of availability just in your other major international assets?

And then second question, just on retail. So Q1 spend per pax in the shopping was sort of similarly weak as we ended 2025. But now with T3, a little bit more traffic coming from China, could we see that trend sort of bottom out and turn positive for the rest of the year? Is that what we should be expecting? Just wondering what you're seeing there on the shopping spend per pax, which has been weak for some time now.

Yes. First, starting again with the jet fuel availability in our international portfolio. When you look on the Americas, there's absolutely no problem. Why? Because North America as well as South America, they are producing oil. They are net exporters, and they have also sufficient refinery capacity to transform oil into jet fuel. In other words, they are not impacted. There's no exposure regarding Iran war. Of course, they have to pay also higher prices because of the [indiscernible] price in the world market, but availability in Americas is given.

Look on to Europe, coming back to this, what I said, 50% refinery capacity in the main countries. Regarding Greece, we have heard that in Greece itself, the refinery capacity is higher. So that is from a theoretical perspective, the exposure should be lower. And regarding Asia, we don't have -- we don't run an airport in Asia, but we have, of course, the destinations going to and from Asia. Here, it's a little bit unclear what is going on in China, in India, South Korea. Normally, these are countries who are net exporters of jet fuel because they have a huge jet fuel refinery capacity. So it's not the problem of refinery capacities in these countries, it's a question is enough oil over there to use the oil in the refineries to produce the jet fuel. So what we have heard behind the curtain, they are producing like hell and increasing their storages to be protected in a case that a worst-case scenario should happen. So it's a little bit unclear what is going on in Southeast Asia. But -- in the moment, we also don't expect any hiccup over there.

Retail, we have a different, let me say, situation. If you make a further drill down of the spend per pax number, going to the several items, we have F&B is running very well. Media is extremely running good. Services is good. Parking itself besides spend per pax is always good. So the -- also fashion is relatively good. So the only and main problem is the revenues in duty-free/Travel Value. Here, we have a significant reduction. And we are sitting together with Heinemann Brothers, who are managing especially Travel Value/duty-free places, what to do in the future to improve the situation. So it's really a differentiated situation which we have at the moment. We have a lot of good things, and we have one main item who is responsible for the reduction in the spend per pax. And again, this is duty-free/Travel Value products.

And of course, China will help us now this -- what I mentioned, this increase of frequencies. This is in favor of us and also the coming back of the Middle East traffic. So we know from the airlines, for example, Emirates, they are back on 2 frequencies per day. I think in next 2 weeks, they are coming back to the 3 frequencies per day, which they had before the crisis and before the war. Today, I can see already the A380 coming back to Frankfurt. We have heard from the management team here in Frankfurt from Emirates that the seat load factor is relatively good now coming back from low numbers so that we expect a relatively good recovery, always subject to what will happen with the war over there. But the current information flow from these airlines is relatively optimistic. So bring it all together, we are not pessimistic regarding the next couple of months.

We will take our next question. The question comes from Tobias Fromme from Bernstein.

The first one is on traffic. I just wanted to hone in on the load factor. How much of your sort of hopes to hit the lower end of the guide is based on an elevated load factor for the rest of the year?

And then secondly, on ground handling, when I particularly look at the ground handling revenues, 10% up year-over-year. Is that the trajectory that we should expect for the rest of the year? Or as the comps basically get stronger, do you expect that to be a little bit lower than the 10%?

Yes, load factor, we assume as of today, a constant load factor compared to the previous year. This is what I mentioned. This is a little bit the question mark. We have on one side the seat capacity increase. We still expect an increase. Then the question is, will this be supported by seat load factor increase what we saw during the beginning of the war when the direct flights to Middle East destinations have been stopped. So the traffic was looking for other ways and this led to a situation that on other routes to the East to Eastern destinations, the seat load factor went up. We have to look whether this is sustainable or just a temporary phenomenon. But I would say from today's perspective, there could be an upside chance. In the moment, I don't see a downside risk. But again, this is always subject to geopolitical topics, which might come -- occur overnight.

Ground handling. Here, we are happy with the performance. Already last year, the team in the segment showed a good performance based on gaining or regaining higher market share on one side, productivity on the other side, also price increases with a lot of customers, which we have in our portfolio. This continues this year. Also the ridiculous wage increases are over now. We still have too high wage increases, but not any longer double-digit numbers. And this combination, more volumes above the normal growth rates because we are gaining market share in combination with productivity increases lead to a situation that despite relatively high mid-single-digit wage increases, we were able to improve our numbers. You saw now the Q1 numbers, which are clearly better than the previous year. And guidance was flat, but there is some chance or probability that at the end of the year, we will end up with a better number, so above previous year. But again, this is not a new guidance, but just showing a chance which we see in this segment.

[Operator Instructions] we will take our next question, and the question comes from the line of Cristian Nedelcu from UBS.

Two questions on ground handling, if possible, please. The first one, could you tell us is there any update on the negotiations on the contract for ground handling with Lufthansa? One would assume in the current environment, Lufthansa may be a bit more demanding when negotiating for that contract. But yes, any color you could provide there in terms of your expectations of the outcome of that contract?

And secondly, could you tell us a bit how do you plan your -- in ground handling, how do you plan your workforce through the summer, the number of FTEs versus the prior year? I'm just asking from the perspective that it seems that the airlines are adjusting capacity more often than they usually do over the last couple of months. So it seems -- at least from outside, it seems that it may be challenging to find the balance between the right number of employees and the exact number of flight takeoffs and landings that you will see. So is that challenging? How are you thinking at the FTE growth year-over-year? Any more color there would help.

The first question, what is the situation regarding the contractual situation. So we are now in close contact with Lufthansa. We are in close negotiation. We showed them our losses in the last couple of years with this contract. It's a huge accumulated loss, which we had, and this was, so to say, a subsidy for Lufthansa. And we said the party is now over. From 1st of April next year, there must be a full cost coverage with the new contract. And based on this, we showed what have been our losses, what is the gap and what is the percentage to close the gap. This is on the table. We said there's no headroom to discuss because we are not any longer willing to pay subsidies for making a business for a partner of us. So they have to accept it or not, full stop. There's nothing in between. And we have also -- there is no potential for us to saying, yes, we find a compromise. There is no compromise. The result is cost covering or no contract.

So workforce in summer, this is a good question because having in mind that the -- one thing is clear there, the growth will not be in such dimension what we saw in the beginning of the year. So with other words, our resource plan is not any longer valid, and we have immediately reacted. And so to say, overnight, we stopped further recruiting in ground handling to adapt, so to say, the workforce to the reduced growth expectation now, also especially during the summer season. And with other words, looking on the whole workforce here at Frankfurt Airport as a whole site, we see, of course, a further increase in Q2, but this has to do with Terminal 3, which has a much greater and bigger dimension like Terminal 2. So this is the necessary number of employees to run this huge infrastructure.

But in ground handling itself, we stopped the increase of workforce. So we run now the business with these number of employees, which we today have in this segment. And with other words, the number of employees now in the middle of this year is a peak for Frankfurt site. And looking forward in the coming years to 2030, this is not a new information. Now we are going then to reduce the overall workforce year-by-year, step by step using artificial intelligence, robotics, digitization, all things and also in combination with further productivity measures to bring down step by step the workforce to have a compensation element against future expected wage increases, which will not come down to a level which would be necessary, so to say, to run the German industry on an efficient basis.

We will take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Andrew Lobbenberg from Barclays.

Can I ask about Lima? It seems to underperform. You've built a beautiful new airport and beautiful runways, and we don't have many people there. What is the prospect for getting that going and driving the full economics of that?

And then, I mean, can I just come back to the handling negotiations with Lufthansa? You're sounding all tough and you've got to breakeven and they've got to take it or have no contract. But they do like to highlight their multi-hub strategy and their ability to redeploy capacity around the place. And whilst you've got stability with the airport charges on a 4-year contract, this is potentially a significant increase in their cost per turn at Frankfurt that could make Frankfurt less attractive to them at the margin. Are you not concerned about that? Or does it fit into some bigger, broader part of the relationship with Lufthansa?

So first of all, we think we have a good and productive and cooperative relationship to Lufthansa regarding the service which we are offering. I think it's absolutely clear that at the end of the day, we are talking about a personnel-intensive business. It's a body lease. 70% of our OpEx in ground handling is determined by the workforce. At the end of the day, whoever will use this service, he has to pay for the OpEx. And this will be a significant step up due to the fact that, as I mentioned, we subsidized this service in the last 5 years in favor of Lufthansa. And this is now over. And so the only thing what we expect from them is to pay a fair price for the costs which are there, which are given. And you mentioned the multi-hubbing system. So you know that also the second largest hub of Lufthansa is Munich.

In Munich, Lufthansa made a decision, I think this was 1 year ago, to make a self-service regarding ground handling. So in former times, they have been serviced, first of all, by Munich Airport, then I think they switched over to Swissport and they canceled the contract and now they are doing their own ground handling. What I have heard, and this is not a surprise, that the cost of doing the service on your own account is extremely high. So everybody is free to choose and everybody is responsible for his own fate, so to say. And again, they can use our service and they can do it for their own or it can go to other service provider. If they would go to another service provider, then we are stopping our business is also okay, but we are not willing to continue with subsidizing an airline, and I think this is absolutely clear. And I think Lufthansa is also aware of this.

So first question was regarding Lima. Was this correct? It was difficult [indiscernible] in the line, there was a background noise. And so it was difficult to understand your question. So Lima itself, CapEx is through, which is good. Now we have a brilliant infrastructure with a capacity up to EUR 40 million. In the moment, let me say, the financial results are coming -- with the final result, the financial outcome in '26 will be as expected. So a clear and significant improvement compared to the EBITDA number from last year. But nevertheless, the growth in the moment is not in line with this what we expected. But this has nothing to do with the airport, which is brilliant. This has to do with some airlines and who are reallocating, have some topics. Hence we assume that this is a temporary phenomenon and the airlines or one of these airlines is coming back or going back to the old growth plan. So that the weakness in the passenger numbers in Lima regarding the expected growth rates is just temporary.

And you don't get linked to the dispute over connecting fees? Or does it then you think is obvious...

We are talking about an amount of money, which is compared to a jet fuel cost, it is nothing. So it's a joke. And I don't know why this topic is raised. And it's a very minimal percentage of your OpEx. It's not relevant. And this is not the reason for the growth weakness in the moment. Of course, it's a nice try to bring down fees. And perhaps I would do the same, but this is not the explanation why they are not growing in the moment. It's the same. If you look now -- if you talk about generally about airport fees, if you look now, we have -- regarding jet fuel prices, we have a price increase of significantly -- nearly 200% increase. This has a huge impact on the P&L. And if you take this number, now the current jet fuel prices and a long-haul airline has 30% to 40% OpEx based on jet fuel prices. And if this double overnight, then you have a real impact, but they are still flying, of course, perhaps with lower growth rates or no growth rates. But then talking about EUR 0.50 airport fees, this is really comedy.

Your next question comes from the line of Marcin Wojtal from Bank of America.

Okay. So let me ask the question. So I think we are seeing an environment of airline ticket prices, which are rising, airline ticket prices and potentially could rise even further, and that is obviously because of the elevated jet fuel price. What is your view on price elasticity of demand? Shouldn't there be some demand destruction if we are going to see significant double-digit increases in airline ticket prices?

First of all, there is a negative price elasticity. So in other words, whenever ticket prices went up, we have a negative impact on the demand side. This is clear, and this works already now. And that's the clear explanation why the growth rates at all destinations are lower than this what everybody expected some months ago. This is absolutely clear. The question is if the impact of fuel prices so significant that given 150%, 180% jet fuel price increases, the absolute amount of passengers is lower than before the crisis. Here in the moment, we see as a negative scenario, a constant development of passenger numbers or, let me say, a reduced growth. But in the moment, we can't see markets where the growth numbers are real negative just coming from the increase of jet fuel prices. But looking forward, if this high level would continue, it's absolutely for sure that this would have a negative impact on the long-term CAGR regarding passenger growth rates, but not in a way that the CAGR is negative. It's just a reduced positive number.

We will take our next question. The next question comes from the line of Nicolas Mora from Morgan Stanley.

So just two quick ones. First one on -- I mean, looking just at the big picture coming out of Q1. So you've got slower traffic at Frankfurt in May. You've got good ground handling. I mean, what gives you the confidence basically the guidance is still holding? I think consensus is a bit below. So it's a bit basically hesitating. Where do you think you're doing better than expected just a couple of months ago? Is it just on your cost handle, just on ground handling? Just to see where we could flex a little bit our models. That's the first one.

The second one, can you give us a bit of color on the outlook into summer on your airports, so near, let's say, near conflict zone. So thinking about Antalya in Turkey, Bulgaria, maybe even Greece. I mean, what are you seeing right now in terms of booking trends? Or what are your customers seeing and what kind of feedback you're getting? That would be very helpful.

First of all, coming with the overall picture regarding our 4 segments. From today's perspective, might be tomorrow total change if some geopolitical things also would change. So you already mentioned one segment, this is ground handling. Here in ground handling, based on higher market share than planned, also good productivity progress and improvements, here, there's a chance that we even end up better than guided in the beginning of the year. So this is an upside and with a relatively good probability that this will also be the case at the end of the year regardless what the passenger growth is. Why? Because what we gained on market share against our competitor is so much more compared to the passenger weakness that this is a fully overcompensation of this effect.

So in aviation and in retail and real estate, it's based on lower passenger numbers, lower growth numbers. Of course, what we have in our internal scenarios, it's lower than this what we had calculated in the beginning. So as a downside in both segments, but still a commitment to the qualitative guidance that in both segments, we are better in '26 compared to '25, but reduced to this what we saw in the beginning of the year.

And then we have the last segment, International, activities here, it's in total, always a relatively optimistic outlook. But if you go through the several assets, it's different. Starting with Americas, in Lima itself, what I mentioned on the OpEx side is good. Retail is extremely good. Passenger growth is disappointing. But nevertheless, as I mentioned, the EBITDA in '26 will be significantly higher than '25. In Europe -- also Brazil is fine, both airports, Fortaleza as well as the other one, Porto Alegre.

And Greece, the booking numbers are strong. If you look on the traffic numbers, the first 3 months are always strong. Also April, what we have heard preliminary figures are always very good. So it seems to be that we see here a very solid single-digit passenger increase after a couple of years in the past, which showed an overperformance year-by-year. So the show continues, and we are absolutely optimistic regarding Greece.

Bulgaria, it's also -- it's improving. Slovenia is doing -- the passenger numbers in Q1 is always good, but in total, this is not relevant, but everything is running in the right direction. We have Antalya. It's not part of the EBITDA, but at equity, here, the picture is unclear. We had a strong March. We will see a weak April, but determined by a lot of domestic traffic, which is not relevant because the money was generated by the international incoming traffic. And here, we have to see -- and the season really starts May, June. And here, we have to see who is coming and how many. And this is -- Turkey is unclear. What did I forget? Nothing. But in total, if you put all the assets together, on average, we see still a clear and significant improvement compared to '25. So that's the overall picture.

We will take our next question, and the question comes from Jose Manuel Arroyas from Santander.

Two questions, please. One is on the ground handling contract with Lufthansa. When is the date? By when do you expect this contract to be signed?

And my second question is on the refinancing strategy and the cost of debt for the remainder of 2026. As in the past year, there is about EUR 1 billion of gross debt to be refinanced in Frankfurt. Do you expect this new debt to be more costly or to be about the same it currently is?

First topic, again, ground handling contract. Normally, in the next couple of months, the contract should be closed, not from our perspective, but from the perspective of Lufthansa because if they don't want to continue with us, they have to change. And there's only one competitor in the market. This is Swissport, and to reallocate a significant number of aircraft to another service provider who has a market share of less than 10%, he needs time to prepare himself for this alternative. And even as of today, I have no fantasy this theoretical case of a change from us to another competitor, how this should work. But again, this is not our responsibility. So to make the long story short, time is running. And Lufthansa now should decide what to do because the time is running not in favor of them.

Refinancing cost, we have 2 elements. On average, we have a total cost of debt for the group, 3.4%, long-term money. This is a combination of interest rates here at the Fraport AG balance sheet, which is below 3.4%. Then we have indebtedness, project financing, nonrecourse at our international assets, of course, with an average interest rate, which is higher than 3.4%. So this is a weighted average. Looking forward, you mentioned the EUR 1 billion, which has to be more or less refinanced year-by-year. First of all, we are not going to refinance this total amount of money. Why? Because now there's a clear decision to go step by step down with our huge liquidity because we think it's not any longer necessary to have such a high amount of liquidity. So with other words, just a part of this refinancing necessity, so to say, is refinanced. The other one is coming from melting down the existing liquidity. And regarding this, what will be brought to the market, we have 2 phenomenon. On one side, our interest margin is becoming lower and lower because the risk of running an airport compared to other industries in Germany like chemical industry, automotive industry, et cetera, we are in the moment the better debt than other industries, and this is in favor of us. So banks are willing to give us the money at lower margins, which is good for us. Then the unknown variable or unknown parameter is what will be the shape of the interest rate curve in the next couple of months or quarters.

Yes, everybody expects some increases from the ECB on the short end. The question is what will be the impact for long-term money. I would say the probability that the long-term interest rates are going up is a little bit higher. This is our expectation. But the combination of lower margins on one side and higher interest rates on the other side is more or less leveling out. So to make the long story short, we see a slight increase of the total cost of indebtedness in the next 18 months, but we will end up with 3.x closer to 4%, but not to overcome 4% and we feel absolutely secured against volatility regarding the shape of the interest rate curve.

We will take our next question. The question comes from the line of Christian Cohrs from Warburg Research.

Just two questions left for me. First of all, coming back, sorry for that, to the ground handling topic with Lufthansa. Assuming that you will not find an agreement with Lufthansa and Lufthansa will go away, would this actually mean that you will face a major restructuring expense and layoffs in ground handling then as of next year or maybe you have to book a large provision at the end of this year?

And second question relates to the new border control system that is in place since April, the new entry/exit system. There were various reports about delays in travel cards at some airports after the implementation. So what is the situation currently in Frankfurt? Are you fine with that?

First of all, again, ground handling, of course, in the case, I wouldn't say likely or unlikely, that Lufthansa would change the ground handling provider, then of course, we have to wind up our business, and this would be a one-off cost item. That's for sure. But then I'm also happy to make it clear. We continue with profitability or we stop it. There's nothing in between.

Regarding EES, European Entry System. This is a real problem in Europe because the system is not working fine. It's a terrible system, and this leads to delays. And we are in close contact with the federal police here in Germany how to overcome this problem. It's not a simple topic with other words, and we try to find solutions that the introduction of this system, which is not really running in a proper way that we were able together with the police to handle the system, which is a European problem. It has nothing to do with Frankfurt. Each and every airport in Europe has this problem. It's again a fantastic move of Brussels, but we are always used to have such fantastic ideas, and we have to live with it, and we try to overcome the problems. But it's a given problem.

There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn back to Florian Fuchs.

Yes. Thank you, everybody, for the good questions. Thank you, Matthias, for the answers. We look forward to being in touch maybe on the phone, on the web or on the road. And with that, have a nice afternoon and speak soon. Bye-bye.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, to our Q1, 2026, analyst presentation. It has not been too long since we last spoke at our full year 2025 publication in March, and yet there have been important developments in the past weeks like our Terminal 3 opening in Frankfurt that I want to focus on today.

But before going into our business update, I would like to mention that all our forward-looking statements in my presentation today, including for the financial outlook, are based on the assumption that there will be no jet fuel shortages throughout 2026. We take this as our base case scenario as we have no information regarding any potential shortages. Of course, I will go into further detail on the impact that we see from the war in Iran later on, but before that, I would now like to start my presentation on Slide #3 with one of the biggest milestones in our company history, the opening of Terminal 3 on April 23.

We are very proud that with the inauguration 2 weeks ago, our major CapEx program of the last decade has now finally come to an end on time and in budget. The transfer of the first airlines, mainly the Middle East carriers and the Chinese airlines, which are not part of the Star Alliance, has worked well and the feedback that we are getting in the first weeks of operations is very positive, not just from the airlines, but also from the passengers being handled in Terminal 3. This is not only based on the efficient processes, but also on an easy way finding as well as a retail offering in the central marketplace in the non-Schengen area.

All in all, we will transfer the airlines from Terminal 2 into Terminal 3 in 4 waves. The second wave, which includes further non-Schengen carriers, has just started today. The entire transfer process will last until mid-June, so that the process will be over prior to the start of the summer holiday season. You'll find the detailed transfer plan of the airlines in the appendix of my presentation. This means that currently, we are operating 3 terminals in Frankfurt, which is a temporary situation until the transfer of the airlines will be finalized.

Nevertheless, the 3 terminals operation will have a slightly negative impact on the Q2 financials of up to EUR 10 million. In addition to that, T3 in general entails slightly higher OpEx compared to Terminal 2. Here, we expect a low to mid-single-digit million euro amount per month, but we have not just made progress in Frankfurt. On Slide #4, you find an update on our international airports. Starting with Lima, where the final expansion phase has been completed end of March. Now all terminal areas are operational and the airport has a capacity to handle 40 million passengers a year.

We are very happy that our major capital airport now has a state-of-the-art terminal, a dual and independent runway system and a brand-new control tower to offer its customers a high-quality travel experience. Moving on to Burgas Airport in Bulgaria, which has been closed since November due to the runway refurbishment. Everything went very well here. All works have been completed on time and in budget so that the airport has been reopened last week on May 1 as planned.

While '26 marks the final year of our current Antalya 1 concession, which will be taken over by Antalya 2 starting from 2027 this year, we will add Kalamata Airport in Greece and Jericoacoara Brazil to our international portfolio. In Greece, the team is now preparing the onboarding process, including for IT works and the familiarization of our employees. Overall, based on the first 3 months of the year and the current outlook for the summer season, we expect 2026 to be a positive year for our international airports. Of course, and as I said in the beginning, always subject to ongoing geopolitical developments and jet fuel availability.

Now moving on to my next Slide #5, where you find the traffic development of Frankfurt and all other group airports for Q1 '26 in blue and for March stand-alone as a purple bar. Frankfurt showed a robust growth rate of 2.3% in Q1 despite a negative impact from strikes and weather-related cancellations, which led to a reduction of around 170,000 passengers in the first 3 months of the year. Adjusted for these effects, the increase would have been around 3.7% in Q1.

Fraport Greece and Antalya showed solid traffic momentum of 8% and 5% in the off-peak season with some positive impact from the early Easter holidays, which this year already started end of March. Looking at our remaining European airports, we are also happy to see such positive traffic development in Bulgaria with 16% growth in Q1 and in Slovenia with even 18% increase in passenger numbers. Both developments are driven by capacity additions at the airports.

In Brazil, there are 2 effects leading to the strong traffic momentum of plus 20%. In Porto Alegre, we see the impact from the full recovery on domestic trunk routes after the flooding in 2024 and the soft start to the year in 2025. On the other hand, in Fortaleza, we also see double-digit growth rates driven by high seat load factors in general as well as a successful addition of intercontinental flights to Europe. Overall, we recorded around 8% more passengers at our international airports in Q1 '26 compared to last year and including for the Frankfurt passenger numbers, we saw an increase of 5%.

In total, we handled 28.6 million passengers in the first 3 months of the year, and we expect a positive development over the summer flight schedule subject to further adjustments.

On my next 2 slides, I would like to take a closer look on the Frankfurt traffic development being impacted by the current market developments and the geopolitical situation. On Slide 6, I would like to start with the impact of the capacity adjustments as a reaction to the war in Iran. First of all, what we see is that only about 1/3 of the Middle East capacities that had been scheduled prior to the war is still flowing. In this context, passenger numbers on such routes were reduced by around 70% in March.

As you know from our previous publication, our exposure to the Middle East is around 5%. In March, we, therefore, lost around 170,000 passengers. On the other side, this reduction has been compensated by overproportionately higher bookings on direct routes to Far East, especially China, India and Thailand as well as Africa. Like this, also the seat load factor in Frankfurt increased by 3.3 percentage points to around 81% in March. Moreover, a solid increase on other routes, especially driven by Condor, led to 100,000 or 2.1% more passengers in March. Adjusted for the negative impact from the Lufthansa strike, March traffic numbers would have gone up by more than 3% even.

Now coming to more recent developments and an outlook for the summer on Slide #7. Looking at the traffic development last month, so in April, Frankfurt was massively impacted by the 6 days of Lufthansa strike, which led to a reduction in passenger numbers of around 500,000 or 9% on a monthly basis. Due to the ongoing war in Iran, also the traffic to the Middle East was still heavily impacted by capacity adjustments, so that passenger numbers were down by around 2/3.

While I was speaking about the compensating effects in March on my previous slide, those were more limited in April as Lufthansa was on strike for almost 1 week and has a market share of around 1/3 on Far East destinations and about 50% on African routes. Therefore, I can already give you the indication today that the passenger numbers in Frankfurt in April '26 will see a reduction in the low double-digit percentage area.

Looking into the summer from here, despite all the negative implications from airline capacity adjustments, jet fuel prices as well as airspace restrictions in the Middle East, we still expect modest growth of seat capacities in Frankfurt based on currently available data. In addition to that, increasing seat load factors may compensate for flight plan adjustments also during the summer months. Before mentioned capacity data already includes the grounding of LH CityLine, which marginally impacts Frankfurt as only 4 aircraft is based here, so that the impact will be less than 1%.

The grounding of old Lufthansa long-haul aircraft does not impact the summer flight capacities as they will not only be taken out later in the year. Of course, and I have said this in the beginning, the outlook is subject to the availability of jet fuel.

With this, I would like to move on to our key financials of the first quarter on Slide #8. At EUR 882 million, revenues increased by around 2%, more importantly, the underlying revenues adjusted for IFRIC 12 increased by 5% to EUR 853 million. Besides the traffic volumes at all group airports, price upward revisions, including for regulated charges, were driving the positive development. The even more accelerated EBITDA growth of 10% to EUR 196 million is a proof of our cost control measures in the group seeing ground handling to be the biggest EBITDA driver in the past quarter.

Due to higher D&A and interest expenses after the terminal opening in Lima in June '25, the group result is slightly more negative than in Q1 '25 at minus EUR 33 million. Our free cash flow in the past quarter improved by some EUR 44 million to minus EUR 309 million. I will go into the details of the moving parts here in a minute. Looking at our key leverage ratio, we recorded a strong improvement to 5.9x net debt to last 12 months EBITDA compared to 6.8x in Q1 '25.

Moving on to our cash flow and indebtedness situation on Slide #9. Coming from net debt of roughly EUR 8.2 billion at year-end '25, we now recorded some EUR 8.55 billion after the first 3 months of the year. This development was driven by the negative free cash flow of EUR 309 million and some negative effects from the euro devaluation of net debt positions of our international group airports, that is Lima and Brazil.

Looking a bit closer at the free cash flow development, you see that we incurred an operational cash flow of just EUR 1 million due to a EUR 10 million higher variable concession charge in Greece, which is always due in Q1 based on the EBITDA of the previous year. On top of the working capital changes, also higher interest paid decreased the operational cash flow compared to Q1 '25. There was no material CapEx in Greece or Brazil and only a EUR 20 million cash out in Lima coming from EUR 46 million in last year's Q1, showing the quick ramp down once coming to an end with the construction works.

This is what you also see with regards to Terminal 3 for which we paid some EUR 62 million in the first quarter this year compared to EUR 116 million in Q1, 2025. Other CapEx was primarily driven by other Frankfurt investments. However, this year also includes some EUR [ 15 ] million for the runway refurbishment in Burgas, among others. All in all, brick-and-mortar CapEx amounted to EUR 222 million, coming down by around 17%, which is in line with our full year expectations.

As already mentioned, despite the higher net debt, our net debt to last 12 months EBITDA leverage ratio improved to below 6 and also our gearing ratio has come down by 17 percentage points to 164.

Now taking a quick look at our liquidity position and repayment profile of our financial liabilities at the end of Q1, I am now on Slide #10. Due to the negative free cash flow, our liquidity position was coming down somewhat from around EUR 3.9 billion at year-end 2025 to EUR 3.65 billion by the end of Q1, 2026. Gross debt on the other side, increased slightly to EUR 12.2 billion. As a result of the continued refinancing measures, our average cost of debt increased by 10 basis points to 3.4% at the end of Q1 compared to year-end '25. On the other side, we also make use of our available funds, which are currently showing an average yield of about 2.4% in Frankfurt.

Coming to our segment reporting, starting with Aviation on Slide #11. As you can see from the slide, we recorded a positive development of total revenues, which increased by some 4% to EUR 280 million in the off-peak quarter. Starting from January 1, we increased our regulated charges again by 3.9% on average based on the 4 years agreement with the airlines. Those price increases in combination with a positive passenger development and a slightly lower number of movements led to a 6% increase in airport charges. Based on price adjustments for security services, the respective revenues decreased slightly in Q1 without a negative bottom line effect.

On the cost side, we incurred a staff cost increase of around 5%, which is lower than last year, predominantly driven by annualizing effects from last year's wage agreement that had come into effect as of April 2025. Other OpEx is well under control, only showing a slight increase of around 2%. Based on those effects, EBITDA increased to EUR 45 million and EBIT reached EUR 8 million. Overall, it was a solid start to the year in the off-peak season for our Aviation segment, and we stick to our outlook for the full year.

On my next slide, you find the Q1 financial results of our Retail and Real Estate segment. Revenues increased slightly to EUR 126 million, especially due to 4% higher Real Estate revenues, which benefited from new rental contracts like for the newly constructed logistics hall for DHL. Parking revenues in Q1 just increased by around 1%, but grew by 4% in March on a stand-alone basis due to price adjustments. Retail revenues are flat while passenger numbers increased, which means that our spend per passenger decreased to EUR 3.33 from EUR 3.41 in Q1 '25.

The performance within retail activities still shows a mixed picture. While shopping continues to be weak due to FX effects and the reduction in high retail value customers from the Middle East, services and advertising performed well with EUR 0.10 and EUR 0.03 per passenger up. Total OpEx grew slightly by less than 5% due to a higher number of employees, wage increases annualizing and higher maintenance costs. Despite some headwinds, the segment EBITDA showed a growth to EUR 86 million and also EBIT performed nicely, ending up at EUR 63 million. Based on the current developments, we keep our guidance for the full year unchanged.

Moving on to our Ground Handling segment on Slide #14. While total segment revenues increased significantly by some 8% or EUR 15 million, the revenues from Ground Handling services even grew by 10% based on price adjustments, volume effects and increased market share. On the cost side, we need to look at the individual line items. While staff costs increased by less than 7% based on wage increases from the latest bargaining agreement as well as higher FTE numbers, other OpEx decreased significantly by around 9%, driven by less external staff as well as lower maintenance costs.

Correspondingly, EBITDA and EBIT improved by EUR 12 million each to minus EUR 6 million and minus EUR 15 million, respectively. As you can see, the positive development in the Ground Handling segment was predominantly driving the group's financial growth in the past quarter. Looking ahead, we expect slightly more headwinds to come on the cost side after the opening of Terminal 3. Therefore, we stick to our guidance of a more or less flat EBITDA compared to full year 2025 despite a strong start to the year.

Last but not least, on Slide 15, our International Activities and Services segment. First of all, total revenues decreased, which is a good sign as this is driven by IFRIC 12 revenues going down by roughly 50%, which reflects that now the construction works at Lima Airport have come to an end. The underlying revenues on the flip side increased by some 6% despite headwinds from currency exchange rates, which have been overcompensated by the operational performance increase in Lima and Brazil, based on traffic development, aeronautical charges and the positive commercial development.

The increase in personnel expenses can be explained by a higher number of employees in the Frankfurt services divisions, especially in the IT department as well as wage increases not only in Frankfurt but also abroad. Underlying other OpEx increased due to higher variable concession charges and a higher need for third-party services, especially in Lima. Consequently, EBITDA turned out to go up slightly to EUR 70 million while EBIT decreased significantly to breakeven due to a EUR 15 million, higher D&A, mainly driven by annualizing effects from the new Lima terminal. As I mentioned before, we expect a good summer season at our international airports and are, therefore, confident to achieve our financial targets for the year '26.

Now coming to my last slide for today, our outlook on Slide #16. Following the development in the first quarter, we leave our guidance unchanged and stick to the full year targets given in March. As said in the beginning of my presentation, the outlook is based on the assumption that no fuel shortages will occur. To remind you of our targets, we expect around 188 million to 195 million passengers for the entire group, while based on the latest developments, we assume to end up at the lower end of our guidance for Frankfurt of around 65 million to 66 million passengers.

Based on those traffic volumes, we expect our EBITDA to increase to up to EUR 1.5 billion and our group result to decrease to EUR 300 million to EUR 400 million based on accounting effects impacting D&A and interest expenses following the terminal openings in Lima and Frankfurt. We also stick to the target to improve our leverage ratio compared to last year's 5.7x net debt to EBITDA and will propose a dividend of EUR 1 per share on the basis of the '25 accounts to the AGM next week.

Having said this, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you for your attention and look forward to speak to you later today during our Q&A session.

Yes. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to our full year 2025 Results Day. All the material got released this morning at 7:00 a.m. CET, including for the management speech. And right now, it's time for the management Q&A session. With me in the table, we got Dr. Stefan Schulte, our CEO; and Dr. Matthias Zieschang, our CFO.

Today marks a very special event as we invited all the sell side to come to Frankfurt to see our brand-new Terminal 3 building. Correspondingly, the Q&A session will be held as a hybrid one. So we got questions inside the audience and questions coming from the analysts who join us remotely.

If you want to raise a question remotely, please use the raise your hand sign in the Teams link that we sent to you, and we're gonna tell your name, and then you will be unmuted from our side so that you can raise a question.

However, we want to be polite. We want to start with the questions here in the audience and we wanna process as following that you kindly limit your questions to the number of two, given so many of you are here on site, we'd appreciate everyone to have the opportunity to raise some question.

Having said this, and yes, without further ado, we'd like to open up the Q&A session right now. Do we have a mic coming to you? And yes, maybe ladies first today, polite, Elodie. If you can say your name and the company you're working with, that will be good for the transcript.

Thank you very much, Florian. Thank you. And so I'm Elodie Rall from JPMorgan. So my first question will be potentially on dividends since you made this announcement on Friday. So we understand it's EUR 1 up until you are below 5x net-debt-to-EBITDA.

First of all, when do you think that you'll reach that level? What is your internal base case? And if it's around 5x, does that mean that we are switching back to that payout? Or does it need to be meaningfully below 5x? And second, if there is an extraordinary impact on net income going forward after you switch to this payout policy, is there a minimum dividend payment that you would guarantee shareholders? So that's my first question.

And maybe one question on traffic given the current events. So you've been reassuring on your presentation. Nevertheless, the guidance, I think, implies 3.7% at the midpoint. It's a bit lower than what I think you were thinking about maybe in January when we discussed. Did you already put some cushion in there from the Middle East impact from what you've seen already at least year-to-date or in March?

Elodie, thanks very much for your questions. On dividends, yes, we gave the guidance to the market on Friday, absolutely right. From our base case, we expect to be under the threshold on 5x net-debt-to-EBITDA in the year 2027. That's our best estimate from today's point of view.

That would mean that for 2028, the new guideline on 60% to 80% would be first time applicable. A worst case regarding a minimum dividend has not been discussed. We are not a worst case. And I don't hope that a worst case will happen ever. You mean worst case if EPS is coming too much down? No. In principle, there are 2 factors for us relevant. So one is how do we see the business going forward?

Second, what's the net free cash flow positive and how is that development. And this will be the 2 drivers on the dividend policy. On traffic, the traffic was done in connection with the annual results, setting up annual results and so on with the whole process, it was before the war. It's not influenced by the war. And with 65 million to 66 million passengers here in Frankfurt, that's the best guidance we have at the moment.

There are no war effects included, but I mentioned already this morning. Up to now, we see a net effect of minus 1% because Middle East carriers have -- that's right, they have up to 5% of our traffic, but 73%, 75% are transfer passengers. And we see more and more that those transfer passengers are taking other routes or more direct traffic. Airlines coming in with additional frequencies.

We also see that Emirates and others are also taking up their flights again. So at the moment, the net effect is these days by minus 1%. So minus 1% is not really affecting our guidance. But there's a big but. It depends very much what's going on forward. How long is the war going on? What does that mean for kerosene prices, for oil prices, for inflation and at the end, for the hunger, for the appetite to fly and to book flights for summer and so on.

It's mainly leisure traffic. It could be that one or the other is booking other destinations, more staying in Europe or Western countries or U.S.A., Canada or whatever. That's too early at the moment. So we stay with our guidance. Everything else, we will see. Yes, we marked there is a war out. It could have effects. But we are not reducing our guidance or not taking the guidance away.

Thank you. Okay. Maybe Carlos here in front.

Carlos Caburrasi from Kepler. Two questions. A follow-up on the dividend. I just wanted to see if maybe once you are below the 5x net-debt-to-EBITDA, if that payout you think could be above 60% during the rest of the decade or maybe it's going to be at the low end?

And second question, I was wondering if you could update us on the passenger handling contract. And also sticking to ground handling, if maybe you could provide some visibility on EBITDA margin by the end of the decade.

I'm really glad to be quite honest that we had the discussion also with our Supervisory Board and that there was a very, very clear support on the 60% to 80%. And we haven't discussed that would be too early. Is it 60% or is it 80%? The proposal will be done by the management, and that depends very much how the further development is and how Matthias is able to get up the free cash flow to EUR 1 billion and so on and so on.

So I'm optimistic it will be somewhere in the range. Otherwise, we would have given the guidance at 60%. No, we gave the guidance 60% to 80%. So that's the that's the option we have. And it will go from 60% to 80%, whatever, it depends a little bit how free cash flow then is. On ground handling, we reached an agreement with Lufthansa Cargo. We are quite fine with that agreement to put a neutral wording on that.

And we are in the discussion, in the negotiations with Lufthansa on the passenger handling contract. And I think we gave you already the clear guidance. We have to make money out of that. Otherwise, we will reduce. And that's our clear guidance we can give you today on that side. What could it mean if we would lose some volume? Could be because for us, it's more important on that way than we would have some one-off payments because then we would have to reduce maybe on the one or the other side, the staff numbers.

But that's the better thing. But going forward, we would have a clear contract, which is making money. In ground handling in general, we have a market share of more than 90% now, clearly above. That was not our target, but it's a problem with our second operator over here. So we got with a very favorable pricing contracts we didn't want to get. Pricing is fine. Over the time, the market share will come down somewhere because it's not our target to stay on what we have now, 95%, 93%, something like this. That's clearly too high, but it was the market.

Okay. Very good. Maybe Christian and then Andrew.

Cristian Nedelcu from UBS. Could I ask you on the free cash flow bridge from 2025 to '26. The CapEx reduction and the EBITDA growth are clear drivers, clear positive drivers, but I think there are also some headwinds. Working capital, I think, was a EUR 95 million cash in, in 2025 that will not repeat. I think the cash and tax outflows were around EUR 340 million in 2025. You're guiding for EUR 400 million. I'm just trying conceptually, when you put all these things together, what's a realistic free cash flow range? Is it EUR 100 million to EUR 200 million or clearly it's going to be at EUR 200 million or above EUR 200 million? Any more color there?

And the second one, in Greece, you have the dividends that are paid to minorities. And I believe the last couple of years, there's been the shareholder loan being paid back. We have a net-debt-to-EBITDA in Greece of around 2 turns, so relatively low leverage.

Are you seeing any pressure from the minority shareholders to increase the leverage or pay larger dividends in '27, '28? Or you believe this run rate of EUR 30 million, EUR 35 million you're paying is sustainable going forward?

First question regarding free cash flow. So it's relatively simple. We have to look on the parameters on one side. As a cash in, you have the EBITDA where we are looking for a number close to EUR 1.5 billion as a proxy for the operational cash flow on one side.

On the other side, we have our clear CapEx guidance for '26, EUR 900 million. And then we have, as always, a box of EUR 400 million, consisting out of taxes on one side and cash out for interest expenses on the other side. So this is a stable number also looking forward about EUR 400 million. And then we have noncash items in the EBITDA, which we have to adjust. And on the other side, we have dividends from minorities, primarily Antalya on the other side.

So with other words, and then, of course, we have all these elements we can control relatively precisely. The only thing which is always a little bit white noise or random walk is working capital. But if and when you look in the past, how the fluctuation has been sometimes a little bit positive, sometimes negative. So we assume for '26, this as a neutral position.

So with other words, if you are doing the math, it should be an outcome of EUR 200 million, perhaps even a little bit more. This is our ambition and the direction in which we are going to run.

On the minorities, and maybe you can give more clearance on that. I can just tell you on Greece, there's no pressure these days. For us, it's focus to have a good operation, of course, and growth in the business. We have a clear look on extension programs, CapEx, no question at all and a focus on dividends. And we will not refinance these days, at least. What's in 5 years, I don't know, but at the moment, not.

Okay. Thank you. Then I think, Andrew, you're still in the line?

Yes, sure. It's Andrew Lobbenberg from Barclays. Can I ask a question about the discussions in the press from Lufthansa about their desire to have a joint venture here for Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 and how they are pitching this as a driver for their decision whether to dedicate their future growth to Frankfurt or to Munich. How do you think about the attractions of a joint venture, the pros and cons? And how much do you care about securing their midterm growth?

My second question would take us over to Lima, where I know there have been interruptions with runway resurfacing and stuff like that, but the growth has been somewhat quiet so far. And also, the airlines remain very unhappy about the international connecting fee and the implementation of that looks very difficult, messy. How do you think traffic can develop from here? And how do you think you can move to a more normal relationship with airlines and a more normal transfer process for consumers?

Let me start with Lima. The information we get from Lima and we are in a frequent exchange with Lima is that passengers are getting more and more used to this. There's on the international side, not a big mess with this from passengers. Airlines are not really a friend of this transfer charge. That's absolutely right. It's not because of Lima itself.

It's more they don't like it as a showcase for South America in general. We have a clear regulatory approval on this. It's -- we are open if you want to restructure it in a different way. But for the time being, it will stay this way. And of course, we also would enjoy if we could collect it via the ticket price directly. We are in discussions with the airlines, but up to now, they are taking up a position not to involve it into the ticket price.

I think that will be the better solution, but we will go ahead this way because passengers are getting more and more used to this. And we don't see any big queues. We don't see big protests on that side. And yes, it's approved.

Regarding Lufthansa, regarding the joint venture discussion, to be very clear on that, there are no discussions on a joint venture between us and Lufthansa. We are always in discussions. That's no question because it's the major customer. We explored also ideas 1 year ago or something like this, we also offered them the opportunity to go into a joint venture regarding Terminal 2. That has not been taken up. It's too far out for them.

And probably they didn't want to go into a joint venture like plain vanilla as you go into a joint venture, but we are in a joint venture. So we have to go such a way like we would do on arm's length basis with everybody else. if they want to go in Munich, they have to go for the next satellite because Munich is coming in Terminal 2 to some limitations.

And that's clear that they do this if they have to go, they want to go and it's clear they want to grow with the market, they have to do it in a joint venture together with Munich Airport because they are already in Terminal 2 in a joint venture. I take some of these discussions publicly also a little bit to make more pressure on Munich for more favorable condition. That's their responsibility, Munich and Lufthansa.

I have seen over the recent 10 years that we are also going with the market also together with Lufthansa, at least if they have the aircraft and they get all the aircraft independent from the question of a joint venture or not. And also the signals I get from Lufthansa are, yes, I want to continue to grow in Frankfurt. Whether a little bit over proportional or under proportion, that depends more on the aircraft, it depends more on the market.

And we will go ahead with Terminal 2, as mentioned, but we are flexible how we do it on the time line. So at the moment, we have the planning jobs out that will take at least 2 years because we need really a very, very good planning without any conflicts in between the planning so down really to the details before we can start with construction on that side. So the construction will not before the year 2029 or 2030.

And also if you go regarding a new satellite in Munich, will also take at least, in my opinion, 10 years. So it's also long term, and they have a lot of opportunities also here in Frankfurt, even without Terminal 2 at the beginning, but later on, they would need it because we move Condor into the south.

So there's enough capacity in the Terminal 1, and we can even brand Terminal 1 more Star Alliance focused or Lufthansa focused and they have more gate positions. They have more better quality on airplane positions and so on because the ways are much shorter, punctuality is higher, customer satisfactory is better. So I'm not very much concerned on this.

Okay. Thank you. Maybe Graham and then Dario afterwards.

Graham Hunt from Jefferies. Just 2 questions from me. First, actually on Terminal 3. Thanks very much for the tour this morning. Are you happy with the retail offering that you have and that you're starting with here? I think maybe we were noticing a lack of very high-end luxury brands in the terminal. Was that a conscious decision because of the mix of traffic? Or is that somewhere that maybe there's a little bit of upside on format and spend as we go forward with the terminal?

And then second question, just on capital structure. You mentioned that below 5x leverage to hit your payout ratio. But is that where you're comfortable keeping the balance sheet? Or if we think about 2030, where would you expect leverage to land at that point?

I'll start with retail on Terminal 3, there's a mix on fire protection rules and so on. I would say it's the starting point due to the knowledge 2 or 3 years ago, 3 years ago, which kind of aircraft will be the first -- kind of airlines will be the first going down there. And then you test the market.

And I'm absolutely sure that the retail components and the way finding will be different in 3 years from now and 5 years from now. So if you go, for example, out of the central marketplace, it's too open at the moment. They will have to find ways to put eye breaker in, let's call it this way. But nevertheless, that you can walk through because of fire protection rules. So steel...

Pillars.

Pillars or something like this as a break to shift the people more in the duty-free. And yes, and the other thing is what's probably very positive over there in the marketplace that there are big areas of food and beverage, which is the main topic these days with the main growth rates with direct view on the airplane to the city and so on. That's very positive. On the shop side, we have to see how it developed over the time. On capital structure.

Structure. First of all, question regarding net-debt-to-EBITDA. So we both are very ambitious. So you can believe that we are going to do all that already in 2027. to achieve a number which is slightly below 5x to open the fantasy box for dividend payment.

Second, when you look forward into 2030, so where we have clear targets, EUR 2 billion/ EUR 1 billion. So if you take the EUR 2 billion, and we are doing all to achieve this number. If you take the EUR 2 billion and on the other side, look on net-debt-to-EBITDA and 3x as an absolutely minimum. So then our floor regarding the indebtedness is EUR 6 billion.

So we are coming down from EUR 8.2 billion. And let me say the road map is going down to in the near of EUR 6 million, not million, billion. And this is defining, but we are coming from EBITDA, EUR 2 billion indebtedness and then we can -- via increasing dividend payment, we can control the path to our targets in 2030.

Okay. Thank you. Dario, yes, you were.

Dario Maglione from BNP Paribas. First of all, congratulations for this important milestone of reaching free cash flow positive in 2025. I have 2 questions. One is on the CapEx guidance. You provided a good slide where you show CapEx until 2031 for Frankfurt.

So my question, I'd like to understand how you baked in inflation, inflation risk also in the context that here in Germany, there is an infrastructure fund from the government, and there might be more projects in the future, maybe less labor availability, construction costs might go up.

So I just wanted to understand how you factor in this in your projections? And then the second question is that is always a debate about M&A potential, so -- and the M&A appetite. So when do you think Fraport may start to look again at international opportunities to grow?

I'll start with the second one on M&A. I would say I would exclude it, to be quite honest, for the next 2 years, at least no big tickets, something like Kalamata or something like Jeddah could always be or one or the other smaller thing, but nothing big.

And I would more expect if there is something coming around more regarding end of the decade. So it's not affecting any discussion on dividends or whatever or capital structure or something like this. So we have been very clear below 5x, we will go to 60% to 80%, and we will also continue that way. And it's also, as Matthias just mentioned, it's not a target to go to 3 was just as a minimum. So we will go up with the dividend then. On capital structure.

CapEx guidance.

On CapEx guidance, inflation.

CapEx guidance, whether inflation is embedded or not, perhaps can we show this slide. from the presentation. Is it possible where we show you -- the guidance for the next couple of years for maintenance CapEx.

So we have -- you can see that these are increasing numbers and the increase is equivalent to anticipated inflation rates and price increases in the construction area. You can see, for example, maintenance, the box, gray box is going up as well as maintenance for international assets. So this is, of course, on a normalized basis, we have the inflation included in our forecast.

Okay. Maybe Christian and then afterwards, Marcin, I think that was and we can continue with Nicolo.

Christian Cohrs, Warburg Research. Two questions from my side. You confirm the EUR 2 billion and EUR 1 billion target for 2030. The 2030 targets, but also include that ROFRA is going to exceed the WACC. Does this apply for all divisions? Because this would actually mean a massive improvement, EBITDA or EBIT improvement in ground handling? And do you think that's realistic?

And secondly, now with all the capacity in place, do you expect that low-cost carriers will come back to Frankfurt?

I can start with the question on low-cost carriers. No, if you mean with low-cost carriers, Ryanair, I would not expect it. whoever else because there's not any longer this clear distinction between low cost and not low cost, there are more hybrid models out and so on.

Also on the intercontinental side, I would not exclude anything. That depends on market, that depends on airline strategy. But if you are so clear on Ryanair, if this is the question, I would not expect it. If they are willing to come back, if they see a market, they are highly welcome, but as a normal airline as all other airlines with normal tariffs and so on.

Question regarding how to achieve the EUR 2 billion target in 2030. So first of all, based on our internal planning, all 4 segments must go up. This is part of our planning. And if you look on the several units, first of all, starting with ground handling, where we have negative numbers or had negative numbers.

And we are far away from any cost coverage also regarding cost of capital. And so the first big step you will see in 2027 in combination with a new contract with Lufthansa and all along also cost of capital must be covered. And this means there's a significant relative as well as absolute increase in this segment. The International segment is unconstrained from -- so there's also a huge headroom based on natural growth at all assets in our portfolio combination of volume times prices.

Retail, we are looking forward, we are relatively optimistic on a conservative basis that all numbers will improve. And last but not least, in aviation itself with, for example, in ROFRA of 4.6% in '25, we are far away from the regulated one. And so this is a headroom. So it's a growth at all 4 segments, of course, overproportionately in ground handling relatively seen and absolutely unconstrained in retail as well as in the International segment.

Okay. Thank you. Marcin, please.

It's Marcin Wojtal from Bank of America. Two questions. Firstly, on Terminal 2, could we just confirm that the total CapEx envelope for this upgrade and refurbishment is around EUR 1.5 billion? And could you clarify how are you planning to obtain an attractive financial return on that investment?

Could it allow you to obtain further tariff increases, for example, over the medium term? And perhaps question number two, very quickly, could you just come back on retail performance in Q4? Should we consider Q4 to have been impacted by some one-offs or that was more of a clean quarter?

Maybe I'll take the first question on Terminal 2, I think we explained already the next 3, 4 years are planning phase, decision phase, then preparation phase for construction, real construction will not start before end of 2029, something like this 2030. So the question how we earn long term our money on that, if you know that Terminal 2 will not be back on operation 2034 or something 2035, something like this, we are flexible on that.

And if you know that the market is at least growing by rough number, 2% per year, something like this, 10 years from now, 2% per year plus interest on that, it's 25%, something like this. we need terminals to also by volume, not just finance via price or something like this, inflation and so on. So also by volume by growth.

So I don't have any questions on doubts on the question, how do we earn our money in the long run because this EUR 1.5 billion, yes, we confirm it around this number. That's a long-term number over several years, and it's not a short-term burden for us something like this.

In addition of this, what you mentioned all the investments already done before the reopening of Terminal 2, each and every euro goes directly into the RAB. So -- and this is a base also for gaining more and more money. So it's creating headroom also all along for fee increases.

The second question was on Q4 retail. Retail performance is these days relatively difficult to monitor because if you take on the one side, Terminal 2, where we have not done together with the concessionaires, we have not done any further modernization on that side for the recent 2 or 3 years.

So it's coming a little bit down. Then if you look at all the jobs done in Terminal 1, you see more and more empty space in the central area of B because of the fire protection works that are done these days and these years. It's not just these days. That's the problem on that side. End of Q4, I think food and beverage came back on the air side of Pier B was end of Q4, I think. That was a huge area. So there we should see for food and beverage positive results.

So one or the other shop came back there, 1 shop, I think, or 2 shops, I'm not exactly sure on Pier B. But what we learned also, I don't know what your experience is from other airports on the pure duty-free business, there's not a big growth these days. It's more on food and beverage, and we have to find new answers on duty-free. It's more on other types of shops. The shop business, there are small growth rates, but not big growth rates. And that's not just Frankfurt. This we learned across Europe somewhere.

Okay. Thank you, yes. Nicolo.

Nicolo Pessina from Mediobanca. First question, if you can elaborate on the OpEx outlook for 2026 implied in the EUR 1.5 billion EBITDA target you provided this morning. If you see any risk from energy prices, your expectations on labor costs in Frankfurt or any risk from the opening of Terminal 3?

Second question on the regulatory agreement with the airlines here in Frankfurt. Do you see that it could be at risk under a scenario of a severe impact on traffic from the current crisis or it's totally safe and there is no discussion about it?

Regarding OpEx, so we continue to control OpEx. We have, as always, 2 items, material expenses as well as personnel expenses. On the personnel cost side, we have so far an advantage that based on the existing wage contracts. Now the further wage increase in '26 is significantly lower than in '25. We had in '25 a pure wage increase of more than 8%, which was unbelievable, so to say, based on the agreements.

It's now going down to a little bit more than 4%. So it's still too high, but it's better than '25. we have -- but this helps us to control and on the FTE numbers, yes, there will be still a small increase due to Terminal 3. But after this, we are on the peak level. And based on our internal planning, then looking forward to 2030, there's year-by-year a small reduction of the total number of employees here at the site.

Second, material expenses, you mentioned energy cost. Here, we have in so far also advantages that now we have the -- the total electricity consumption is covered by photovoltaic devices on one side and the wind park where we have a share on the other side. So it's CO2 neutral and it's cheaper than before.

And all other energy things are covered and hedged by long-term contracts so that we don't see any increase on the energy cost side, could be that we are lower than in the past. And regarding other material expense items, we are in line with modest inflation rates. So we see increases 2% to 3% regarding all other items. So with other words, we control the cost side.

Regarding your first -- your second question, -- if you work in the aviation business on the airport side, you are used to the point there's always pressure from airlines. They always would like to pay less. That's clear. And if you have such a lot of airlines, you have big airlines, there are more business relations than if you have just an airline, which is coming once a day or something like this.

So having said this, there's nothing specific around at the moment. And you know that on the aviation side, we have a contract in place for 4 years. There are another 2 years, I think, to go, if I'm correctly informed on my memory, another 2 years to go. So there's no point to discuss anything. And if I would have to discuss, we lost at least 100,000 passengers because of the strike. That effect is more than the war effect at the moment. So nothing...

Okay. Thank you for this. Hari, you're still in the line? Okay.

It's Hari from Deutsche Bank. Just one from me. On this point on the airlines and the tariff increases, in the context of what some of your peers are going through, namely regulatory reviews and maybe even potential declines in tariffs, what is the assumption that you have in your 2030 EBITDA and FCF numbers?

What's the tariff increase that you're projecting beyond 2028? And do you think that's -- like you alluded to just now, airlines would be always wanting to pay lesser. But do you think that's going to be a possibility?

Thanks for your question, but please understand that I first would like to discuss this with airlines and not with you. So the contract is up to the year 2028 or 2027, what is it?

Eight.

So early enough in 2028, we will start that discussion, we will give you then also a guidance, but not now.

Okay. I think Nicolas is still in the line.

Nicolas Mora from Morgan Stanley. Two, maybe three. Just on -- coming back on retail, if I understand you correctly, so it's tough in duty free and so on. So now the biggest upside, especially with T3 in mind is what -- so advertising, it's food and beverage and it's lounges as well. I mean are you just giving up on the traditional retail? It's just not working in Frankfurt or -- and with an offset on the others or other pillars, maybe or other levers to pull in order to make the most of T3. So that's the first one.

Very quickly on costs. We've been used to a bit of stop and go on staff numbers. I mean, if traffic growth comes back, can you really hold on to a decline in staff numbers? I mean we have not seen any productivity gains being -- basically being kept by Frankfurt for more than, let's say, 12 months. thinking about the mid-2010s where these gains evaporated pretty quickly. So what is different now? Why would you be suddenly able to keep the productivity gains or any into '27, '28?

And last one on traffic. Is there a bull case where Lufti and Condor fight it off for years and boost traffic 3%, 4%, 5%? What do you see beyond '26, which is bound to be a healthy growth year, putting aside geopolitics? What do you see in '27 onwards? And how can the platform keep growing at a relatively high pace?

If I may start. I would like to start with the final question on traffic. because we don't see anything there, very simple. On 2027 onwards, you have a market outlook and the market is the best what we have at the moment and you have some indications from one or the other airline group on their coming in additional aircraft, but not much more.

So I would take the guidance between 2%, 2.5%. That's a normal growth on the market here in Europe or in Western parts of Europe, and that's maybe with some deduction, but around 2%, 2.5% is also the growth rate that would apply for Frankfurt around this level. It could be the one year much more. It could be another year, a little bit less, but that's what I would take as an average.

Regarding staff, we are, Matthias and I, absolutely convinced that the staff numbers will not go up even with the higher traffic volumes over the next 5 or 10 years. Why? Because on the one side, where is the direct relation that especially on ground handling. And on ground handling, we are going more and more into the digitalization and AI supportive applications, how we drive the whole ground handling with systems that we are more productive on that side, camera-based, for example, with better signals, we get centralized information with better turnarounds and so on.

And that will come in and that will go against the question of additional traffic, so will be productivity at the end. In other areas, take Florian's area or whatever, no, that's productivity also via digitalization, AI and all those things, but no additional growth on that side. On retail, I didn't want to say, sorry for that, that we don't see any growth on retail or on shop business, let's say it this way.

So if you take the non-aviation in general, advertisement, you mentioned parking running really well. Food and beverage is great. I just wanted to say that we don't see the big growth on the shop side. But we will see an increase, and we mentioned this several times, and you can explore on this more than I, that the move from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 will give us an addition of roughly 50%.

Maybe not in the first step maybe next year because there will be some adaptations you have to do, some better practices you have to bring in. One I mentioned before, we have to find pillars or another solution. We have to see. I would like to get it in before we open it up on 23rd of April, but I'm not sure at the moment whether it's realistic or not. So that we have -- but we will make experience there what we can improve. That's absolutely clear.

Perhaps in addition to this, what Stefan said. So we -- when you look on T3, you have to see where are the passengers coming from. And we are in the first step in summer now, we are reallocating about 10 million passengers from Terminal 2 into Terminal 3. of course, not a full year effect in this year. And in summer next year, we have a second step on the volume side.

So in a way that up to 6 million Condor passengers are removed from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3. So we are talking about 16 million passengers roughly in '27 in Terminal 3. So we have more passengers than in the past in Terminal 3 in a better situation, a better retail area. And that's the reason why our internal assumption is a full year uplift of about 50% regarding the spend per pax. And this is then full year effect times 16 million and not 10 million in a like-for-like basis, removing the today's Terminal 2 passengers into T3.

Okay. Are there any further questions here in the audience before we open up to those who joined remotely. That's not the case. We'd like to unmute Ashish's line, and we kindly remind everyone who is joining us remotely to please use Raise the Hand button if you want to raise a question. Ashish, please go ahead.

This is Ashish from Citigroup. Most of my questions have already been answered. So I just have one query. When do you plan to start the negotiation for next phase of tariff increase? Will it also be a multiyear contract like 3 to 4 years as we've seen in the past? Just wanted to check.

We will start that discussion for sure, beginning of 2028, whether it's a full year contract or a 4-year contract, whether it's 3 years, whether it's 5 years, much too early. We will see. It depends on the negotiations then.

I'm not any longer in charge at that time, but Matthias is still in charge. But I can tell you, we all are always in favor if we can agree on a long term, but it must make sense.

Okay. So yes, thank you very much, Ashish, for the question coming in remotely. Anyone else from the audience that wants to raise a question? Elodie, maybe one follow-up and then Andrew.

Maybe as you mentioned that you might not be there at the time, could you give us a bit of color about management succession, how you see that going, the steps, what do you think -- anything you can share with us would be interesting.

I can give you much of color or as much I have. I will step down end of August next year. That's absolutely fixed, and that's very good because I'm too long with this company and working too long. Whatever. Now, they need new CEO, that's absolutely right. That's very positive. So end of next year -- end of August next year, my contract is ending, and I will not prolongate it.

To give you color, the subgroup of the Supervisory Board discussed already a first version of a profile for my successor. I would assume that mid of this year, we will start the search externally. More I can't give you now, but I hope that up to year-end, somebody is signing the contract, and I would assume, yes.

Okay. Andrew, one follow-up maybe and then.

How optimistic are you that the German government will bring some more support to the aviation industry after making the cut in the aviation tax. I think there's still some hope from the airlines and indeed from the ADV that you get some support for either security costs or reductions to air traffic control or maybe elsewhere. But do you think there is more support for aviation from the government?

We are working for that on more or less day-to-day work altogether in the industry because we know how important it is, and we know that even with this one first step, we have still regulatory costs in Germany, which are much higher than in other countries.

And the government understood that they really could do something positive for the economy if they give a push on that side, and it costs them really not much. So I'm somewhat optimistic with this government that over the next -- what do they have another 3 years, there will be a second step, but we have to work for this. It's not granted.

Okay. Yes. Thank you, everyone. Unless there are no further questions, we'd like to conclude the Q&A session right now. Thank you, everyone, for the good questions. We look forward to seeing you guys and girls on the road soon. And yes, thank you also, Stefan and Matthias for the answers. Thanks a lot, and see you soon.

Thank you very much.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to our prerecorded 9 months analyst presentation. Matthias and I are looking back at a very eventful and at the same time, a very successful 9 months period. One of the key highlights certainly was the regulatory approval of our major construction site, Terminal 3 in Frankfurt. I'm on Slide #3. So completely approved, we are officially at least ready to start. It fills me and the entire Fraport team with pride that Frankfurt Airport is now ready for future growth. I will come back on the remaining steps until the opening of the terminal in a minute, but let's focus on the other key areas of the past period first.

In combination with the progress in Frankfurt, we also completed and opened the first phase of the new Lima terminal in June and added new terminal capacities in Antalya in April. Besides the CapEx projects, we are also pleased with the last summer season. Frankfurt Airport showed a solid growth rate of around 3%, while our passengers and airline customers at the same time, perceived better operational quality compared to the previous year. During the summer season, key international group airports also achieved record levels in Q3 and on a year-to-year basis.

As a result of the operational growth, we recorded an all-time high EBITDA in the third quarter and received record inflows. Consequently, free cash flow was the highest ever achieved by our company in the third quarter, despite continued outflows for Terminal 3 and the new Lima terminal in the amount of around EUR 150 million. Having said this, we are well on track to deliver on all our financial targets set for fiscal year 2025.

Taking now a look at our key financial highlights for the third quarter on Slide #4. While headline revenues of EUR 1.35 billion were flat on the previous year's level, revenues, excluding for IFRIC 12 effects, moved up strongly by 8% compared to Q3 last year. Reasons for the positive revenue development was the before-mentioned traffic growth as well as increases in airport charges and other prices. From a segment perspective, our International division showed revenue growth of around 6%, while the 3 Frankfurt segments were up even stronger by about 10%.

Moving on the EBITDA. Here, the increase was clearly higher compared to revenues at more than 20%. EBITDA, therefore, achieved an all-time high figure of EUR 590 million. Beyond the underlying strong business development, we also recorded a positive one-off effect of roughly EUR 50 million due to cash backs in connection with the supplementary pension plan. Here, additional payments to close an expected funding gap were calculated wrongly, which led to a reimbursement of contributions and supported our results. Adjusted for this onetime effect, EBITDA nonetheless was up strongly by around 12% to EUR 540 million. Bottom line, the group result of EUR 350 million also marked an all-time high, despite the higher interest expenses and a slightly more negative result from Antalya.

Our traffic performance in the third quarter is shown on Slide #5. Frankfurt Airport showed a solid growth rate of just under 3%. In addition to the positive passenger development in the third quarter, we were also pleased to see an even better traffic performance in October, at a growth rate of just under 6%. All traffic regions, so North America, Africa, Asia and Europe, except for Latin America, recorded passenger growth. Frankfurt Airport, therefore, now stands at a year-to-date passenger growth of 2.3%. So we are on track to achieve our full year targets.

Outside of Frankfurt, growth continued in all our group airports in the third quarter. Fraport Greece recorded a similar growth rate to Frankfurt and reached another passenger record. In particular, the airport of Thessaloniki showed strong momentum of more than 8%, while also the airports of Corfu and Chania showed growth -- good growth of more than 5% each. Lima Airport recorded a somewhat more modest growth rate at around 2% in Q3. The airport in Lima was negatively impacted by the refurbishment of the old runway, which started in September and strikes carried out in Cusco, which had a negative impact on the tourist inflows to Machu Picchu.

Fraport Brazil, on the other side, was positively impacted by the reopening of Porto Alegre Airport and doubled its passengers number compared to the last year, a solid recovery to more than 90% of 2019. A very positive growth rate of 12% recorded in Ljubljana and numerous flights were added during the summer season, and we expect a continuation of this favorable trend for the upcoming winter season. Our 2 Bulgarian airports, in Varna & Burgas also saw passenger growth of combined 6% at a recovery rate of 68%. The 2 airports, however, still lack the 2019 levels due to missing passengers from Eastern Europe as a result of the war in Ukraine.

After a weak start of the year, Antalya Airport came back into the growth mode. At plus 2%, the airport handled 5% more passengers compared to 2019, a solid result of our single biggest airport outside of Frankfurt. In total, the group airport, therefore, handled about 6% more passengers in the third quarter compared to last year and are now fully recovered to the pre-pandemic level.

Looking ahead, we just released the traffic outlook on the Frankfurt winter season. I'm on Slide #6. For the current winter season, we expect aircraft movements to grow by around 3% and seat capacities, likewise, to grow at roughly 3% Growth will be mainly driven by capacity additions of Condor and easyJet. The 2 carriers clearly increased services and started new routes last summer. This growth will now continue for the winter, but also Lufthansa is back on growth with the deliveries of the new B787.

Following the winter season, we very much look forward to a new chapter for Frankfurt Airport, the reopening of Terminal 3. As we discussed before, Terminal 3 will open after the Easter holidays next year. In the meantime, we set a date for the first inaugural flight of our Terminal 3. April 23 will be the first operational day. Until this day, we still have further tasks to do. The trials to test the infrastructure started already with our own employees. In January, the test runs will commence with people from outside of the Fraport group. By the time of the opening, several thousands of people will have tested the new terminal processes. Simultaneously, commercial operators will work on the completion of the new shop concepts and lounges. The security checks are set up as well as all installations for the police, customs and all airlines.

In addition to the terminal infrastructure, we also made significant progress in terms of climate protection. Since October 22, our photovoltaic plant, next to the take-off Runway West, has been operational in Frankfurt. 37,000 vertical solar panels generate substantial green electricity, especially in the mornings and afternoons. The new plant is an ideal addition to the photovoltaic system installed on airport rooftops, which reached their peak output at midday.

From mid-2026 onwards, another substantial amount of green electricity will be supplied from our wind park power purchase agreement with EnBW in the North Sea. This means that 100% of the electricity demand in Frankfurt will be covered by renewable resources from mid next year onwards, so 10% local photovoltaics and 90% wind energy. In absolute terms, this will be more than 300 gigawatts per hour from wind energy and close to 30 gigawatts per hour from solar energy.

Moving on to the development outside of Frankfurt on Slide #9. The slide shows you the progress of the second terminal construction phase in Lima. As you can see, the second phase or Phase 1b is well advanced. The long swing pier, which can be used for domestic and international services is already fully completed. The other extensions of the terminal infrastructure are close to completion. With the second phase, we will increase the terminal capacity from 30 million passengers to 40 million passengers over the next few weeks. Also, the refurbishment of the old runway is well underway and will be done by end of this year. So Lima is well underway.

Antalya Airport, as you know, from previous discussions, is also completed. The new capacities have been taken up well by the market. Following the settlement of the dispute with the former duty-free operator, we are also seeing further progress from the retail activities in Antalya. Further growth, we also expect from the addition of Kalamata, our airport #15 in Greece. Here, the team is working closely with the Greek authorities on the concession commencement, which will probably happen during the first quarter of 2026.

Coming now to my last slide of the presentation, our group outlook on Slide #10. The outlook shows that we are well on track for the full year. While we narrowed the guidance in terms of Frankfurt passengers to about 63 million, we continue to expect moderate growth in EBITDA in the single-digit percentage range. Due to the onetime effect, which we recorded in the past quarter, it is now increasingly likely that we will end up rather in the high single-digit percentage area. On an underlying base, however, this shall be more in the mid-single-digit percentage area.

As we guided before, our group result will develop at a more subdued pace. The main reasons are the absence of the positive one-off effect from the sale of St. Petersburg last year and rising interest costs. For the free cash flow, we continue to expect the free cash flow to be close to breakeven this year. The near to breakeven free cash flow is expected to have a slightly positive impact on the net financial debt-to-EBITDA ratio, thanks to a growing EBITDA. Regarding the dividend, there's no official decision taken. But as we have communicated this often times before, we see a very high likelihood to resume dividend payments as early as this year to be distributed next year. Last, latest next year in connection with our full year results, so in March, we will provide you the final outcome of these discussions.

Having said this, I would like to hand over to Matthias now for more details on our financial development.

Yes. Thank you, Stefan, and a warm welcome also from my side. On my first slide today, slide #12, I would like to guide you through the cash flow development in the third quarter and our indebtedness at the end of September '25. Starting on the left side of the bar chart, you see a strong operating cash flow increasing by 27% year-on-year, which was driven by a good operational performance, working capital changes and by the one-off effect in connection with the supplementary pension plan that Stefan has already talked about. However, even if adjusted for this one-off item, the operational cash flow increased by some EUR 90 million or around 17%.

Focusing on the main CapEx programs in the group, you see a clear trend in Lima, where the new terminal has been opened and the investments are coming down quickly, only reaching EUR 38 million in the third quarter. As a comparison, last year in Q3, we still spend some EUR 114 million. At the same time, as you heard from Stefan before, we were able to complete construction on our Terminal 3 in Frankfurt, where CapEx in the last quarter amounted to some EUR 119 million. Also, this is still an elevated number. We already reduced CapEx for T3 by almost EUR 60 million if compared to last year's Q3. This shows the reduction in investments also in Frankfurt as we are now coming to the end of the CapEx program.

While the remaining investments were only slightly higher than last year, brick-and-mortar CapEx decreased significantly by 29%. Additionally, dividends from at equity consolidated companies, mainly from Antalya, in the amount of EUR 30 million were supportive. Like this, we generated a record quarterly free cash flow of EUR 373 million. This reduced our net financial debt to less than EUR 8.2 billion. Correspondingly, we reached a leverage ratio of 5.8x net debt to last 12 months EBITDA and also our gearing ratio improved by 14 percentage points to 159%.

On my next slide, #13, I would like to give you further details on our indebtedness situation. As mentioned before, our net debt today stands at less than EUR 8.2 billion, which is a net of our EUR 12.1 billion gross debt and a cash balance of more than EUR 3.9 billion. If we add any residual unused project finance and committed credit lines, we even end up at a cash reserve of close to EUR 4.6 billion. At 3.3%, the average cost of debt remained unchanged to the second quarter despite regular refinancing activities and drawdowns from the Lima project financing. As you can see from the chart, around EUR 200 million are still reaching maturity this year in Frankfurt. In the meantime, so since end of September to date, the refinancing of the majority of this has already been agreed on.

Now coming from the group to our segment reporting, starting with the Q3 numbers in Aviation on Slide #14. After a good first half of the year, the positive trend in revenue generation continued in our operationally and financially most important third quarter, driven by pricing and volume effects at Frankfurt Airport. Therefore, total revenues increased by some 11% or EUR 38 million, while aviation charges went up 9%, which corresponds to EUR 25 million. The residual increase in revenues came from security charges, which grew strongly by more than 20% due to the new reimbursement system based on cost coverage on a full year basis and not on a monthly basis like in the past years.

As we mentioned before, we received an unscheduled onetime refund in relation to our supplementary pension plan, which reduced the staff cost in all of our 4 reporting segments. This refund was based on a new assessment by an insurance actuary, which meant that we overpaid the pension plan in the past couple of years. Having said this, around EUR 14 million positively impacted the staff cost in aviation. Therefore, personnel expenses decreased by EUR 9 million in the third quarter. If adjusted for the one-off item, expenses increased by some 7%. As a result of the good operational growth and the one-off item, EBITDA increased to EUR 162 million or 25% and EBIT amounted to EUR 125 million, an increase of 37%. Adjusted for the one-off and staff costs, underlying growth rates still stood at 14% and 22%, respectively.

Now jumping from aviation to non-aviation on my next slide, our Retail & Real Estate segment. In the third quarter, we incurred a revenue increase of 3.4% or EUR 5 million. Out of that, the retail business contributed about half of the growth, which corresponds to an increase of 4.2% over last year's third quarter. The positive development is based on the volume growth in Frankfurt on the one side and the increasing spend per passenger from EUR 3.02 to EUR 3.06 on the other side. This development was primarily driven by higher advertising revenues in the quarter, which grew from EUR 0.58 to EUR 0.74 on a per passenger basis, an increase of 28%. Details about the retail split can be found on my next slide. Also, parking showed a strong revenue increase again over the summer season, growing by more than 5%.

The one-off item from the supplementary pension plan reduced staff costs in retail and real estate by some EUR 4 million, which led to decreasing personnel expenses. Adjusted for the effect, staff costs increased by around 7%. In addition to that, other OpEx benefited from a reimbursement of utilities, which is why also this line item decreased compared to the previous year's quarter. Based on those effects, EBITDA and EBIT ended up strongly at EUR 113 million and EUR 89 million, respectively.

Moving on to our Ground Handling segment on Slide #17 and starting with a positive message here. As you can see on the slide, we changed our guidance for the Ground Handling segment and now expect to reach a positive EBITDA in '25 after a good Q2 and an even stronger Q3. But now looking at the main drivers of this development. As mentioned with our Q2 publication, there are several factors influencing the positive revenue development. Besides growing traffic volumes and higher prices, we continue to record a higher market share due to the continued slow ramp-up of Swissport. On the other side, of course, the Ground Handling benefited significantly from the reimbursement of the pension fund.

Staff costs amounted to EUR 128 million and therefore, stayed on the previous year's level, despite an increase in FTE numbers and wage increases. If adjusted for the EUR 16 million one-off effect, personnel expenses increased by some 14% over last year's third quarter. As that compared to last year, our financials are still influenced by higher FTE numbers. However, if we compare Q3 with the second quarter '25, you see that our staff number decreased further. In the meantime, over the last 2 quarters, we reduced our Ground Handling personnel by more than 100 people. At the same time, we are becoming less dependent on third-party providers by decreasing the amount of external personnel, which is reflected in other OpEx that remained on previous year's level despite inflation. All in all, this led to a positive EBITDA of EUR 37 million in Q3. If adjusted for the personnel one-off, we generated an underlying EBITDA of some EUR 21 million, so we more than doubled the result of Q3 2024.

Now, coming to the last slide of today's presentation, Slide #18, concluding with our International Activities & Services segment. Looking at the top line effects, you see that the revenues overall decreased due to the fact that the IFRIC 12 related revenues came down by more than EUR 100 million again in Q3 due to the completion of the terminal in Lima. So more relevant, of course, is to consider the underlying revenues, which performed nicely with an increase by around EUR 30 million or 6%, bearing in mind the headwinds from exchange rate developments, especially in Lima, Brazil and the U.S.

On the cost side, the segment's performance was influenced by the Frankfurt Services, which benefited from the premium refund and decreased the staff cost to EUR 83 million from EUR 90 million last year. Adjusting for the EUR 15 million one-off effect, personnel expenses increased by around 9% overall. As a result, the segment's EBITDA increased by some 15% to EUR 281 million or by 9% if adjusted for the cost saving one-off item. The increase in D&A to EUR 72 million was especially driven by the terminal opening in Lima and led to an EBIT of EUR 209 million. This translates into an increase of 9% or 2% if adjusted for positive one-offs.

With this, I would like to conclude today's presentation, and thank you for your attention. We look forward to the Q&A session this afternoon. Have a nice day, and goodbye for now.

Welcome also from my side. First, I would like to apologize that the webcast this morning was offboarding 1 hour late, so reducing our punctuality rate. But anyway, I do hope that you meanwhile had the chance to hear it, the presentation of our CEO, Stefan Schulte; and our CFO, Matthias Zieschang. They are both with me here at the table, and we can now directly jump into Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Elodie Rall from JPMorgan.

So my first question is on CapEx. If you could remind us your latest expectation for '26 and '27. I think at the call at H1, you said that CapEx in '26 could be maybe around EUR 800 million, max EUR 900 million. And then for '27, we have in mind like EUR 650 million. So it would be interesting and helpful if you could fine-tune then your expectation? And are you still expecting a step down to EUR 500 million of maintenance CapEx from '27? And what is the envelope and time frame for the refurbishment of Terminal 2? So that's my first question.

And my second question is on dividend. You said on your presentation on the webcast that there's a chance that it comes back as soon as this year. So what needs to happen? What kind of size are we looking at? You previously had a payout ratio of 40% to 60%. Would it be a similar policy?

Let's start with the CapEx.

Yes. CapEx, first of all, there is no final indication for next year for '26 and '27, just an indication, and this is not new. So we -- in this year, we are going to realize about EUR 1.1 billion and we reconfirm this number. In '26, it's about EUR 900 million. And in '27, it's about EUR 700 million as a first indication. Maintenance CapEx, EUR 500 million, yes, also a confirmation that this is more or less a sustainable number for the future. And regarding the phasing of T2, again, this is a lever depending from the growth number of passengers here at Frankfurt Airport, so we can speed up, we can delay it. But based on our base case scenario, so the CapEx regarding T2 goes up in '29/2030.

Regarding your second or third question, whatever it is on dividends, I think Matthias as well as I gave you throughout the year whenever we met, always and also on the annual meeting, the expectation that we are optimistic to start with dividend payments or to restart with dividend payments in 2026 for 2025, if -- and the big if was, if the year 2025 turns on a positive way regarding our EBITDA results and regarding that we have CapEx under control, so that we are getting net debt very close or free cash flow very close to 0. I think we are on that move. So I'm optimistic that we can get back on restarting dividend payments in 2026 for 2025.

But we still have to wait on the final quarter, whether especially the CapEx is so far under control that we are coming close to breakeven on free cash flow, slightly negative and that we have a positive outlook for 2026, of course. From today's point of view, I'm quite optimistic that this will work, but let's please wait for the final quarter. And then the official decisions and the decision on this will be taken latest by the Supervisory Board in March. Payout ratio will be, for sure, less than 40% to 60% in the first year or the first 2 years. But long term, midterm, long term, we want to get back to 40% to 60%.

Can I just ask on CapEx, just a precision. You said Terminal 2 goes until '29, '30. So should we expect a level of EUR 700 million of CapEx between '27 and 2030 more or less on average?

It can be -- so I would -- from today's perspective, the EUR 700 million are more the maximum, could be even a little bit less than EUR 700 million before we ramp up with Terminal 2.

The next question comes from the line of Carlos Caburrasi from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Just 2 on my side. First, on free cash flow and following up on what Stefan has just commented. You've always mentioned close to breakeven in 2025, but can you maybe provide a range for your full year expectation? If I go back to 2018, the 9-month figure was EUR 80 million free cash flow and then the full year number stood at EUR 7 million. Should we expect something similar in 2025?

And second, can you comment your expectations for Antalya during the rest of the decade? I mean, this year's performance has been weaker than what some analysts were expecting. And I was wondering if you could provide some visibility on EBITDA net profit by 2030. And additionally, could you also provide some visibility on the dividend payments coming from Antalya, especially considering the start of the second concession and the higher concession payments?

The first question regarding free cash flow, you could see our positive number in Q3, which was strong, but it must be strong, otherwise, we cannot end up close to breakeven. And we still are convinced that we will end up close to breakeven. And regarding then the indebtedness, this would lead to a situation that coming from EUR 8.38 billion last year, we will end up in a range which is from today's perspective between EUR 8.3 billion up to EUR 8.4 billion for '25.

And then looking forward into the year 2026, free cash flow will be clearly positive. And we are using this in the case of dividends to pay some dividends if the decision will be made. And second, to use the other proceeds to bring down the indebtedness of the group.

Regarding Antalya, and thanks for your questions. Antalya is now in a difficult phase between Antalya old concession and Antalya new concession with some of the negotiations and we see DHMI over there. So in principle, yes, this year was a little bit disappointing regarding traffic flows, but in all that a lot of activity started in Turkey, in Antalya, and we have seen already a very, very good October. It's just 1 month, but with a growth in October of 9% that was very positive.

November, December are not any longer so important because the traffic numbers are still okay, but they are coming down. The high season is over. So we will have to see what really the final number is on EBITDA. But roughly something around EUR 40 million, EUR 50 million could be on an EBITDA level for this year 2025. And then it should go up, but the real step-up will be from 2027 onwards, not earlier because it's in between time, between the 2 concessions there.

Dividend payments, we are not expecting for the next years as far as I'm informed, but maybe Matthias, you have better numbers than I.

No, this is correct.

That's correct. Okay.

Carlos, to be precise, that was referring to the new Antalya concession.

So we need to add the current Antalya concession too.

Antalya II. The numbers I mentioned on the Antalya I numbers, do you have some? I don't know at the moment.

Yes. Dividends, we guide for this year, high double digit, and we also expect more of the same next year. Up to EUR 100 million.

Yes, sorry. It was not a consolidated number.

The next question comes from the line of Tobias Fromme from Bernstein.

I have just one question on Ground Handling. The EBITDA margin was 16% in Q3. Adjusted, this is around 9%. When I compare this to the 13-plus percent in Q3 2019, there's still sort of significant room for improvement. And now considering the reversal of the higher market share, which should go down to 19%, as you said earlier, where do you see the annual EBITDA margin for Ground Handling settling? Is this around the 2019 level of 8.5%? And when would you expect to actually get there?

Whether it's 8.5%, I don't know at the moment. It will be a little bit less, I think, but we expect a big increase on the EBITDA side in 2027 and 2028 due to contract negotiations with our main customers or main customer. This contract negotiation started already. I think we will update you over the term of the next 6, 9, 12 months because that's the duration of the actual contract and will not be an early easy solution. So there are tough negotiations.

The next question comes from the line of Dario Maglione from BNP Paribas.

Just one question, following up on what Elodie was asking about the CapEx. Just to make sure I understand. So the maintenance CapEx, it's EUR 500 million. But then you mentioned the EUR 700 million kind of long term. So yes, I just want to clearly understand what is the EUR 700 million, how long for, whether it's brick-and-mortar CapEx or you also include fixed concession payments and so on? Just to be very clear.

Just when we talk about CapEx, we are focusing on brick-and-mortar CapEx. Concessions are -- would be -- concession payments would be on top of it. So first of all, we have now a ramp down, again, EUR 1.1 billion this year, about EUR 900 million next year and EUR 700 million in the following year. And this includes still payments for Terminal 3. So we are -- from a technical perspective, the construction is ready, but nevertheless, there are residual works which have to be done.

And then you have always a lot of discussions between the construction companies on one side regarding the final builds. This takes time. In some cases, there's a settlement immediately after the finalization of the work. Sometimes it takes 12, even 18 months, and you always have some residual works which have to be realized. And let me say, in the case of such a huge project, you have between -- there's always a delay between the last payment on one side and the last construction works in a range of 12, up to 18 months. And this means looking forward, again, the terminal is through, but there are still payments in '26, it can be up to EUR 200 million.

This is always part of our total consideration of maximum EUR 4.2 billion, EUR 4.3 billion, which we already said, including reserves, et cetera, and there will be no overrun of this number. So looking forward, if there would be a EUR 200 million further CapEx in next year. This is part of the EUR 4.2 billion, EUR 4.3 billion total budget for T3. And also looking into '27 in the EUR 700 million, there are still in our financial plan, some final payments -- delayed payments for Terminal 3. So with other words, the discrepancy between EUR 700 million and EUR 500 million are on top elements. The EUR 500 million is from today's perspective, the maximum of maintenance CapEx for all group assets in our portfolio, including Frankfurt, including all other assets.

The next question comes from the line of Andrew Lobbenberg from Barclays.

Can you tell us a little bit about Terminal 3 and the airlines? There was some talk, I think, at the last quarter's presentation that Condor and Turkish might move. But I think when the opening date was announced for T3, they were not included. So do you think you're going to get those over to T3 or not? Or when will we know?

And the second question would be around Lima. And I think at the time of the deep dive, you told us that there were plans to introduce a connecting passenger fee that should be supportive to the airport charges, notwithstanding the existing regulatory structure of RPI minus 3, I think, from memory, U.S. RPI, I think. I think the airlines are building up quite a big campaign against that connection fee. So how confident are you that it can come to pass? And then also, if we look at the -- I think the retail revenue in this last quarter didn't seem to move a great deal in Lima. Is this a timing matter? Or have we just not got enough space open yet in the new terminal?

I'll start with the question on Terminal 3. You're absolutely right. We will start on 23rd of April and then over 4 waves up to the summer holidays, we will move all airlines out of Terminal 2 in a first step to Terminal 3. So that's excluding Condo, it's excluding Turkish Airline or it's excluding any other airline out of Terminal 1. Thereafter, one or the other airline was mentioned, maybe Condor could move to Terminal 3, but that's too early at the moment. Discussions are ongoing. We will see, but I can't confirm it today. If at all, it would be from 2007 onwards, it would make a lot of sense for Condor also for us, but still discussions are ongoing.

Regarding Lima, yes, you are right that we the right by the concession contract for connecting passenger fee. There is a big debate about that started by the airlines, and we are in discussions with the concession guarantor, which way it could be introduced or is there another way to be introduced. Whether it's starting end of the year, we have to see. It's open at the moment. The discussions are ongoing, and we will keep you updated as soon as we know which way it's going ahead. Whether it's this connecting passenger fee or whether it's recalculated into the normal fees, we have to see which way and what the solution at the end is, but we are in discussions there with the guarantor of the concession, so with the state.

On retail, in my opinion, it's just the normal work to get now the passenger streams and the shops and to optimize all the streams, it will take some time. That's normal with the new terminal to adapt the one or the other topic, but we are quite optimistic there and also in discussions with the duty-free operator and so on, that we should see further growth over the next years.

And you have to -- when you're looking on the EBITDA contribution from Lima, we have 3 drivers or 3 levers on one side. It's at the moment the number of passengers, which is temporarily reduced by the refurbishment of the old runway. So this leads to a temporary limitation of movements. That's the reason why we have now a small reduction of passenger numbers. This will go into strong positive numbers with the beginning of next year.

So second, of course, we have this U.S. dollar impact because the most valuable passengers are the Americans flying into Lima to stay in Peru or using Lima Airport as a stopover location for other destinations. And looking just on the retail numbers, they are very good, but again, spoiled by a little bit temporarily reduced passenger numbers on one side and the U.S. dollar negative impact on the other side. And higher OpEx due to the opening of the terminal, of course, compared to the old terminal.

The next question comes from the line of Graham Hunt from Jefferies.

I've got 2 questions, please. Firstly, on T3 commissioning next year, could you give us any sense of how you see the cost developing there in terms of the impact on group EBITDA? I think you've spoken in the past to a more stable development as we saw or as we see overlap between T2 coming offline and T3 coming offline -- online, sorry. So any updated view there in terms of the cost of commissioning would be helpful.

And then second question, just on your payout ratio, I just wanted to understand if you -- if EPS payout was the only approach you would take to shareholder distributions or if you would consider a different policy, just given noncash charges are stepping up significantly from next year. I just wanted to understand your thinking there around still tying that to earnings.

T3, as always mentioned, the OpEx is higher than T2 because it's a huge terminal. It's more than twice as capacity compared to Terminal 2. So the OpEx increase is a double-digit million amount per annum compared to the status quo, on one side. But on the other side, of course, then the headroom for growth when the passengers are kicking in, so to say, in this enhanced capacity.

On dividends, if I got your question correct, we first focus on the first dividend payment on restart the dividend payments, then we will see how the business is developing, but it will be in the first years for sure, focusing on EPS, so on the group results, the net results on dividend payments because we also have to and want to bring down somewhat the debt. And there are no plans from today's perspective for the next 2, 3, 4 years to make any shareholder repayments or something else, but it will be focused on dividend payments at least for the next 2, 3, 4 years.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Ashish Khetan from Citigroup.

I just wanted to understand if you can provide any initial thoughts about traffic growth for 2026? And secondly, how do you expect the retail revenue to grow?

It's too early to be quite honest. We get, at the normal these days, positive signals, especially from our main customer, Lufthansa, but also from Condo, they are the 2 biggest customers here in Frankfurt, that they would probably see a bigger growth rate than this year. But to be quite honest, that's too early in those discussions, and we will give you the guidance in beginning of next year. From today's point of view, I'm optimistic that we'll see in Frankfurt a stronger growth, but whatever it means, that's too early. I'm too long in that business, having seen too many signals.

Regarding retail, looking forward, so we have the positive impact from Terminal 3, with its huge and nice retail marketplace. And as we said in the past, we expect an increase in the spend per pax of these passengers moving from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 of about 50%. And just as a reminder, the spend per pax in the moment in T2 is above EUR 3, not because the retail space is great. It has to do with the value of the passengers which today we operate in Terminal 2. So we are talking about 10 million passengers moving from T2 to T3, full year effect in '27. And then the expectation is that they spend 50% more than this, what they've spent in the past in Terminal 2.

The next question comes from the line of Harishankar Ramamoorthy from Deutsche Bank.

It's Hari from Deutsche Bank. Congrats on a good set of print, especially on the free cash flows. Just one quick question there. If I'm trying to build what your free cash flow might look like for 2026, maybe the starting point would be EUR 200 million lower CapEx and then probably EUR 100 million more in EBITDA going by what you indicated when you shared the plans for 2030 targets, EUR 100 million increment each year. So does this sound like a fair bridge from this year's FCF to next year's? Or is there anything else that we need to bear in mind?

First of all, it's absolutely correct to mention the EUR 200 million reduction in CapEx, which has a positive impact on the free cash flow. On the other side, EBITDA will be higher in '26 compared to '25. But today, it's too early to say what is the amount of the expected EBITDA. This we will tell you then when we come with Q4 numbers. But the main driver, of course, are the EUR 200 million CapEx reduction, which we are going to see in next year.

And maybe just one more on the 2030 targets on EBITDA, any color from here on as to how that might evolve in terms of the mix from volumes and price and retail, regulated versus unregulated?

No, no, no. We always said about EUR 2 billion, and this is stable, and you mentioned volume and fees. And exactly as you said, this is always -- We have to find an equilibrium between the volume growth on one side and the fee escalation on the other side. This is a little bit like an equilibrium in the pipeline.

The next question comes from the line of Nicolas Mora from Morgan Stanley.

Just a couple. First on the cost side, you've done pretty great strides on -- especially in Aviation, also to a lesser extent on Ground Handling. You see yourself being able to continue to, let's say, modestly outperform and compress the -- especially the waste cost within Aviation into the back end of the year and '26. Is there anything special you're thinking about implementing into next year? That would be the first question.

Second, coming back on CapEx, thinking about the EUR 700 million you've been talking about from '27. So you imply there's around EUR 200 million kind of sticky international CapEx in there. So that must be, what, half of it must be Greece, if I'm correct?

And I had the last one. On T2, there seems to be a little bit of a disagreement with a few clients. I mean is the project as of today, with what you know from Lufthansa's growth plan, is the project canned? Or is this still live, but basically kind of with no clear deadline? Just wanted to get a clear grip on whether or not this is still on or basically up in the air.

If I get your question correct on staff cost, Aviation, if this was the question, then we believe that the number of staff will be roughly stable. There will not be a big development on that. And on the price side, you should probably calculate plus 3%, plus 4%, something like this. Also the hirings we have to do, for example, for Ground Handling, we are in that hiring process, but it will also be compared to the total number, a small number.

So we need maybe another 50 to 80 people, maybe 100 people because of Terminal 3, but we have an efficiency program running against this. So it's something in the area of 50 people, price increase also 3%, 4%, 5%, something like this. In the lower level of staff, the price increase is normally higher than on the more higher paid people. That's something what I could give you is the best guidance at the moment for Aviation and ground services.

And regarding CapEx, again, we see and we calculate about EUR 500 million for the whole group as a base CapEx amount like white noise, and there's no exact plan that's saying in 3, 4 years, we are taking 70% for Frankfurt and 30% for the international activities. This is more or less a budget which we have and which we are going to allocate to our assets and having a good track record, what are the CapEx maintenance requirements, we know that this is a sufficient amount also looking forward, including Greece and all other assets in our portfolio.

But Matthias, on that International CapEx and especially Greece, you've been -- you or the local management has been quoted in the press over the past year now, talking up the CapEx, the expansion, more runway investment and so on. Isn't there a step-up into '26, '27, 2029, or that's just within the overall envelope?

This is in the overall number as a part -- and when you look back when we went to refurbish and expand the existing 14 airports, we had a total consideration of, I think, as far as I remember, EUR 330 million for all 14 airports/terminals. So you see the amounts in Greece to expand, they are relatively modest and they are part of this big box.

Okay. And last one, if I may, on -- just on Ground Handling. I think, Stefan, you mentioned that the conversation with Lufthansa was difficult. Do you feel you're more confident, less confident than 3 months ago on the ability to keep the contract to reprice it upwards?

Yes, of course, we are confident, but I just tried to give you the signal and that was clear. It will be a difficult discussion, a difficult negotiation and such a difficult negotiation will take time. It's a huge price increase we need because of the inflation and the price -- the staff cost increases over the recent 5, 6, 7 years. So that's not a negotiation with one glass of wine or whatever you want to call it. It will take time. And that's the reason I gave the indication it will take 6, 9, 12 months, but we'll keep you updated. But we are optimistic. We have to get through this.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Marcin Wojtal from Bank of America.

A couple of questions. Firstly, considering the improved free cash flow, do you have any appetite to perhaps consider some new growth opportunities outside of Germany? I'm talking about potential acquisitions of new assets or there is nothing new on that front?

And I'm sorry to come back on CapEx, and apologies if that was already addressed. But could you just reconfirm that EUR 500 million of base maintenance that you've been indicating, does that include refurbishment of Terminal 2 or that would be on top?

I'll start regarding new concessions. There's nothing really on the table. I know from the market that airports in Egypt could come up. We would have at least a close look at this one, but because it's an attractive market, but it's much too early because we haven't seen anything on detail. We don't know which way they are going ahead, but Egypt is a very attractive market, especially on the tourist side. That's absolutely clear, but it's too early at the moment to say anything on that one.

And second question regarding CapEx, the EUR 500 million is a realistic/conservative number regarding all maintenance CapEx requirements for all assets. Of course, T2 comes on top, but the total consideration for T2 is allocated for a period of up to 6, 7 years or 8 years.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Christoph Nanke for any closing remarks.

So thanks, everybody, for participating, for your good questions. If there are any further questions, please give us a call later in IR. And yes, I wish everybody a good rest of the day. Thanks.