Malta International Airport plc (MIA) was among the four companies that published their half-yearly financial results last week.
Given the monthly announcements of the traffic movements by the airport operator and the strong growth recorded in each of the first six months of the year, it was natural to expect the company to report another record financial performance.
MIA announced last week that total revenue had also jumped by 11.9% to a record of €71.9m. This was a result of the 11.7% growth in passenger movements between January and June 2025 to 4.54 million, which was a reflection of the higher seat capacity, and represents an additional 475,000 passengers.
Revenue from the aviation segment registered an increase of 11.1% to €49.2m, while revenue from the retail and property segment grew by 11.9% to €22.4m.
During a financial analyst presentation held last Friday, CEO Alan Borg noted that the non-aviation segment (retail and property) registered a slightly faster growth in revenue compared to aviation income. In terms of overall revenue contribution, it is worth highlighting that although aviation income remains the largest contributor, the retail and property segment has improved its share to almost 32% of total income.
On his part, the outgoing CFO, Karl Dandler, explained that the stronger income from the retail and property segment is not only a reflection of the upturn in passenger growth, but in particular, this reflects the increased expenditure at certain concessionaires within the terminal which positively contributes to the company’s revenue. Moreover, the CFO remarked about the consistent upturn in revenue from the airport lounge and other VIP services.
The company should consider taking on some long-term debt similar to the capital structure of several other European airports
Given the predominantly fixed cost base of the company, the higher revenue flowed through to the bottom line, with EBITDA reaching €45.7m (+11.4%), profit before tax of €37.8m (+10.5%), and profit after tax of €24.5m (+10.7%). The annualised return on average equity remains elevated at 23.5%.
In line with the resumption of its semi-annual dividend policy following the COVID disruptions, the interim dividend was left unchanged from last year at €0.06 per share. Over the past three financial years, MIA distributed higher annual dividends to shareholders to a record of €0.18 per share in 2024.
Given the dividend payout ratio of its parent company Flughafen Wien AG (Vienna Airport) at 60%, one could expect a further slight upturn in the final dividend to be announced in the first quarter of 2026, also taking into consideration the very positive financial performance of MIA and the strength of its balance sheet.
MIA continues to invest significant sums in various parts of the business without the need to take on any borrowings. Moreover, as at June 30, despite the heavy capital expenditure, the company had cash and cash equivalents of over €50m.
As I had reported in mid-May following the publication of the Q1 financial statements and the April traffic results, given the very strong start to the year, the company should easily surpass its initial target for 2005 of 9.3 million passengers (+3.7% growth).
In fact, last week, MIA upgraded its passenger and financial forecasts for 2025. The company now expects an additional 400,000 passengers from its January forecast to a total of 9.7 million (which would represent growth of 8.3% from the record level of 2024). Likewise, revenue is expected to rise to €151m (previous forecast: €147m), EBITDA to €93m (previous forecast: €91m) and a net profit of €49m (previous forecast: €48m).
Also last week, MIA published its July traffic results, showing a very strong growth in seat capacity of 8.8% in one of the key months for the company. The CEO attributed this strong growth rate to the high demand from travellers to destinations across southern Europe.
The interim financial report published last week made reference to statistics across the southern European region, indicating that Malta emerged as the best-performing destination within its peer group as it outperformed six comparable destinations.
Another important observation that emerged last week was the continued strength of Ryanair’s market share as it accounted for 52% of all passenger movements while the market share of KM Malta Airlines decreased to 18% as it suffered a drop of 11% in passenger movements in the first half of 2025.
Investors may not appreciate the strong growth in passenger traffic over the past decade with just over five million passengers in 2016, and now fast approaching the 10 million level this year. One must also take into consideration the brutal impact from the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022.
The very strong growth in passenger movements led to an equally remarkable improvement in the company’s financial performance in recent years. Assuming the company achieves its targets for 2025, revenue would have more than doubled since 2016 from €73m to €151m, with profit after tax rising by 133% from €21m in 2016 to an estimated €49m in 2025.
MIA is embarking on a major capital expenditure programme over the next five years which will lead to a sizeable increase in the retail and property segment.
With the company’s EBITDA already approaching €100 million annually, the company should consider taking on some long-term debt similar to the capital structure of several other European airports. This would enhance shareholder returns and provide capacity for higher cash dividends in the future once the terminal expansion and the SkyParks 2 project are fully operational.
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