Rising spend per passenger at Flughafen Zürich has pushed up non-aviation revenue which the airport says “confirms that the decision to optimise the existing retail portfolio and to expand the sales area and other passenger services was correct”.

 

Last year, average spend per departing passenger rose to CHF 43.20 ($49) from CHF 41.70 in 2012, almost within touching distance of its highest recorded level of CHF 43.50 in 2008 (before the global financial crisis). Spend per head has been rising sharply since 2011 when it was CHF 39.40 (see table below).

 

The increase helped to push up the airport’s non-aviation revenue by +5.2% to CHF 370.6m ($420m), a strong rise given that passenger traffic at the airport was modest at just +0.3% to 24.87m. Revenue from retail, tax and duty-free accounted for CHF 92.4m of the CHF 370.6m (see table bottom) and the airport notes “a substantial increase in revenue from arrival duty free”.

 

 

OVERALL NUMBERS & OUTLOOK

Flughafen Zürich generated a profit of CHF 137.1m in 2013, and, without the effect of extraordinary items in 2012 and 2013, this was an increase of +5.8%. Total revenue rose from CHF 948.8m to CHF 975.1m (+2.8%). Approximately 62% of the  revenue came from aviation operations, which amounted to CHF 604.5m (+1.4%).

The Swiss hub expects moderate growth in passenger volumes for the current financial year. In addition to the commissioning of various infrastructure projects such as Terminal 2 (southern part) and a noise protection hangar, the major construction project – The Circle, an off-airport business and lifestyle ‘destination’ – will be driven forward.