Flughafen Wien Group saw revenue in its Retail & Properties division grow modestly by +1.1%, less than half the traffic growth rate of +2.9% in the first half of 2014.

Vienna Airport (VIE) processed 10.54m passengers in the period generating retail and properties revenue of €61.3m ($81.2m). Total revenue in H1 was flat at €304.7m ($407m).

 

VIE says that while shopping and F&B revenue was slightly above H1 2013 at +2.0%, there were negative effects of renovation work on gastro areas “and massive currency devaluations”.

 

Another factor for the difference in the growth rates could be the decline in transfer traffic which was down by -1.1% in the first half. Much of that has been due to a -2.7% drop in passengers connecting from Eastern Europe – a key market for VIE – caused mainly by the Ukraine crisis.

 

In contrast, there was a rise in the number of passengers travelling to Western Europe and North America by +3.9% and +25.2% respectively. Traffic to the Middle East was up +5.2% in the period, while the number of passengers flying to destinations in Asia Pacific rose by +10.4%

 

NEW SHOPS

“In spite of international political crises, passenger traffic developed very well in the first half of 2014, rising by +2.9%,” says Julian Jäger, Member of the Management Board of Flughafen Wien. “This was mainly driven by new flight connections, destinations and frequency increases on flights from Vienna.”

 

On retail, he adds: “Numerous new shops such as Victoria‘s Secret and Philipp Plein were opened at the airport, the Heinemann Duty Free Shop was enlarged and an operating agreement for future new restaurants at Pier West was concluded with DO & CO. Modernisation work in this terminal area is in full swing and should be completed by the end of the year.”

 

OUTLOOK

Flughafen Wien is optimistic on prospects for the full year 2014. Passenger traffic is expected to rise between +1% and +3%, “with the increase likely to be at the upper end of the range from today’s perspective”. Total revenue in 2014 is expected to top €630m ($841m) with Ebitda anticipated to surpass €240m and group net profit to exceed €75m.