Financial analysis: A flying start for MIA

Malta International Airport plc has been publishing its quarterly financial statements for quite some time, and more recently, this good initiative has also been replicated by three of the retail banks and only a few other companies whose equity is listed on the Malta Stock Exchange.

The publication of quarterly financial highlights and key developments is very important for the investing community to remain regularly informed on an ongoing basis on the status and business pipeline of various companies.

Earlier this week, MIA published its financial statements for the first quarter of this year (Q1 2025) and also its traffic results for the month of April. These important disclosures took place on the eve of the annual general meeting held yesterday, thereby ensuring shareholders have updated information on the current financial year, although an AGM solely approves the historic financial statements, apart from other customary resolutions.

The March traffic results published in mid-April show that the airport operator welcomed just under 1.8 million passengers during Q1 2025, representing growth of 14% over the previous record in the first quarter of last year.

It is therefore not surprising that MIA’s financial performance in the three-month period ended March 31 showed double-digit growth. MIA confirmed that revenues in the first three months of 2025 amounted to €29.2 million (+13.7%), profit before tax increased to €13.1 million (+15.5%) and profit after tax amounted to €8.5 million (+16.4%).

The company remains free of any borrowings, with cash and other short-term investments rising from €65 million at the end of December 2024 to €70.8 million, despite the ongoing investment programme.

Interestingly, earlier this week, MIA reported that in April, passenger movements reached just under 900,000, which is 15.8% above the comparable figure in April last year.

Although one has to take into consideration the impact of the increased passenger flow during the Easter period, which took place in April this year as opposed to March last year, the extent of the surge in traffic in April is noteworthy.

More importantly, seat capacity last month rose by 12.8% when compared to April last year, and the seat load factor strengthened to 86%. In the aviation industry, the end of March/beginning of April marks the start of the summer schedule, which lasts until the end of October.

It is also noteworthy to highlight that last month was the first time that passenger movements at MIA surpassed the 800,000 level during the month of April. To place this into perspective, the level of passengers in April 2025 of just under 900,000 also exceeded the figures seen in June last year, indicating the strength of passenger flows once again this year.

Despite the robust financial performance the share price of MIA continues to trade below €6

The statistics published to date show that passenger movements during the four-month period ended April 2025 amounted to 2.69 million, representing an increase of 14.6% over the corresponding period last year. The level achieved in only four months is above the annual passenger throughput in 2003, and also in 2021, which was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although MIA reiterated its confidence this week that it can deliver its forecast of hosting 9.3 million passengers by the end of 2025 (+3.7% over 2024), given the very strong start to the year, the company should easily surpass this target, assuming no extreme external event materialises in the coming months that will negatively impact international tourism flows.

In fact, if one tracks passenger movements on a 12-month rolling basis (i.e. from May 2024 to April 2025), this amounts to 9.3 million, which is exactly in line with the guidance for 2025. As such, this implies that by simply maintaining the same level of passenger movements and without recording any growth in passengers during the next eight months, the company will indeed achieve this target.

However, an assumption of minor growth of a mere 3% on a monthly basis during the May to December 2025 period, translates into a total of 9.5 million passengers in 2025. This would represent growth of 6% from the 2024 level of just under nine million passengers.

In recent years, the peak summer months of July, August and September have accounted for more than 30% of annual passenger traffic. As such, the traffic results being published in the coming months will provide a very clear indication of the extent by which the airport operator can exceed the guidance once again.

In previous years, MIA have upgraded their passenger and traffic results during the course of a financial year and this could also materialise during the upcoming summer period.

During the next few months, it would also be interesting to monitor when the company can achieve another important milestone – that of handling over a million passenger movements during a month. MIA fell just short of this in August 2024 as 983,182 passengers were registered.

Despite the robust financial performance in the past two years and once again during the start of 2025, the share price of MIA continues to trade below the €6 level.

While this remains a disappointment for company shareholders, the resolution tabled in the agenda for yesterday’s AGM for a share buyback of up to 1,353,000 shares until the 2026 AGM should help satisfy the evident share overhang on the market.

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