Proactive Investors - Heathrow Airport touched down with its first profit since the pandemic as air passenger numbers nearing pre-Covid levels, just as some major investors look to sell their stakes in the London hub.
The number-one airport in Europe reported an adjusted pretax profit of £38 million for 2023, a big swing from the £684 million loss recorded a year earlier.
The upswing in transatlantic flights, especially to New York, has been pivotal, with passenger numbers reaching 79.2 million in 2023.
Heathrow anticipates this number will climb to a record 81.4 million in 2024 as it looks to navigate challenges including a 20% reduction in real terms to its charges from the Civil Aviation Authority this year.
"We will have to pull every lever to become more efficient and make tough choices on where we spend and invest our money," Thomas Woldbye, who became chief executive in October, said.
A return to profit for Heathrow, coincides with several of Heathrow's shareholders, including Spain's Ferrovial selling their stake to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
After Ferrovial agreed to sell its 25% stake in Heathrow for $3 billion, other shareholders accounting for a combined 35% stake also expressed their intentions to sell their shares too, the Spanish firm said in January, meaning the deal is on pause until buyers offer to increase their stakes or others join the coalition.
No dividend will be paid for 2023 but the airport said payouts were "plausible subject to financial performance".
British Airways, part of International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:ICAG), owns more than half the airline slots at the airport. Shares in IAG, which reports results a week tomorrow, were up 0.8% today.