The ENAV S.p.A. Board of Directors meeting, held today under the chairmanship of Francesca Isgrò, approved the preliminary results at 30 September 2020.
ENAV: results of the first nine months of 2020
Cost efficiency and focus on non-regulated business to manage the pandemic challenges
ENAV’s CEO Paolo Simioni commented: the aviation sector remains strongly linked to the pandemic situation globally with economic and financial impacts that do not leave us completely untouched.
Thanks to cost efficiency and the push on non-regulated business, we are managing the challenges that the pandemic imposes on us. We remain focused on technological innovation, the digitization of systems and continuous professionalization of our staff, guarantying the full operation and safety of the air navigation services and our people, aware of the essential service role that ENAV plays for Italy and for the sector.
- En-route and terminal traffic declined by 59.6% and 58.8% YoY respectively, in terms of service units[1];
- Consolidated net revenue of 589.1 million euro (-14.8% YoY) due to decline of revenue from operations, down 62.6% YoY, as a result of severe traffic reduction caused by Covid-19, largely offset by positive balance[2];
- Consolidated EBITDA of 175.7 million euro (-25.8% YoY) as an effect of the decline in revenues partially compensated by cost-efficiency (-9%);
- Consolidated Net Profit of 55.1 million euro (-44.2% YoY).
First nine months of 2020 were characterised by a significant reduction in air traffic. After a strong start in January and February, with traffic up almost 10%, in the following months traffic volumes declined significantly falling up to 90% over 2019 and then stabilized around a decline between 55% and 60% in the summer months, compared to the same period last year.
In Europe, again with reference to the service units, the average decline for the period January – September 2020 for the member states of Eurocontrol was -56.7%; in particular: Germany (-53.0%), Great Britain (-57.5%), Spain (-59.4%) and France (-59.3%).
Despite the emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, ENAV has ensured the full operation of air traffic control services while protecting its operational and administrative staff’s health.
En-route traffic in Italy, in terms of service units, decreased by 59.6% in the first nine months of 2020. International air traffic (e.g., flights arriving in or departing from an airport abroad) decreased by 65.1% YoY, in terms of service units. Overflight traffic (relating to flights that pass through Italian airspace) decreased by 59.8%, in terms of service units, while domestic air traffic (relating to flights arriving in and departing from Italian airports) recorded a decrease of 50% in service units.
Terminal traffic[3] decreased by 58.8%, in terms of service units, in the first nine months of 2020. This decrease was consistently recorded throughout Italy.
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
Total consolidated net revenue in the first nine months of 2020 stood at 589.1 million euro, with a decrease of 14.8% compared to the same period in 2019, with a sharp decline in Revenue from operations, largely offset by the positive effect of balance which allows for the partial recovery of the decrease in traffic by compensating a significant portion of the lower traffic revenue.
Revenue from operations, in fact, declined 62.6% over the previous year to 276 million euro, mainly due to the material contraction in traffic as well as the reduction of 15.3% of en-route tariffs in 2020 compared to 2019.
The effect of balance on net revenue was positive for 286.7 million euro, which allowed to partly recover lower current traffic compared to the forecasts in the 2020 tariff.
The balance has been calculated in line with the European Commission’s regulation published on 4 November which provides a temporary derogation for 2020 and 2021 to the Single European Sky performance and charging scheme.
The positive balance refers to en-route traffic for 212. million euro and to terminal traffic for 74.1 million euro.
Revenue from non-regulated business, on the contrary, improved significantly reaching 16.4 million euro, compared to 9.1 million euro recorded in the same period of 2019. This was mainly due to revenues from IDS AirNav, a company specialized in the management of aeronautical information (acquired by ENAV in July 2019), which signed several contracts for the maintenance and services linked to the products sold to customers in European and non-European countries.
In order to preserve the Company’s margins and, liquidity, while protecting its employees during the crisis of the air transport sector, starting from March, ENAV implemented further cost-efficiency initiatives. Operating costs came in at 413.4 million euro, showing a decrease of 9% vs. the same period of 2019.
Personnel costs declined by 8.5% to 342.9 million euro, 31.9 million euro lower than the same period of 2019. In particular, variable retribution declined by 52.5% as an effect of initiatives put in place to counter the effects of the health emergency, including the utilization of annual leave balances and a reduction in operating staff’s overtime pay, for a total of nearly 29.5 million euro.
External costs showed a decline of 10%. This decline was partly compensated by higher costs for the purchase of personal protection equipment from the virus, and exceptional cleaning and sanitization of ENAV’s facilities in order to safeguard the staff.
Thanks to the cost-efficiency initiatives implemented, ENAV was able to contain the impact on its consolidated EBITDA, which stood at 175.7 million euro, with a decline of 25.8% compared to the same period in 2019.
EBIT stood at 77.4 million euro, with a decrease of 45.7% YoY.
ENAV reported a consolidated net profit in the first nine months of 2020 of 55.1 million euro, with a decrease of 44.2% over the same period of the previous year.
Net financial position stood at 228.2 million euros, with a negative effect of 354.6 million euros compared to the figure as of 31 December 2019. The decline is due to ordinary cash-in and payment dynamics related to the business, which generated a negative cash flow as a result of the reduction in revenue caused by the sharp decrease in air traffic and the deferral granted to airlines in the payment of traffic fees related to flights from February to May 2020, which ENAV will receive on a three-month basis starting from November 2020.
MAIN EVENTS AFTER THE REPORTING PERIOD
On the 29 October ENAV has signed two ESG Sustainability Linked Term Loan for a total amount of 150 million euros through two bilateral agreements, of 100 million euros with Intesa Sanpaolo and 50 million euros with Mediobanca – Banca di Credito Finanziario S.p.A. The two Italian banks will both act as Original Lender and Sustainability Coordinator.
The 3 years term credit lines have an interest rate indexed to the EURIBOR, with a pricing mechanism linked to specific ESG – Environmental, Social, Governance – targets. This operation is part of the ENAV’s already undertaken route of integrating sustainability into its strategy, aiming to have a sustainable growth and confirms the Group’s strong commitment in evolving towards a model which increasingly consolidate sustainability as a strategic item for creating value for all its stakeholders.
The Loans are part of the ordinary, proactive and prudential approach to liquidity management, and will be utilized to optimize future years cash flow.
[1] a conventional weighted measurement unit which takes into account the aircraft certified take-off weight and, in case of en-route traffic, the distance travelled in the Italian airspace.
[2] The mechanism that allows ENAV to partially recover from or return to carriers, the amounts resulting from the difference between the planned air traffic and the actual traffic, as well as the recovery of costs and traffic for services provided to Terminal Zone 3 airports – those with less than 70,000 movements per year.
[3] the take-off and landing activities within a radius of about 20 km from the airport runway.
