By Justin Lee (Singapore)
Corporación América Airports SA is the largest private sector airport concession operator in the world based on the number of airports under management and the tenth largest private sector airport operator in the world based on passenger traffic.
Listed in the New York Stock Exchange (with the ticker CAAP), it has 47 institutional owners and shareholders with the largest shareholder being Helikon Investments Ltd which owns 6.72% of shares.
Through 11 subsidiaries, the company operates 52 airports across seven countries – Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Ecuador, Italy, Peru and Uruguay. These airports handled 84.2 million passengers in 2019, of which 33.5% were international passengers.
Source: Corporacion America Airports Website
With its all of its investments in the airport sector, Corporación América Airports was inevitably affected by the disruption in air travel caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, resulting in a 70.0% drop in total passenger traffic from 84.2 million in 2019 to 25.2 million in 2020.
However, with the widespread vaccination of populations around the world leading to a gradual lifting of international travel restrictions in 2021 and a rebound in air travel – as well as Corporación América Airports’s own dedicated efforts to improve its situation – the airport operator has seen signs of recovery.
Source: Corporación América Airports 3Q21 Earnings Release
For the first nine months of 2021, passenger traffic across airports operated by Corporación América Airports saw a year-on-year 11.6% increase to 22.4 million compared to 20.1 million in the first nine months of 2020.
Excluding revenue construction services, the company also saw an 8.9% increase in its turnover for the first nine months of 2021 to US$412.7mn from US$379.0mn during the first nine months of 2020.
Adjusted EBITDA for the nine months of 2021 also turned positive at US$54.7mn compared to the loss of US$31.4mn during the same period in 2020.
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