OMA (OMAB) Q3 2026 earnings review
OMA charges each passenger more, but its biggest airport shrank
OMA raised what it charges travellers at its Mexican airports, but hardly any extra passengers walked through them. Revenue from airports and shops rose 8%, while passenger numbers edged up 1.3%. Chief executive Ricardo Dueñas expects traffic growth in the low single digits for 2027. Net income advanced 2.9%, because interest costs and bought-in services climbed faster than sales.
| Revenue from airports and shops | Ps.3,843 million +8.3% from a year ago |
|---|---|
| Revenue per passenger | Ps.500.4 +6.9% from a year ago |
| Profit per share | Ps.4.01 +3.0% from a year ago |
| 2027 traffic outlook | Low single digits +2.0% in the first nine months of 2026 |
⚖️ Verdict: 🔴 Bearish
The case got worse, because of where the passengers went. Monterrey, which carries more than half of OMA's traffic and half of its investment plan, lost 2.1% of its travellers. The good news: shoppers, lounge users and freight customers paid more per head, which widened the margin on airport revenue.
The question now is whether travellers return to Monterrey next year. Either the tariff increases and better compliance with the cap carry profit while traffic stays flat, or a merged Viva and Volaris thins routes and prices cannot fill the gap. The antitrust ruling and first-quarter traffic will settle it.
🐂 Bull Case
Each Passenger Pays OMA More
OMA runs 13 airports in central and northern Mexico, and a government cap limits what it charges airlines for each traveller. That cap went up in April, so the operator now collects more from every person walking through its terminals.
Prices did the work this quarter, not crowds. Finance chief Ruffo Pérez Pliego said the April adjustment fed straight into domestic passenger charges, while a stronger peso trimmed the dollar-linked part of the bill.
- Aeronautical revenue per passenger: Ps.371.5, up 5.3%
- Commercial revenue per passenger: Ps.66.1, up 9.6%
- Airport and shop revenue per passenger: Ps.500.4, up 6.9%
- Passenger traffic: 7.7 million, up 1.3%
Pricing counts for more than volume here, because collecting a higher charge costs almost nothing while carrying extra travellers does not. Airport service and administrative costs held at 13.1% of airport revenue, a move of 0.04 of a percentage point. That is why adjusted earnings before interest, tax and depreciation climbed 8.7%, ahead of revenue.
What to watch: the tariff rise due on January 1, which Dueñas put at "something slightly above 4% increase nominal terms". A step that small leaves revenue per traveller gaining little more than Mexican inflation, and then OMA needs passengers again.
Lounges, Shops and Cargo Grow Fast
Besides charging airlines, OMA earns money from shops, car parks, paid waiting rooms it calls OMA VIP Lounges, two hotels, an industrial park and OMA Carga, a freight warehouse business. Those activities brought in Ps.990 million, about a quarter of what the airports collected.
Lounge income rose 28%, which the release attributed to "driven by higher capture rates, as well as the start of operations of a new OMA VIP Lounge in the Torreon Airport". Retail climbed 18.5% on new stores, and the freight unit billed 42% more after winning customers in Monterrey.
What to watch: whether spending per traveller in the shops holds above Ps.66 once the Acapulco lounge opens this month. Dueñas said cargo should keep growing "in the high teens" next year, so a weaker figure would mark this quarter's new clients as a one-off.
🐻 Bear Case
Monterrey Lost Passengers This Quarter
Monterrey is OMA's largest airport and the one chief executive Ricardo Dueñas has promoted for two years as an international hub joining northern Mexico to the United States, Europe and Asia. Roughly half of the new five-year investment plan goes there. Its terminals handled 2.1% fewer travellers than a year earlier.
Domestic traffic at the hub dropped 4.2%, with the Toluca, Puerto Vallarta and Ciudad Juárez routes shedding the most passengers. Long-haul demand held up: international arrivals in Monterrey rose 9.1% on the New York, Madrid and Paris services. Ciudad Juárez airport lost 5.1% of its traffic.
Group traffic still edged up 1.3%, but only because San Luis Potosí and Durango added riders towards Mexico City's Felipe Ángeles airport and Monterrey. Dueñas said those routes supplied "91% of the total domestic passenger growth", so two small airports now carry the whole increase.
What to watch: Monterrey's monthly traffic through the winter season. Another quarter of decline at the hub would weaken the argument for directing half the investment plan into it.
Bought-In Services and Interest Keep Climbing
Security guards, cleaners and outside professionals are hired in rather than employed, and that bill has outrun revenue for two years. It reached Ps.102.5 million, 19% above the same quarter of 2025, and Pérez Pliego pointed to "contract renewals and minimum wage increases".
Payroll added 8.7% on annual pay rises and a larger workforce. All airport service and administrative costs together grew 8.6%, which held the ratio to revenue almost still at 13.1%, because the April tariff gave the top line a matching lift.
Below the operating line the squeeze bites harder. Financing expense hit Ps.348 million, 16.5% above last year, which Pérez Pliego tied to "higher average debt levels". Net income therefore advanced just 2.9%, barely a third of the pace airport revenue managed.
What to watch: the interest bill once OMA refinances the Ps.1.7 billion bond maturing in March. A further step up would keep earnings trailing sales even if travellers return next year.
A Merger Clouds Next Year's Traffic
Two low-cost airlines fill OMA's terminals: Viva flew 49% of its passengers this quarter and Volaris 27%. Mexico's antitrust commission is still weighing their proposed merger, and the pair pulled in opposite directions here, as Viva's volumes slipped 2% while Volaris carried 14% more people.
Dueñas cannot judge the effect yet, because "we do not have an indication from the airlines of how the operation would work if the merger is approved". Airlines that combine usually drop overlapping routes, and OMA's smaller airports lean on a handful of daily flights each.
What to watch: the commission's ruling and the schedules the two carriers file for next summer. Cuts at Monterrey or Culiacán would push 2027 traffic to the bottom of the low single-digit range Dueñas described.
👓 Other Themes
A Second Monterrey Hotel, A New Lounge
Dueñas told analysts OMA "will begin the construction of the second hotel in the Monterrey airport, which will be operated under the Hyatt Place brand": 120 rooms, about $17 million, open in late 2028. Grupo Hotelero Santa Fe holds 15% of the venture and OMA will run the building. A lounge opens in Acapulco this month.
VINCI Replaces OMA's Board Chairman
On October 27 the board accepted "the resignation submitted by Nicolas Notebaert as Member and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company" and named Laurent Cavrois until shareholders vote. Cavrois has worked at VINCI Concessions since 2006 and is its "regional director for VINCI Airports for Latin America". VINCI has controlled OMA since December 2022.
💲 Other KPIs
Spending on terminals, runways and technology under the five-year plan more than doubled from Ps.472 million a year ago. It equalled 29.6% of airport revenue, against 13.3% in the same quarter of 2025. Construction revenue of Ps.1,020 million matches the outlay exactly and earns nothing.
Borrowings after cash reached Ps.10,976 million, a fifth above September 2025. OMA issued Ps.3,000 million of bonds in July and repaid Ps.2,340 million in the quarter. Leverage has moved from 0.91 times a year ago to 1.04, with 83% of the debt now on fixed rates.
Operations generated Ps.2,255 million, 16.3% more than a year earlier. Investment then absorbed Ps.1,203 million, two and a half times the year-earlier outflow, which cut what remained for debt and dividends by 28%. The cash balance ended September at Ps.3,953 million.
🔮 Guidance
New. Dueñas told analysts: "We anticipate traffic to be in the low single digits for 2027, and we expect to start to see the recovery in traffic by mid-year." That is close to the 2.0% OMA has managed so far in 2026, and it places any pick-up in the second half.
New. Airlines have already been shown the figure, Dueñas said, and he put it at "something slightly above 4% increase nominal terms". The April 2026 adjustment was 6.9% in real terms, so next year's step is milder and, after Mexican inflation, close to nothing in real money.
Unchanged. OMA bills airlines less than the regulated ceiling allows and closes the gap slowly. Dueñas repeated this year's 93% average and put next year near 95%, adding: "We are planning to reach 100% by the third year of the five-year plan." Each point recovered earns money without one extra traveller.
Raised. The freight warehouse arm billed 42% more this quarter and 27% more across nine months, so Dueñas pointing to "in the high teens" implies a calmer fourth quarter. He credited new customers in Monterrey and merchandise sitting longer in the sheds; both effects stop helping once they lap.
Held, but later. Pérez Pliego expects "about a 15% increase in income per pax in real terms once it is open", the top of the earlier range. The main shopping area now opens in late 2027 instead of mid-year, with only baggage claim ready this December, so travellers lift revenue from 2028.
❓ Key Questions
What will a merged Viva and Volaris fly for you?
The two carriers together flew 76% of OMA's passengers this quarter and moved in opposite directions. Dueñas says the airlines have given him nothing on route plans, yet he already guided 2027 traffic.
Why did Monterrey's domestic traffic fall 4.2%?
The release names the Toluca, Puerto Vallarta and Ciudad Juárez routes but gives no reason. Half of the five-year investment plan is going into this airport, so the cause matters more than the quarter.
Is the maintenance charge still Ps.400 million for 2026?
Nine months carry Ps.247 million, which by our math leaves about Ps.153 million for the fourth quarter against Ps.216 million a year ago. Management did not restate the full-year figure this time.
How will you refinance the March bond?
A Ps.1.7 billion bond falls due in March 2027 and financing expense already rose 16.5%. The coupon OMA pays on the replacement decides whether profit keeps trailing revenue through next year.
Why did advances to contractors rise 47%?
Advances reached Ps.1,026 million while construction work ran at Ps.1,020 million in the quarter. Readers cannot tell whether OMA is prepaying for 2027 work or whether projects are running late.