Corporacion America Airports is a Luxembourg-domiciled private airport operator that runs 53 airports across Latin America, Europe, and Asia, and the company is in the middle of a quarter that produced a clean test of the tariff-revision thesis the equity has been waiting for. Fiscal second quarter 2026 revenue excluding IFRIC 12 of $470.7 million was 8.2 percent above the prior-year quarter, with aeronautical revenue up 3.7 percent and commercial revenue up 13.2 percent, but adjusted EBITDA ex-IFRIC 12 of $160.3 million was 4.5 percent below the $167.9 million a year earlier, and the adjusted EBITDA margin ex-IFRIC 12 contracted 4.5 percentage points to 34.1 percent. The bifurcation between revenue growth and EBITDA contraction is the cleanest single-sentence read on what the tariff-revision pivot is producing, and the bifurcation is the load-bearing observation for the equity through the second half of fiscal 2026.
The numbers tell the story with the kind of operational detail that the equity has not produced in several quarters. Total passenger traffic of 20.6 million in the quarter was 0.6 percent below the prior-year quarter, with double-digit revenue-per-passenger growth in every market the company operates in, including Argentina, where domestic traffic was the softest. Cargo volume of 95.7 thousand tons was 1.5 percent below the prior year, and aircraft movements of 208.8 thousand were 2.6 percent below the prior year. Operating income of $105.5 million was 10.1 percent below the $117.3 million a year earlier. The revenue growth despite the traffic decline reflects the tariff-revision program, which is the structural change the company has been working toward, and the EBITDA contraction reflects the cost headwinds in Argentina and the non-recurring costs in Uruguay that the management commentary called out.
The cash position at quarter-end of $692.5 million and the net debt to LTM adjusted EBITDA of 0.5x are the structural features the equity offers the buy-side. The 0.5x leverage is materially below the broader Latin American airport operator cohort and is the cleanest read on the balance-sheet capacity the company is producing. The 8.2 percent revenue growth is the second feature, and the 8.4 percent revenue growth excluding IAS 29 is the cleaner read on the underlying operating profile. The tariff-revision program is the third feature, and the tariff-revision program is the source of the revenue growth despite the traffic decline.
The question the next four quarters resolve is whether the tariff-revision program continues to produce revenue growth despite the traffic softness, and whether the cost headwinds in Argentina and the non-recurring costs in Uruguay normalize through the second half. A second-half print that continues the 8 to 10 percent revenue growth and shows adjusted EBITDA ex-IFRIC 12 returning to the 4 to 5 percent growth pace would confirm the tariff-revision pivot is producing. A second-half print that shows revenue growth decelerating below 5 percent or adjusted EBITDA ex-IFRIC 12 declining below the 4.5 percent pace would force the market to reprice the equity for a more modest terminal value.