The European financial reporting season for 2025 brought a series of record results in the aviation, defense, and energy sectors. Spanish airport operator Aena achieved a historic net profit exceeding €2.1 billion, while Italian conglomerate Leonardo exceeded forecasts thanks to orders in the aeronautics sector. Simultaneously, German giant E.ON announced massive investments in transmission infrastructure, preparing networks for digitalization and the green transition.

Record profits for the Aena group

The Spanish airport operator earned a net profit of €2.137 billion, which is the best result in the company's history thanks to 384 million passengers.

Defense giant Leonardo grows

The Italian conglomerate exceeded forecasts with revenues of €19.5 billion and significantly reduced its debt by over 44 percent.

E.ON invests in networks

The German energy leader announced expenditures of €48 billion on grid infrastructure in Europe by the year 2030.

Heathrow's profit decline

Despite a 37% drop in earnings, the British airport is paying a dividend and planning a £33 billion expansion.

Spanish airport giant Aena closed 2025 with a record net profit of €2.137 billion, representing growth of over 10% compared to the previous year. Such excellent results were achieved by handling 384 million passengers across its network, which prompted the board to raise the dividend by 11.7% dividend. Despite optimism regarding the results, the company forecasts some slowdown in passenger traffic growth in the coming year 2026. At the same time, British airport Heathrow recorded a drop in gross profit by over one-third, to £575 million. Nevertheless, for the first time in five years, a decision was made to pay a dividend to shareholders. The airport is currently preparing to implement a £33 billion expansion plan, which includes building a new runway, crucial for London's position as a global transportation hub. Since 2022, the European air transport sector has been undergoing an intensive recovery process following the collapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, while simultaneously facing pressure for decarbonization and infrastructure modernization. Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo, under the leadership of Roberto Cingolani, also reported results above expectations. The group's revenue grew by 11% to €19.5 billion, and the order backlog increased by 15%, reaching a value of €23.8 billion. A key achievement for the company was the reduction of debt to €1 billion, which opens the way for further investments in new defense and space technologies. In the energy sector, German E.ON dominated headlines by announcing a plan to invest €48 billion by 2030. These funds will be allocated mainly to expanding and modernizing power grids, which must meet the growing demand from data centers and renewable energy sources. The company informed that currently 70% of Germany's onshore wind energy is already being fed into its transmission systems. The EU's Green Deal policy imposes ambitious emission reduction targets on member states, forcing energy conglomerates to radically overhaul transmission architecture to integrate distributed renewable energy sources. Meanwhile, Spanish Telefónica, despite structural challenges and recorded accounting losses of €4.3 billion, demonstrated solid cash flow above €1.9 billion. The new chairman Marc Murtra emphasized the company's financial discipline and the implementation of the "Transform & Grow" strategic plan, despite costly restructuring processes in Latin America. „I risultati sono il compimento di un virtuoso percorso iniziato tre anni fa, dove abbiamo superato le sfidanti guidance già incrementate nel corso dell'anno.” — Roberto Cingolani

Mentioned People

  • Roberto Cingolani — Managing Director of the Italian conglomerate Leonardo
  • Marc Murtra — Chairman of Spanish Telefónica
  • Rachel Reeves — Finance Minister of the United Kingdom