Turkish airport operator TAV plans to continue to focus on regions where it anticipates growth will be high in 2023, as the worst-hit sector maintains its recovery after the pandemic.
The company will continue to focus on regions such as Africa and Central Asia, TAV Airports Chairperson of the Executive Board Serkan Kaptan said Thursday.
“We have been the preferred company in the Nigeria Lagos Airport tender, we can start operations there in 2023 depending on the bargaining process with the administration. There are projects we follow in Montenegro and Kuwait. We will continue our investments in the Almaty and Antalya airports,” he said.
He said that their IT company, TAV Technologies, recently took a job at Kazakhstan Aktobe and Uzbekistan Samarkand airports.
“Today, together with our subsidiaries, our products and services are all over the world at more than 100 airports in more than 30 countries,” he told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Kaptan stressed that the aviation industry has been in a recovery period from the start of last year as the sector has undergone one of its deepest crises in history with the pandemic.
He said that after the events in Kazakhstan in early 2022 and the Russia-Ukraine war, concerns about recession and inflation in the global economy increased.
Expressing that for all these reasons, their expectations have changed and they have made a cautious start to 2022, however, Kaptan said they entered a rapid recovery process against all negativities with the approach of the summer season.
“Last year was one of the turning points in the history of TAV Airports. We closed the year that started off difficult by achieving our targets. We are above pre-pandemic financially. In terms of passenger traffic, we achieved a recovery rate of 87%, surpassing the sector averages on a global scale,” Kaptan informed.
He said that TAV was “able to emerge stronger from the pandemic," and “by securing its next 25 years, we put the company on a strong growth path.”
Stating that the aviation industry is expected to continue to recover in 2023, despite the ongoing geopolitical and economic risks on a global scale, Kaptan said: “The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects airlines to land again in 2023, after three years. According to the predictions of the European Airports Council, the recovery in passenger traffic will reach 90%. A full return to pre-pandemic is expected in 2024. The full opening of the Asian market, especially China, will be decisive. We hope that TAV's balanced portfolio of 15 airports in eight countries, strong demand for touristic travel and especially the interest in Türkiye, will catch up with the pre-pandemic in the number of passengers in 2023.”
Kaptan went on to say that the company has stepped into Central Asia, a market with high growth potential, with Almaty Airport.
“Almaty Airport, which we added to our portfolio in 2021, significantly increased our resilience to the crisis and made a strong financial contribution this year,” he said.
He said TAV also extended its operating period until 2052 in Türkiye’s touristic Antalya at the end of 2022.
Noting that Antalya closed the year by hosting more than 30 million passengers with strong demand from the European market despite the decline in Russian traffic, Kaptan said that in November last year, international passenger traffic increased by 20% compared to 2019.
TAV has turned Antalya, the biggest tourist center of the Mediterranean, into a destination that is preferred for 12 months of the year, Kaptan said.
Kaptan stated that TAV will continue its investments in Almaty and Antalya airports in 2023 and said: “We are building a new terminal and additional units in Almaty with an investment of approximately $200 million d to double the capacity. Thus, the passenger capacity of the airport will reach 60 million.”
Noting that TAV will start investing in Esenboğa Airport in the Turkish capital Ankara within the scope of the tender it won in December, Kaptan said that TAV Airports will build a new runway there in the first phase and that it will then construct the airside investments connected to it.
