TAV Airports served 38.3 million passengers in the first half of 2019

“On April 6th, 2019, the commercial traffic at Istanbul Ataturk Airport ended. We completed all of our responsibilities and handed the airport over to the State Airports Authority. The discussions regarding our compensation on loss of profit due to Istanbul Ataturk’s closure before the end of our concession are continuing and have progressed well. The international consultants, KPMG and PWC, have prepared and submitted their technical evaluation reports on the calculation of the compensation amount. We expect to finalize the calculation soon through our ongoing discussions with the State Airports Authority.

“Although domestic traffic in Turkish airports was weak due to the depreciation of Turkish Lira, the number of visitors coming to Turkey in the first 5 months of 2019 increased 11%. In 2018, the strength in tourist numbers both in our Turkish airports and our other international airports reflected well in our financial results.

“Our total revenue excluding Istanbul, increased 9% and reached €345m in the first half of 2019. While our post-Istanbul airports portfolio contributed significantly to this growth, our lounge services company, TAV Operation Services was also an important factor. With our recent investments in passenger lounges spanning a diverse geography that includes Brazil, Chile, Denmark and Kenya, the service footprint of TAV Airports reached 90 airports in 28 countries.

“Our EBITDA excluding Istanbul decreased 2% and became €127m, affected by inclusion of Antalya’s off season results for the first time and lower contribution from ATU due to closure of Istanbul Ataturk. Net Income decreased 34% and came in at €61m mostly due to Istanbul Ataturk’s early exit from the portfolio.

Sener concluded: “Our portfolio of 14 airports in 7 countries is performing very well. The revenue of our airports portfolio excluding Istanbul increased 10% in the first half of 2019 and reached €146m. The EBITDA of these airports increased 14% and reached €87m. Our post-Istanbul airport portfolio comprises smaller airports that have just begun to deliver operating leverage. Therefore we can expect both organic and inorganic growth to have more impact on our financial results going forward. We are always actively managing and marketing our airports to boost organic growth while continuing to pursue value accretive inorganic growth opportunities with strict investment and return criteria.”