TAV serves over 14 million passengers in first quarter

Airports operated by TAV Havalimanları have served 14.2 million passengers in the January-March period, pointing to a 42 percent increase from a year earlier.

International passengers grew 74 percent in the first quarter year-on-year to 7.43 million, while the domestic passenger tally increased by 18 percent to 6.75 million, the company said.

Antalya Airport saw a 33 percent increase in passenger traffic to around 2.8 million with international travelers rising by a strong 68 percent on an annual basis to 1.6 million.

Total passenger traffic at İzmir airport grew 15 percent, while the increase at Ankara airport was 34 percent.

International passenger traffic at Milas-Bodrum soared 249 percent in January-March compared with the same period of 2022.

"Russian carriers and travel agencies focused on Russia have announced that they are expecting a 50 percent increase in the number of flights between Russia and Turkish destinations in 2023. Thus, we are continuing to look forward to another great season," said the company management in a statement.

TAV operates a total of 15 airports in Türkiye, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Tunisia, North Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, Croatia and Latvia.

The company's first-quarter revenues increased by 68 percent year-on-year to reach 251 million euros. It reported a net loss of 45.3 million euros for the January-March period, up from the net loss of 21.5 million euros in the first quarter of 2022.

"Net profit was impacted by one-off earthquake taxes. Net profit was also impacted by higher finance expenses and higher depreciation in low season," the company said.

It boosted the number of its employees from 16,409 in the first quarter of 2022 to 18,126 in January-March this year.