TAV Airports Holding, a global player in airport operations, has announced a net profit of €31 million (US$35.3 million) in the first quarter of 2015 with an increase of 51%.

The number of passengers at the airports operated by TAV reached 22 million with an increase of 7% compared to the previous year. TAV Airports Holding has also increased its revenue to €227 million with an increase of 20%.

TAV Airports Holding President & CEO Sani Åžener stated

"We made a strong start to 2015 in the first quarter. While passengers served grew at 7%, revenue grew at 20% YoY, mainly thanks to strong growth in non-aeronautical revenue and favorable FX movements. Similarly, EBITDA growth was at 18% and net profit grew at 51%, YoY.

With full vertical integration in all areas of airport operations and services, TAV Airports holds a key competitive advantage in the global aviation sector. Our initiative to focus additional growth in the coming periods on service companies bore fruit very quickly. In addition to the airports that we actually operate, through our service companies, we now provide a diverse array of services across the globe, which spans our footprint across 54 airports around the world. This clearly demonstrates that TAV Airports is now a global company. The know how we have amassed in a short period of time is even sought by airport operators thousands of kilometers away from us."

In the first quarter of 2015, ATU won the tender to operate duty free areas in Houston George Bush Airport for a period of 10 years. This is the third tender ATU has won outside of the TAV ecosystem in the last twelve months after Oman Salallah and the Tunisia Carthage package.

In addition TAV Airports Holding has completed the re-construction of Medinah airport on schedule and started the trial runs in April 2015. This airport, with its special place in the Muslim world will now provide threefolds capacity for Hajj and Umrah passengers.

The firm has also started the expansion works in Istanbul Ataturk Airport, whereby they have demolished the old cargo terminal and are going to invest €75 million to build eight additional bridges, expand baggage systems capacity and add another check-in island. The completion of this investment will complement the capacity enhancements on the airside, undertaken by the State Airports Authority (DHMI) which as a whole will increase the capacity of Istanbul Ataturk to 75 million passengers.