Airport project financing in Turkey, research on problems and solutions : TAV Ai̇rports holdi̇ng Co. case

Airports and airports' projects which are the most important component of air transportation have critical importance to aviation progress. Accomplishing airport projects both takes a long time and is costly. In recent years, it has increased public-private partnership project in the largest airport both construction and operated. Increase in the numbers of airport projects causes some issues related to public and project finance. In this direction, the success of airport projects relies on managing related public bodies and airport operators efficiently and productively. The aim of this study is to determine issues related to project finance and to develop solutions to these issues. In this research, qualitative research design was utilized. As the data collection tool, semi-structured interview method was applied. Semi-structured interviews were applied on participant working at TAV. Participant was chosen by purposive sampling technique. Qualitative data obtained in the end of this research were analyzed by inductive method and within the scope of research question, findings were identified and interpreted. Airport project finance issues including; the past of project finance in Turkey and the state of Turkish banking, authority disorder in project finance, issues related to tender bid of airport projects, shortages in procedures of airport project finance, the topic of private investment incentive in airport project finance, risk dimension of airport projects, the role of gulf and participation banks in airport project finance, joint ventures in airport project finance, the role of international development banks for airport project finance, the importance of financial calculation in airport project finance, asset and source structure in airport project finance, the importance of aviation and non-aviation revenues in airport project finance, and future devolepments in Turkey's airport infrastructure and project finance were evaluated under these themes. Additionally, there is another theme which is project finance developments with regard to TAV Airports. The majority of the questions were created with the answers given by the participants prepared to create a theme. After explaining themes seperately, potential issues were identified and were offered solutions to these potential issues. Keywords: Project Finance, Airport Project Finance, BOT Projects, Airport Operations