Restored by Turkey’s TAV Airports Holding; Skopje’s Alexander the Great airport opened with a great ceremony on Tuesday.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, several ministers and Turkish officials were present at the opening ceremony of “Alexander the Great” Airport to be operated by TAV Airports holding for 20 years.

Delivering a speech in the ceremony, Prime Minister Gruevski thanked Turkish investors especially TAV Holding officials for their initiatives.

Gruevski said that none of banks wanted to grant loan for the airport due to global economic crisis, but Turkish investors helped them. “They made a very important thing by restoring ‘Alexander the Great’ Airport,” Gruevski said.

Mustafa Sani Sener, director of TAV Executive Board, said that they were proud that they completed this international airport project successfully. “We are happy to contribute to improvement of Macedonia,” Sener added.

TAV Airports, which is among world’s leading airport operators is currently operating Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport International Flights Terminal in addition to Istanbul Ataturk Airport, Ankara Esenboga Airport and Antalya Gazipasa Airports in Turkey, and two airports each in Tunisia, Macedonia and Georgia. TAV also operates in other branches of airport operations as well; such as duty free sales, food and beverage services, ground handling services, information technologies, and security and operation services. TAV Airports has also taken over operations of the duty free, food & beverage and other commercial areas for 10 years at Riga Airport in Latvia. Together with its affiliate companies, TAV Airports serves 420,000 flights and 48 million passengers on average per year.