World Bulletin/News Desk

Turkish TAV Airports Holding said on Monday that it had qualified to bid for rights to operate and reconstruct New York's LaGuardia Airport as part of a consortium.

TAV first expressed interest in the US airport back in January. In May, TAV lost its bid in a tender for the construction of İstanbul's new airport.

The consortium includes TAV shareholder Aéroports de Paris (ADP), Goldman Sachs, Tutor Perini Corporation, Ove Arup & Partners PC, Kohn Pederson Fox Associates PC, Suffolk Construction Company, STV Incorporated and ADP Ingenierie. There are a total of four consortiums that have qualified for the LaGuardia Airport tender.

Serving as a domestic hub for Delta Air Lines, LaGuardia Airport handled 26 million passengers in 2012, TAV said in a written statement to Bourse İstanbul (BIST) on Monday.

TAV currently operates İstanbul Atatürk Airport, Ankara Esenboğa Airport, İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport's international terminal and Antalya Gazipaşa Airport in Turkey, as well as two airports each in Georgia, Tunisia and Macedonia.

Aéroports de Paris purchased 38 percent of TAV's shares in March 2012.