Headline: TAV Airports CEO Serkan Kaptan Appointed as Honorary Consul of the Republic of Latvia
Serkan Kaptan, CEO of TAV Airports (IS:TAVHL), has been appointed as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Latvia. The honorary consulate certificate was presented by Baiba Braze, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia. The honorary consulate office responsible for Istanbul, Edirne, Tekirdağ, and Kırklareli was inaugurated in a ceremony attended by Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze, Latvian Ambassador Bahtijors Hasans, Istanbul Representative Ambassador Ayşe Sözen Usluer, and other guests.
In her speech, Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze highlighted, "In 2025, Latvia and Turkey will celebrate the centennial of our bilateral relations. Our foreign policy in Latvia is built on defense, economic ties, and human relations, and Turkey is a strong ally in all three pillars. We look forward to further developing our bilateral economic relations, and we hope that this honorary consulate will contribute to that. Education and tourism also enhance the good relations between our peoples. Our cooperation in these three areas makes us stronger, wealthier, and helps us understand each other better. I thank Serkan Kaptan for his ongoing work in these fields."
Serkan Kaptan, CEO of TAV Airports and Honorary Consul of Latvia, stated, "There are long-standing good relations between Turkey and Latvia, with Turkey recognizing the Republic of Latvia in 1925 and opening its first consulate in the Baltic region in Riga in 1929. The two countries have a trade volume reaching 700 million dollars annually. Especially, ties in education and tourism bring the peoples of the two countries closer. As TAV Airports, we have been operating at Riga Airport since 2009 and are delighted to contribute to the success of Riga Airport and the national carrier, Air Baltic. As the Chairman of the DEİK Turkey-Latvia Business Council, we continue to work on fostering the relations between businesspeople of the two countries. Latvia, a member of the EU and NATO, is one of the most significant centers in the Baltic region and Northern Europe with its historical, cultural, and natural riches and its educated and hospitable people. I am pleased to further contribute to the development of relations between the two countries as the Honorary Consul in Istanbul."
About Serkan Kaptan:
Born on December 1, 1971, Serkan Kaptan holds a bachelor's degree from Istanbul University Business Administration Department and completed his MBA at Marmara University in 2002. He joined TAV Airports Holding in 1998 with the Istanbul Atatürk Airport build-operate-transfer project. Until 2001, he served as an airport operations consultant at Airport Consulting Vienna, a partner of TAV Airports Holding. Since 2002, he has been responsible for business development and strategy, airline marketing, research and development, and investments at TAV Airports. With 25 years of experience in airport and airline operations and public-private partnership infrastructure projects, Kaptan has been the Deputy CEO of TAV Airports Holding since 2016 and serves on the boards of directors across all its subsidiaries. He is also an Executive Board Member responsible for ADP's operations in Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and CIS. Additionally, he is a Board Member of the Service Exporters' Association (HIB) and Chairman of the DEİK Latvia-Turkey Business Council. In 2021, he was elected to the Board of ACI Europe. Kaptan is married and a father of two children.