Turkey's TAV says 2008 passenger traffic up 3.7%

ISTANBUL, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Turkey's TAV Airports Holding said passenger traffic through its airports rose 3.7 percent to 35.93 million in 2008, lower than it had forecast.

In a written statement TAV said December passenger traffic rose 2 percent to 2.38 million.

By 1000 GMT TAV shares traded flat at 3.5 lira, underperforming Istanbul's index of leading shares, which was up 2.4 percent.

TAV Chief Executive Sani Sener had previously told Reuters he saw the number of transit passengers through its airports at 40 million in 2008 and forecast a 4 percent rise in passenger traffic in 2009.

Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, TAV's largest, saw passenger traffic increase by 1 percent to 23.53 million. Traffic at Anakara's Esenboga airport rose 15 percent to 5.7 million passengers.

TAV is looking at various instruments to roll over short term debt, including refinancing and foreign partnership. And the company may sell a stake or seek a foreign partnership for its ground-handling company Havas, Sener told Reuters in an interview earlier this month.

TAV recently won rights to operate two airports and construct a cargo terminal in Macedonia and last year secured a $620 million loan to build an airport in Tunisia.

(Reporting by Tolgahan Ozkan, editing by Will Waterman) Keywords: TAV/PASSENGERS GROWTH ([e-mail]; Telephone: [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.