abertis airports was created in 2005 with the objective of bringing together the interests of abertis in the airport sector and to adapt the business of airport management to the corporate structure of the Group.
The creation of the airport business of abertis took place with the entrance of a stake held by the Group in the Colombian company Codad, holder of a concession for the management of the first runway at the airport of El Dorado (Bogota) and for the construction and management of a second runway.
The commitment to the airport sector was consolidated in January 2005, when the company composed of abertis (90%) and Aena Internacional (10%) acquired the British airport management company tbi plc.
This operation, which meant the addition of 12 international airports to the abertis airports portfolio, gave the company critical mass and geographical diversity, as it meant the gaining of assets in eight countries in Europe and America.
The tbi network currently includes a total of eight international airports, that it manages under a system of ownership or concession and which are divided between United Kingdom (London Luton Airport, Cardiff and Belfast International), Sweden (Stockholm Skavsta), Bolivia (La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba) and United States (Orlando Sanford).
It also holds full or partial management contracts on behalf of governments or local authorities at five airports in the U.S.A.: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Bob Hope, Middle Georgia Regional, Macon Downtown and Raleigh-Durham International.
In 2008, abertis acquired from the ACS Group the company Desarrollo de Concesiones Aeroportuarias (dca), a holding company for companies with stakes in 15 airports in Mexico, Jamaica, Chile and Colombia.
dca is one of the three shareholders – holding 33.33% of the capital – of Aeropuertos Mexicanos del Pacífico (AMP), together with Aena Internacional and the Mexican company CMA. AMP is, in turn, the main shareholder and strategic partner of Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP), holding a stake of 17% - the remaining 83% being listed on the Mexico and New York stock exchanges.
In Colombia, abertis manages, through the operator Codad, the two runways at the airport of El Dorado, in Bogota.