President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday opened the second runway at Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, located in the Asian side of Istanbul.
Erdogan explained in his speech during the opening ceremony that with the start of operation of the second runway, the airport will have the capacity to host more than 85 million passengers annually.
He added that by the end of this year, the number of airport passengers will reach 37 million, with this number rising to 63 million passengers by 2030.
He pointed out that they aim to open Çukurova Airport next month in the state of Adana in the south of the country, pointing out that the residents of the states of Adana and Mersin are eager for the opening of the project.
Erdogan pointed out that Sabiha Airport hosted nearly 25 million passengers in 2021 through 181,000 flights, adding that the number reached 31 million passengers in 2022.
He stated that Sabiha Airport is the third airport in Turkey with the largest number of flights after Istanbul and Antalya airports.
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Erdogan explained that in order to provide maximum air traffic capacity at the airport, the new runway will be used for landing and the old runway for take-off.
He added: “Therefore, with the start of operation of the new runway, the airport will have the capacity to host more than 85 million passengers annually.”
Erdogan stated that the number of active airports in the country increased from 26 to 57 airports, in addition to the expansion of the capacity of passenger lounges from 55 million to 337 million and 450 thousand passengers.
The Turkish President pointed out that the number of foreign destinations increased from 283 to 343 destinations in 130 countries, in addition to the increase in the aircraft fleet from 489 aircraft to 1,813 aircraft during the last twenty years.
The Turkish city of Istanbul includes 3 airports: Sabiha Gökçen on the Asian side, and Istanbul and Ataturk International on the European side, and the latter was designated only for flights of cargo aircraft and private and government aircraft after moving to Istanbul Airport in April 2019.
