Türkiye's 2nd biggest airport gets new $970m runway

Türkiye on Monday inaugurated a new runway of its second-biggest airport, seeking to expand the capacity at the facility that has been facing challenges in coping with the growing air and passenger traffic. The new runway, the second biggest in the country, is estimated to more than double the traffic capacity at Sabiha Gökçen, the third busiest airport in Türkiye after the landmark Istanbul Airport and Antalya Airport in the southern resort town. “Sabiha Gökçen Airport plays critical roles in terms of development in business and tourism. We have observed that the airport has been having difficulty meeting the increasing passenger and air traffic,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, indicating the need for infrastructural upgrades. The airport on Istanbul’s Anatolian side managed some 181,000 flights and served about 25m passengers in 2021. This figure rose to 31m in 2022. The January-November arrivals this year left the whole of 2022 behind, as Sabiha Gökçen reached a record passenger count of 34m and managed some 208,000 flights. “We anticipate surpassing 37m passengers by the end of the year,” Erdoğan told the opening ceremony. Sabiha Gökçen Airport noted that it will reach a capacity to serve more than 85m passengers a year.<br/>