Türkiye’s second-biggest airport on Tuesday mentioned it had served the best variety of passengers ever in 2023, in an announcement that comes greater than a month after the opening of its second runway that can double its capability.
The passenger depend at Sabiha Gökçen Airport, positioned on Istanbul’s Asian aspect, reached 37.1 million, it mentioned in a publish on social media platform X, previously generally known as Twitter.
The determine surpassed the earlier all-time excessive of 35.5 million, registered in 2019 earlier than the coronavirus pandemic introduced journey to a halt.
The outbreak halved the depend to 17 million in 2020, earlier than it rebounded to 25 million in 2021 and 30.8 million in 2022.
“We’ve hit a historic milestone with 37.1 million passengers in 2023 at Sabiha Gökçen,” the assertion learn.
Inaugurating the second runway of the airport in late December, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan mentioned they anticipated the determine to surpass 37 million.
The growth seeks to spice up the capability on the facility which has been going through challenges in dealing with the rising air and passenger visitors.
Among the fastest-growing airports in Europe, Sabiha Gökçen serves a complete of 162 locations, together with 122 worldwide and 40 home routes, with a capability of 41 million passengers.
Part of an infrastructural improve value $970 million, the second runway is envisaged to assist the airport raise its capability to greater than 85 million passengers yearly.
Türkiye has injected a whole lot of billions of {dollars} to broaden and improve its infrastructure over the past twenty years, which noticed the variety of its airports attain 57, from 26 in 2002.
Its huge Istanbul Airport, Türkiye’s largest and one of many greatest civil aviation hubs on the planet, was formally opened in late October 2018 earlier than turning into absolutely operational in April 2019.
The gleaming glass-and-steel construction alongside the Black Sea coast has managed to show into probably the most necessary transit facilities in aviation ever since.
The hub can deal with 90 million passengers a yr within the present part. The determine is nothing in comparison with its potential capability to serve 200 million after finishing all phases.
All 4 phases of the airport’s development and growth, together with six runways, are anticipated to be accomplished by 2028.
Source: www.dailysabah.com