Istanbul Airport opens third runway

Next week Istanbul Airport will open its third runway. This was announced by the Turkish Minister of Transport in a press conference. Istanbul Airport is one step closer to the goal of handling 200 million passengers per year with the third runway. With the opening of its third runway, Istanbul Airport will be the second airport in Europe to use three runways at the same time, after Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. With the opening of the third runway, 2,800 flights will be able to land and take off at Istanbul Airport every day.

Largest airport in the world

The new Istanbul airport opened in 2018. At this moment the airport has a capacity of 90 million passengers per year. With the goal of handling 200 million passengers per year, Istanbul Airport will become the largest airport in the world. At this moment it is Atlanta Airport with more than 100 million passengers per year. Istanbul Airport has the potential to become the largest airport due to its favourable location between Europe, Africa and Asia. Also, labour is relatively cheap and there are no high flight taxes and expensive environmental requirements.

(c) Photo: IGA – Istanbul Airport Terminal