Istanbul Airport opened

Details: 31 October 2018

The first phase of Istanbul Airport was opened to the flights with the program attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 29 October Republic Day.

When the airport is completed, it will be one of the largest and most modern airports in the world with its 6 independent tracks, 500 aircraft capacity and 200 million passenger capacity per year. The new airport will provide transportation to 41 countries with a 3-hour flight and 66 countries with a 5-hour flight. It will be one of the most important aviation centers in the world with more than 300 flights including 250 international flights.

The airport, which is the largest infrastructure investment project ever made in the history of the Republic at a cost of 10 billion 247 million euros in total, was realized by the build-operate-transfer method. The company will pay 22 billion 152 million euros to the state in return for 25 years of operation.

"Istanbul is a very valuable city. For this reason, we named this great work Istanbul", Erdoğan said.

More than 50 senior guests from all over the world attended the opening ceremony of Istanbul Airport.

President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sooronbay Jeenbekov also attended the opening ceremony.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey

Capital: Ankara ( 5 270 57)

Other big cities: Istanbul (14 657 434), Izmir (4 168 415), Bursa (2 842 547), Antalya (2 288 45), Adana (2 183 16)

Form of government: Unitary parliamentary constitutional republic

Area: 783 652 km²

Population: 79 814 871 (2017)

Export: $150,2 billion (2016)

Import: $191 billion (2016)

International Organizations: United Nations (UN), Council of Europe (COE), the European Union (EU), D-8, G-20, Turkish Council, TURKSOY, Islamic Cooperation Organization, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Union for the Mediterranean, World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Asian Conference on Measures and Security Measures (CICA), Black Sea Naval Cooperation Task Group (BLACKSEAFOR), Organization of the Eurasian Law Enforcement Agencies with Military Status (TAKM), Interpol, International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Postal Union (UPU), European Patent Office (EPO), European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI), European Broadcasting Union (EBU), International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Federation Football Association (FIFA), Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).