Turkey: Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISGIA) recently opened its new domestic boarding hall, thus increasing the airport capacity from 33 million passengers per annum (mppa) to 41 mppa.
ISGIA, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is wholly-owned by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) since 2015.
ISGIA is the second largest airport in Turkey. This new 26,000 sqm boarding hall built at the cost of EUR26 million, features four new aerobridges, 1,000 square metres of shopping area, as well as comfortable waiting lounges and prayer rooms.
The new boarding hall was officiated by Prof. Ismail Demir, President of Turkey Defense Industry and Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin.
Also present were Datuk Mohd Izani Ghani, the chairman of the ISGIA board and Pendik Mayor Kenan Sahin.
In a recent statement issued from Turkey, ISGIA chief executive officer Ersel Goral said ISGIA was recognised as Europe’s fastest-growing airport in terms of passenger numbers for seven consecutive years from 2009 to 2016.
"We expect to register 33 million passengers this year, which will represent a 9-fold growth over the last ten years.
"For the first half of 2018, we have seen 12 per cent growth from a year ago, increasing to 16.2 million passengers,” Göral said, adding the new terminal has been fully operational since 31st July 2018.
From January to June 2018, International passenger traffic movements increased 13 per cent to 5.2 million and domestic passenger traffic movements was up 12 per cent to 11 million. Aircraft movements had also rose 7 per cent to 106,631 movements, in the first half of this year.
Ersel said ISGIA was ranked 8th in the world for its on-time performance making it the only Turkish airport to be in the Top 10.
ISGIA's second runway is being constructed by the Turkish government and expected to start operations by the end of 2019.
The second runway will allow ISGIA to handle up to 80 flight movements per hour, doubling its present capacity. Future developments to the airport will also ultimately increase the airport system’s capacity to beyond 60 mppa by 2021.
As a destination preferred by the likes of Emirates, Qatar Airways, Fly Dubai, and Air Arabia, and also a hub for both Turkish Airlines and Pegasus to fly to more and more destinations, the airport keeps expanding its scope in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
On top of this, the new subway line linking the airport to the Pendik-Kadikoy subway line should complete at the beginning of 2019. It would shorten travelling time between ISGIA and Taksim town to 45 minutes.
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