Arife Yildiz Unal
28 October 2019•Update: 28 October 2019
ANKARA
The Istanbul Airport welcomed over 40 million air passengers since its opening last year, Turkey's transport and infrastructure minister said Monday.
A total of 252,795 flights (63,856 domestic and 188,939 international) have taken off and landed at the airport, said Cahit Turhan.
He added the construction of the third parallel runway spread across 76.5 million square meters on the Black Sea coast of Yenikoy and Akpinar districts on the European side of Istanbul will complete shortly.
The Istanbul Airport, whose first phase officially opened in October 2018, took over air traffic from the former main Ataturk Airport on April 6.
The airport is projected to serve 200 million passengers annually with a full capacity after the completion of all four phases with six runways by 2028.
It is set to become a global aviation hub hosting more than 100 airlines and flights to over 300 destinations around the world.
* Writing by Aysu Bicer
