ORDU, Turkey
Turkey’s first airport to be built on an artificial island has welcomed its first passengers.
A morning Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul with 136 passengers touched down on Friday morning in Ordu-Giresun Airport, the first terminal of its kind outside the Far East.
Turkey’s 52nd airport, off the coast of the northern province of Ordu, will be officially opened by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu later today.
Construction of the artificial island, which cost around 360 million Turkish liras ($132.6 million), began in July 2011.
Around 35 million tons of rocks were used to fill a 1.8-million-square meter area of sea.
State-of-the-art technology was used to prevent Black Sea waves from damaging the airport, while special material, called stone mastic asphalt, was used to build the runway.
Although only serving Istanbul and Ankara flights at the moment, the airport has plans to expand to 42 destinations.
The number of tourists and investors in the Black Sea region is expected to increase with the opening of the new airport.
