Istanbul Airport has opened its third independent runway in a ceremony attended by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan called it “Turkey’s pride” when three Turkish Airlines flights took off from Istanbul Airport simultaneously on Sunday.
It makes Istanbul Airport the first airport in Turkey and only the second in Europe to operate three independent parallel runways. The new runway’s official use will start as planned on June 18.
The third runway is another step in Istanbul Airports vision of becoming the largest airport in the world with a total capacity of 200m passengers per year.
Chief executive and general manager of IGA Airport Operation, Kadri Samsunlu, said: “Istanbul Airport is the largest infrastructure investment ever put into practice in the history of the Republic and the most significant economic asset of our nation.
“Hence, Istanbul Airport will for sure be a locomotive force in the future development of our country.”
The third runway will reduce taxi times significantly and landing times will decrease by seven minutes on average and take-off times will decrease by four minutes on average with domestic taxi times being reduced by approximately 50%.
The capacity for flight movements per hour will also increase from 80 to 120 with a daily capacity of more than 2,800 flight movements – the largest number of movements any European airport can handle.
Together with the new runway, a new End-Round-Taxiway will go into operation, reducing congestion, especially in times of heavy traffic.
In total, Istanbul Airport will operate five runways, three independent and two standby runways. All construction phases will be completed in 2028, with Istanbul Airport having six runways.
