Istanbul Airport opens sixth runway in €890m expansion first

iGA Istanbul Airport has opened a fourth main runway, bringing the site to six runways in total. The operator put the cost at €890 million and called it the first completed project in its Phase 2 expansion programme.

The new runway is 2,820 metres long and 45 metres wide and runs east-west, according to the airport. The three main and two auxiliary runways already there are laid out on a north-south axis. Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, attended the opening ceremony on Friday.

Florentia Village opened at the same event. The operator calls it Turkey's first luxury designer outlet built to international standards, and noted that a 485-room Hilton Istanbul Airport and the JETEX-İGA Terminal for private aviation passengers have opened recently.

iGA chairman of the board Cemal Kalyoncu told the ceremony the runway is a milestone in a project meant to realise Turkey's global ambitions. He said the airport is the outcome of the vision President Erdoğan has set for the country, and that the operator has worked to establish Istanbul as a leading global transfer hub.