ISTANBUL, 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, has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airports since 2015 and is also the second largest airport in Turkey. The new boarding hall which was constructed at the cost of EUR26 million was the first link in the chain of investment projects in ISGIA’s tenth year of operations. The new 26,000 sqm boarding hall 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.
Ersel Goral, CEO of ISGIA said that ISGIA has taken major steps in meeting the evolving needs of Turkey’s rapidly growing tourism industry.
“For seven consecutive years from 2009 to 2016, we were recognized as Europe’s fastest-growing airport in terms of number of passengers. We expect to register 33.0 million passenger traffic movements this year, which will represent a 9-fold growth over the last ten years. For the first half of 2018, we are already registering double-digit growth of 12% compared to the same period last year, increasing to 16.2 million passenger traffic movements,” Göral added when speaking about the new terminal building that has been fully operational since 31 July 2018.
From January to June 2018, International passenger traffic movements increased by 13% to 5.2 million and domestic passenger traffic movements 12%, to 11.0 million. Aircraft movements had also by 7%, to 106,631 movements during the same period.
Ersel had also added that ISGIA had received many other accolades in the last decade, the most recent being ranked 8th in the world for its on-time performance making it the only Turkish airport to be among the top ten.
ISGIA is also looking forward to the opening of its second runway which is currently being constructed by the Turkish government and is expected to become operational by the end of 2019. The second runway will allow the airport 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 is expected to be completed at the beginning of next year. This direct connection will shorten the travelling time from ISGIA, which is located on the Asian side, to Taksim on the European side of Istanbul, to 45 minutes.
Present during the event was also Dato’ Mohd Izani Ghani, the chairman of the ISGIA Board as well as a Malaysia Airports board member. ISGIA is significant contributor to Malaysia Airports’ overseas growth strategy. The airport operator group will continue to reap benefits from its investments in Istanbul as ISGIA continues its organic growth. Also present at the event was Pendik Mayor, Kenan Sahin.