Malaysia Airports Builds New Mosque at its Overseas Airport to Provide Convenience and Comfort to Airport Community and Passengers
ISTANBUL – Passengers at Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (IATA Code: SAW) can look forward to a new mosque when it is completed by the end of this year. The mosque that is able to cater up to 2,800 people is located within walking distance from the terminal building. It is connected via a bridge from the arrival level for the convenience of the passengers. The wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airports, SAW held a groundbreaking ceremony for the mosque at 11.00am today (local time) to mark the start of its construction on a built-up area of 2,035 square meters. Present at the event were Istanbul Mayoral Candidate Binali Yıldırım, former Minister of Transport Ahmet Arslan, TC Defence Industries Vice President Serdar Demirel, İstanbul Deputy Governor Necip Çakmak, Malaysia Airports Chairman Tan Sri Zainun Ali, SAW Chairman Dato’ Mohd Izani bin Ghani, SAW Executive Director Datuk Azmi Murad and SAW CEO Ersel Göral.
According to Zainun, Malaysia Airports prides itself in providing positive experiences to its guests at all of its airports. She said, “The construction of this mosque will serve as a significant milestone in our endeavour to create value at SAW, not only for the convenience and comfort of the airport community but also for the passengers.”
“This will be the epitome of our social contribution and our high regard for the welfare of our employees, guests and community. I am proud to be part of this creation of a permanent architectural work to Istanbul’s landmark,” Zainun further added.
Ersel spoke on the consistent growth that SAW has demonstrated since Malaysia Airports took over the operations 11 years ago. “The airport terminal building which was opened on October 31, 2009 by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hosted more than 200 million passengers over the last 11 years. As one of the major players in the Turkish civil aviation industry, our main goal has always been to achieve ultimate passenger satisfaction. To achieve this, we have taken steps to respond to all the needs of our guests and we will continue to do so. Hence, building this mosque for the benefit of our passengers is one of them,” he further added.
The new mosque is deemed to be built at the right time to cater to the anticipated increase of passengers at SAW. The airport has recently completed the expansion of its new boarding hall that increased its capacity to 41 million passengers, and with the second runway scheduled to be completed late this year, SAW aims to attract more airlines to operate at the airport. Last year, SAW recorded 34.1 million passenger movements which is an improvement of 8.8% over 2017 making it the second largest airport in Turkey and 12th largest in Europe in passenger numbers.