The State Airports Management General Directorate (DHMİ) is responsible for the construction of the new airports. Speaking to Today’s Zaman on Saturday in Antalya, where he participated in a meeting to discuss upcoming projects, DHMİ General Manager Orhan Birdal said they plan to open four of the new airports by the end of this year, with an investment of TL 550 million.
The four airports -- Hakkari-Yüksekova, Şırnak-Cizre, Bingöl and Iğdır -- are currently under construction. The remaining three airports will be in Çukurova, Zafer and another between Ordu and Giresun. The Çukurova airport will serve Mersin and Adana, while Zafer will host passengers from Afyon and Kütahya.
Birdal also said they expect to finalize the construction of new terminal buildings for the airports in Kars, Konya, Mardin, Balıkesir, Adıyaman and Ağrı before the end of this year. Turkey has gone through a rapid transformation over the past decade to upgrade its civil aviation market. The number of passengers who use air transportation has also skyrocketed thanks to newly opened airports along with the arrival of foreign and local carriers to the market. The number of passengers who flew domestically in 2010 has increased almost fivefold since 2002, DHMİ data show. The directorate expects to see around 120 million -- foreign and local -- passengers use Turkey’s airports this year. |
