Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu examined the ongoing 2nd runway and superstructure works at Sabiha Gökçen Airport on site. Minister Uraloğlu, who announced that test flights are continuing on the 2nd runway, where the work is at the final stage, said, “We expect to break a new historical record by increasing the number of passengers using our airports to 220 million in the centenary of our Republic. "For this reason, we are developing Sabiha Gökçen Airport with an innovative and visionary perspective," he said.
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu shared the latest information about the works by making a press statement at Sabiha Gökçen Airport. Uraloğlu stated that the capacity of Sabiha Gökçen Airport will double thanks to a second runway and said, “We have made the second runway of Sabiha Gökçen Airport suitable for landing and take-off. Our ILS test and commissioning flight control studies and test flights continue. With the 2nd runway, which is 3 thousand 540 meters long, the widest body aircraft will be able to land at our airport. Three parallel taxiways, 2 with a length of 1 thousand 3 meters, 520 with a length of 1 thousand meters and 3 with a length of 1 thousand 2 meters, are also within the scope of the project. We have also completed the construction, electrical and electronic manufacturing of the 400nd runway, fast exit taxiways and the connection taxiways that provide access from the runway to the middle apron. In addition to the construction of the 3nd runway, the Central Apron with a capacity of 2 aircraft, the Cargo Apron with a capacity of 2 aircraft, the Superstructure Facilities with a closed area of 46 thousand m40 such as the Technical block, the fire brigade and the garage building, and the 19 meter high Air Traffic Control Tower were also won. Our new air traffic control tower was put into service on January 2, 91. Since that day, it has been providing 9/2023 air traffic operations with all ATM systems. "Our Cargo Apron concrete coating production continues," he said.
CONNECTION ROADS ARE BEING TAKEN UNDERGROUND
Minister Uraloğlu said, “Within the scope of our project, we are working to take the Sabiha Gökçen Airport - Pendik connection road underground and pass a second runway over it. Within the scope of those works, we have now completed the reinforcement in the East Tube and the Belt Manufacturing in the East and West Tube Runway Regions. Belt manufacturing in the Terminal-3 Region continues. Currently, TEM connection road traffic is given from the eastern tube. We also started the foundation and interior curtain manufacturing in the western tube. "Our road crossing and infrastructure displacement manufacturing in the Orhanlı region continues," he said.
CRITICISMS WITHOUT FORESIGHT AND VISION
Minister Uraloğlu said, “There were those who identified the construction of Sabiha Gökçen Airport with the construction of a trout plant in Tuz Lake. Have you seen any other country that built an airport where the plane did not land? They criticized. They could not understand the work of the TEM Connection Road and Tunnel that we built within the scope of the project, and published false posts on social media, claiming that they built a tunnel where there were no mountains. "In fact, with all these, they proved their own foresight, incompetence and lack of vision," he said.
THE SECOND AIRPORT WITH THE HIGHEST PASSENGER TRAFFIC
Minister Uraloğlu emphasized that we are a country with a geographical advantage of being within a 1-hour flight distance to 650 countries with a trade volume of 11 trillion dollars, where 67 billion 4 million people live, and said, "In this context, we aim to compensate for the lost years in the aviation sector with the Regional Aviation Policy that we initiated in 2003." We did not stay there, we turned our country into a global center in aviation. We served approximately 25 million passengers at our airports last August. "In the first 2023 months of 8, we hosted 143 million 360 thousand passengers at all our airports and almost 2003-folded the number of passengers, which was 34 million in 5," he said.
WE ARE DETERMINED TO CONTINUE SUCCESS IN THE FIELD OF AVIATION
Minister Uraloğlu said, “We are determined to continue our investments and successes in the field of aviation. Work on our Yozgat Airport and Bayburt Gümüşhane Airport projects continues. We have come to an end at Çukurova Airport, which will be the regional airport that we have implemented with Public Private Partnership. "Again, we are investing approximately 197 million Euros without leaving a penny from the state's coffers, and we will receive a rental fee of 25 million 297 thousand Euros in 100 years," he said.
Minister Uraloğlu stated that the record increases in the aviation sector will continue and said:
“As you know, until 2019, our aviation industry was constantly growing with record increases every year. However, 2020 was a year when activities in the transportation sector stopped due to the pandemic, and 2020 was a year when the effects of the epidemic gradually disappeared. But in Sabiha Gökçen, which hosted approximately 2021 million passengers with approximately 181 thousand flight traffic on domestic and international lines in 25, this number increased to approximately 2022 million passengers in 31. In the first 2023 months of 8, approximately 150 thousand flight traffic took place at Sabiha Gökçen Airport. This number was around 131 thousand in the same period last year. Again, the number of passengers, which was approximately 19 million 700 thousand in the same period last year, increased to 24 million 300 thousand this year. "There is a 23 percent increase compared to the same period last year, and we anticipate that this number will continue to increase in the coming years," he said.