Turkey to construct third Istanbul airport for USD5bn

Turkish Minister of Transport and Communication Binali Yıldırım confirmed that a third airport is to be constructed on the European side of Istanbul (Anatolia News Agency/Antara, 29-Nov-2010). Mr Yıldırım stated the airport would be "among the most prominent airports in Europe and will ease Istanbul's air traffic congestion". The new airport will serve an annual capacity of 60 million passengers and have two runways. It would be a build-operate-transfer project. The exact location for the USD5 billion project is yet to be decision although it was previously stated that the airport could be constructed on 20,000sqm of land in Silivri on the northern outskirts of the city.