Authorities in Turkey are planning to develop a new airport for Istanbul, capable of handling 100 million passengers per year.
The country’s Transport Minister, Binali Yildirim, told China’s Xinhua news agency on Wednesday that the new hub would be located on the European side of the city, close to the Black Sea coast. It will have three runways capable of handling the world’s largest aircraft, such as the Airbus A380.
The tender for the project will be held in May 2013, with construction of the airport expected to take three and a half years to complete. Istanbul is currently served by two airports, Ataturk International and Sabiha Gokcen, which handle a combined 57m passengers last year.
