by BERNAMA / pic by BLOOMBERG

The wholly owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISGIA), experienced an increased capacity to 41 million passengers per annum (mppa) from 33 mppa with the recent opening of its new domestic boarding hall.

In a statement, MAHB said ISGIA, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, has been its wholly owned unit since 2015 and is the second-largest airport in Turkey.

The new boarding hall, constructed at €26 million (RM122.83 million), was the first link in a chain of investment projects in ISGIA’s 10th year of operations.

The new 26,000 sq m boarding hall, which is fully operational since July 31, 2018, features four new aerobridges, 1,000 sq m of shopping area, as well as comfortable waiting lounges and prayer rooms.

ISGIA CEO Ersel Goral said in the statement that the airport had taken major steps in meeting the evolving needs of Turkey’s rapidly growing tourism industry.

“For seven consecutive years from 2009 to 2016, we were recognised as Europe’s fastest-growing airport in terms of number of passengers.

“We expect to register 33 million passenger traffic movements this year, which will represent a nine-fold growth over the last 10 years.

“For the first half of 2018, we are already registering double-digit growth of 12% compared to the same period last year, increasing to 16.2 million passenger traffic movements,” Goral said.

From January to June 2018, international passenger traffic movement increased 13% to 5.2 million and domestic passenger traffic movement rose 12% to 11 million.

ISGIA is also looking forward to the opening of its second runway, which is currently being constructed by the Turkish government, and is expected to become operational by end-2019.

The new runway will allow the airport to handle up to 80 flight movements per hour, doubling its present capacity.

Future developments to the airport will also ultimately increase the airport system’s capacity to beyond 60 mppa by 2021, the statement said. — Bernama