The 3rd independent runway of Istanbul Airport was launched on June 14th with a ceremony attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In addition to the ceremony for the 3rd independent runway, which will increase the hourly aircraft landing and take-off capacity from 80 to 120 at Istanbul Airport, the opening ceremony of the mosque and the state guest house was also held.

Istanbul Airport has become the first airport in Turkey and the second airport in Europe, after Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, to operate three runways in parallel.

With the commissioning of the third independent runway located east of the Istanbul Airport Terminal, there will be a decrease of nearly 50% in the existing taxi-out times for domestic flights. According to simulations, the average landing time will decrease from 15 minutes to 11 minutes, and the average takeoff time will decrease from 22 minutes to 15 minutes. The second “End-Around Taxiway”, which aims to reduce surface congestion at airports having busy air traffic, was also put into service with the new runway. Thus, there will be no restrictions on the movement of aircraft on the ground at Istanbul Airport, where simultaneous landings and takeoffs are conducted.

Istanbul Airport now has 5 runways, 3 of which are independent runways and 2 are standby runways. Thanks to the new runway, the air traffic capacity will increase from 80 take-offs per hour to the over 120, and the slot flexibility of the airlines will increase. With the new runway, a daily average capacity of more than 2 thousand 800 landings and takeoffs will be reached.

Taxiways belonging to the runway have a width of 23 m and a shoulder width of 10.5 m on both sides. The width of the taxiways in total is 44 m, including the shoulder. High-speed exit taxiways were used on the taxiways, 4 of which are for north-flow operations and 4 for south-flow operations. Others are parallel taxiways. There are 25 taxiways in total.

The third independent runway has been equipped with electrical and electronic navigation systems that allow landing and takeoff in the CAT-III weather minima. Two pavement types were used for the runways; cement-concrete pavement and asphalt pavement. There is a section with 36 runway heads that have been planned for heavy landings which been coated with 375 m concrete. The rest of the runway was built with asphalt of 2,685 m. The tunway shoulders were also completely built with asphalt.

With an indoor area of 8,070 m2, the mosque at the Istanbul Airport consists of 3 main sections: the dome, the gathering-place section and the courtyard.

The Istanbul Airport State Guest House consists of the VIP Hall, rest rooms, three different halls, foyer area, two conference halls, kitchen, offices, press waiting room, staff room, men-women masjid, ablution room and shelter. 

The State Guest House is 3,825 m2 and will host foreign country presidents.