Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport is the secondary

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

serving

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, Turkey. Located southeast of the city centre, Sabiha Gökçen Airport is in the Asian part of the transcontinental city and serves as the operating base for

AJet AJet, formerly branded as AnadoluJet until 31 March 2024, is a Turkish low-cost airline operating domestic flights as well as international flights to Northern Cyprus, Europe and Western Asia from its base at Sabiha Gökçen International Airp ...

and

Pegasus Airlines Pegasus Airlines () (), sometimes stylized as Flypgs, is a Turkish low-cost airline headquartered in the Kurtköy area of Pendik, Turkey, with bases at several Turkish airports. History Foundation and early years On 1 December 1989, two b ...

. The airport is named after

Sabiha Gökçen Sabiha Gökçen (; 22 March 1913 – 22 March 2001) was a Turkish aviator. During her flight career, she flew around 8,000 hours and participated in 32 different military operations. She became the world's first female fighter pilot, at age 23. ...

, adoptive daughter of

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

and the first female

fighter pilot A fighter pilot or combat pilot is a Military aviation, military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, Air-to-ground weaponry, air-to-ground combat and sometimes Electronic-warfare aircraft, electronic warfare while in the cockpit of ...

in the world. Although

Istanbul Airport Istanbul Airport is the larger of two international airports serving Istanbul, Turkey. It is located in the Arnavutköy district on the European side of the city. It is the largest airport in Turkey, the largest privately-owned airport in the ...

, located west of the European side of Istanbul, is larger, Sabiha Gökçen is still one of the largest airports in the country and one of the busiest airports in the Middle East.

Overview

Foundation

The airport was built because Atatürk Airport (located on the

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an side) was not large enough to meet the booming passenger demands (both domestic and international). The airport opened on 8 January 2001. In June 2007, Turkish conglomerate

Limak Holding Limak Holding A.S. is a Turkish conglomerate, with major interests in construction, energy, cement, and tourism. Its assets include the Limak Cement and Limak Energy companies and the Limak Tourism Group. In 2022, it had around $2.5 billion reve ...

, India's

GMR Group GMR Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in New Delhi. The group was founded in 1978 by Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao and comprises several companies including GMR Infrastructure, GMR Energy, GMR Airports, and GMR Enterpri ...

and Malaysia Airport Holding Berhad (MAHB) consortium gained the contract for upgrading and maintaining the airport. In mid-2008, ground was broken to upgrade the international terminal to handle 25 million passengers annually. The new terminal was inaugurated on 31 October 2009. SAW's international terminal capacity originally was 3 million passengers per year and the domestic terminal capacity was 0.5 million passengers per year. In 2010, Sabiha Gökçen airport handled 11,129,472 passengers, a 71% increase compared to 2009. The airport was planning (in 2011) to host 25 million passengers by 2023, but has already received and handled more than 35 million passengers by 2019.

Expansion

In September 2010, the airport was voted the World's Best Airport at the World Low Cost Airlines Congress in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and received the award. The other awards received by the airport in 2010 were: Turkey's Most Successful Tourism Investment 2010, the highly commended award from Routes Europe, and the Airport Traffic Growth Award by Airline News & Network Analysis. A second runway was inaugurated on 25 December 2023. The addition of this runway will increase the hourly capacity from 40 to 80 aircraft movements, making the airport hope for double the capacity. It is also planned to build new passenger terminals between the two runways.

Facilities

Terminal

The new terminal building with a 25 million annual passenger capacity serves domestic and international flights under one roof. It is equipped with 112 check-in, 24 online check-in counters as well as a VIP building and apron viewing CIP halls with business lounges. The terminal additionally features a conference centre, a food court and a

duty-free shop A duty-free shop or store is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, who will ...

ping area with a ground of . At the international departures area, on the airside, an hourly hotel and lounge became operational in January 2020 as well.

Other facilities

The features and services of the new terminal and its outlying buildings include a four-storey car park with a capacity of about 4,718 vehicles + 72 bus (3,836 indoors and 882 + 72 bus outdoors), a four-story hotel with 128 rooms adjacent to the terminal. There is also a Multi Aircraft Ramp System (MARS), allowing simultaneous service to 8 aircraft with large fuselages (IATA code E) or 16 middle-sized fuselage aircraft (IATA code C) installed.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Sabiha Gökçen International Airport:

Cargo

Statistics

Ground transport

Sabiha Gökçen International Airport is connected to the city of

and the city's wider metropolitan area through a number of transport options.

Rail

The airport is located 14 km from the Pendik railway station and sea-taxi stations.

Metro

The M4 metro line was extended to Sabiha Gökçen Havalimanı station on 2 October 2022. M10, a metro connection to Marmaray logo

Marmaray Marmaray () is a commuter rail line located in Istanbul, Turkey. The line runs from Halkalı, on the European side, to Gebze, on the Asian side, along the north shore of the Sea of Marmara. Mostly using the right-of-way of two existing com ...

and

Yüksek Hızlı Tren Yüksek Hızlı Tren or YHT () is a high-speed rail service operated by TCDD Transport in Turkey. Branded as "YHT", they are TCDD Transport's flagship passenger train service and the only high-speed rail service in the country. As of 2025, the ...

via the Pendik station is currently being built.

Road

The airport is reachable by car and taxi from the European motorway which passes through the Istanbul Metropolitan Area. Shuttlebus companies such as Havaist along with express public buses E10 and E11 operated by

İETT The Istanbul Electricity, Tram and Tunnel Establishments () or İETT is the transportation authority in Istanbul connected to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality specializing in public transportation. History After nationalizing various c ...

serve Taksim and

Kadıköy Kadıköy () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district on the Asian side of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 25 km2, and its population is 467,919 (2023). It is a large and populous area in the Asian si ...

and there are coaches to nearby towns and cities.

Accidents and incidents

*On 23 December 2015, at approximately 2:00 AM, explosions were reported to have occurred in a parked

aircraft, killing one cleaner and wounding another inside the plane. Five nearby planes were reported to be damaged as well. The operations were reported to continue normally soon after, however with heightened security measures in place. Three days later, it was reported that militant group Kurdistan Freedom Falcons had organized the attack. *On 7 January 2020, a plane operated as Pegasus Airlines flight 747, a Boeing 737-800, suffered a runway excursion after landing. Passengers evacuated the aircraft using slides. No fatalities or injuries occurred. *On 5 February 2020, a Boeing 737-800, registration TC-IZK, operated as Pegasus Airlines Flight 2193, skidded off the end of Runway 06, leading to an airport shutdown. There were 177 passengers and 6 crew on board. Three people were killed, another 179 were injured.

References

External links

* * *
İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Havalimanı Arası Kaç Km

Sabiha Gökçen Take-off and landing Flights
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabiha Gokcen International Airport Airports in Istanbul Buildings and structures in Istanbul Province Pendik Transport in Istanbul Province Airports established in 2001 2001 establishments in Turkey