The second runway of Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport on the metropolis’ Anatolian side has been made available for landing and takeoff, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said Wednesday while inspecting the construction on the site.

"We started the work to double the capacity of our airport with a second runway. And today, we made the second runway of our Sabiha Gökçen Airport available for landing and takeoff," Uraloğlu said during a press briefing.

"Our ILS test and commissioning flight control studies and test flights continue. With the second runway, which is 3,540 meters (11,614 feet) long, the widest-bodied aircraft will be able to land at our airport," the minister said.

"Our Sabiha Gökçen Airport needed a serious capacity increase due to the increasing number of passengers and the demand from our citizens. For this reason, we continue to develop it with an innovative and visionary perspective," he said.

Reiterating that the aviation sector grew continuously with record increases every year until 2020 when the activities were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the minister noted that the airport served some 25 million passengers in 2021 when flights began to resume.

This figure rose further to 31 million in 2022, he noted.

Providing information on the number of flights that took off and landed at the same airport in the first eight months of the year, Uraloğlu noted that they witnessed a 23% surge in the number of served passengers during the same period.

"We have also completed the works on the construction of fast exit ways for taxis, connections that provide access from the runway to the middle apron, and electrical and electronic manufacturing works on the second runway," the minister said.

"In addition, the superstructure facilities with a closed area of 19,000 square meters (205,514 square feet), such as the middle apron with a capacity of 46 aircraft, the cargo apron with a capacity of 40 aircraft, the technical block, the fire brigade and the garage building, and the air traffic control tower with a height of 91 meters were also included in the project," he said.

Sabiha Gökçen Airport is Türkiye’s second busiest airport after Istanbul Airport, located on the city’s European side.