With the opening of the third runway at Istanbul Airport on 18 June, the airport will become the second airport in Europe to operate three runways in parallel. Credit: iGA / Istanbul Airport.

Turkey’s Istanbul Airport has filed an official application with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to ensure that its third runway will be open for flight operations by 18 June.

When the airport’s third independent runway commences operations, Istanbul Airport will become the first airport in Turkey and the second airport in Europe, after Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, to operate three runways in parallel.

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This airport is expected to reduce the domestic taxi times by around 50%. According to a simulation, the average landing time will decrease from 15 minutes to 11 minutes while average takeoff time will decrease from 22 minutes to 15 minutes.

Along with the new runway, the second ‘End-Around Taxiway’ to reduce congestion where air traffic is high will also enter service.

The third runway, along with the other two remaining independent runways, will be CAT III (category three). Istanbul Airport will have five runways, three independent runways and two standbys.

The airport will be able to accommodate around 2,800 landing and takeoff flight movements each day.

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İGA Airport Operation CEO and general manager Kadri Samsunlu said: “We are profoundly proud to get this phase completed in timely manner, just as has been the case for all stages of construction.

“There will be serious reductions in domestic taxi times, which had been criticised during our operations. Now, all our passengers will get a perfect customer experience at Istanbul Airport.

“We will also culminate our claim of superior service quality through excellent comfort and savings of time. In this sense, I would like to emphasise once again that Istanbul Airport is the largest infrastructure investment ever put into practice in the history of Turkey and the most significant economic asset of our nation.”