Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (IATA: SAW, ICAO: LTFJ) is one of the international airports serving İstanbul, Turkey. The facility is named after Sabiha Gökçen, the first female combat pilot in the world. Located 35 km (22 mi) southeast[1] of central İstanbul, it is on the Asian side of the bi-continental city. It was built because Atatürk International Airport (on the European side) was not large enough to meet the booming passenger demands (both domestic and international). SAW's international terminal capacity was 3 million passengers per year and the domestic terminal capacity was 0.5 million passengers per year. In June 2007, Turkish conglomerate Limak, India's GMR Group 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.
İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport Sabiha Gökçen Havalimanı | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Operator | Limak-GMR-MAHB Consortium, ISG | ||||||||||
| Location | Pendik, İstanbul, Turkey  | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 312 ft / 95 m | ||||||||||
| Website | http://www.sabihagokcen.aero/ | ||||||||||
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The new terminal was inaugurated on 31 October 2009. In 2010, Sabiha Gökçen airport handled 11,129,472 passengers, a 71% increase compared to 2009.[2] The airport is planning to host 25 million passengers by 2023.[3][4] In September 2010, the airport was voted the World's Best Airport at the World Low Cost Airlines Congress in London and received the award.[5] 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 is honored with Airport Traffic Growth Award by Airline News & Network Analysis web site anna.aero.
Terminals
The new terminal building of 25 million annual passenger capacity conducts domestic and international flights under one roof.
The features of and the services at the new terminal of the Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport 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– storey hotel with 128 rooms, adjacent to the terminal and with separate entrances at air and ground sides. 112 check – in, 24 online check - in counters A VIP building & apron viewing CIP halls with business lounges 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). 400 sqm conference center 5,000 square-meters food court, for cafés and restaurants belonging the leading food & beverage brands A Duty Free shopping area, with a ground of 4,500 square-meters; with shops at international standards.
Cargo terminal
The cargo terminal features:
- 90,000 tons/year capacity
- 18 cold storage depots
Ground transport
Sabiha Gökçen International is connected to the city of Istanbul and that city's wider metropolitan area through a number of transport corridors. The main airport complex is easily reachable by car from the E80 (Trans-European Motorway) which passes through the Istanbul Metropolitan Area, and is served by the following public bus lines:
- E3 - Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport - 4.Levent (transfer for Istanbul Metro)
- E9 - Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport - Bostancı
- E10 - Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport - Kurtköy - Kadıköy (transfer for Haydarpaşa Station and İDO ferry services to Eminönü and Karaköy)
- 16S - Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport - Yenişehir - Kozyatağı- Metrobus Uzuncayır
- 132 - Kartal - Tepeören
HAVAS Shuttle (non-stop services run daily at regular intervals between the airport and Istanbul):
- Kozyatağı - Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport
- Taksim - Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport
In addition to this, the airport is located just 14km from the town of Pendik's railway and sea-taxi stations. Moreover plans to extend the Istanbul LRT to the airport as part of the ongoing Marmaray project are currently under consideration. Taxis are also a common means of transport at the airport and there is a large rental-car facility.
Airlines and destinations
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Air Arabia | Sharjah |
| Air Arabia Egypt | Alexandria-Borg El Arab |
| Air Arabia Maroc | Casablanca |
| Air Moldova | Chişinău |
| Azerbaijan Airlines operated by Turan Air | Ganja |
| Bahrain Air | Bahrain |
| Blu-express | Rome-Fiumicino |
| Borajet | Bodrum, Edremit, Gazipaşa, Mykonos |
| Cham Wings Airlines | Damascus |
| Dubrovnik Airline | Dubrovnik |
| EasyJet | London-Gatwick, London-Luton |
| EasyJet Switzerland | Basel/Mulhouse |
| Europe Airpost | Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Ras-Al-Khaimah |
| Flydubai | Dubai |
| Germanwings | Seasonal: Berlin-Schönefeld, Cologne/Bonn, Dortmund, Stuttgart |
| Jazeera Airways | Kuwait |
| Jetairfly | Brussels-Nationaal, Brussels-South Charleroi |
| Jordan Aviation | Amman |
| Kish Air | Tabriz, Tehran-Imam Khomeini |
| Moldavian Airlines | Chişinău |
| Nas Air | Jeddah, Riyadh |
| Pegasus Airlines | Adana, Amsterdam, Ankara, Antalya, Barcelona, Basel/Mulhouse, Beirut, Berlin-Schönefeld, Bodrum, Brussels, Bucharest-Henri Coanda, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Dalaman, Diyarbakır, Düsseldorf, Elazığ, Ercan, Frankfurt, Gaziantep, Hatay, İzmir, Kayseri, Konya, Kharkiv, Krasnodar, London-Stansted, Malatya, Marseille, Milan-Orio al Serio, Munich, Nuremberg, Paris-Orly, Rome-Fiumicino, Saint-Etienne, Samsun, Sivas, Skopje [begins 16 August], Sofia, Stockholm-Arlanda, Stuttgart, Tbilisi, Tehran-Imam Khomeini, Trabzon, Van, Vienna, Zurich, Zweibrücken |
| Petra Airlines | Amman |
| RusLine | Krasnodar |
| Saratov Airlines | Nalchik |
| Cham Wings Airlines | Damascus |
| South East Airlines | Makhachkala |
| Spanair | Barcelona |
| Sky Airlines | Antalya, Diyarbakır, Izmir, Kayseri, Nicosia-Ercan, Trabzon, Van |
| SunExpress | Adana, Antalya, Berlin-Schönefeld, Berlin-Tegel, Cologne/Bonn, Diyarbakır, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Erzincan, Erzurum, Frankfurt, Gaziantep, Hamburg, Hanover, Hatay, Izmir, Kars, Mardin, Münster, Munich, Nuremberg, Samsun, Stuttgart, Trabzon, Van, Vienna, Zurich |
| Transavia.com | Amsterdam |
| Turkish Airlines | Ankara |
| Turkish Airlines operated by AnadoluJet | Adana, Amsterdam, Ankara, Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, Erzurum, Izmir, Kayseri, Konya, Moscow-Domodedovo, Nakchchivan, Samsun, Sivas, Trabzon, Van |
| Wizz Air | Budapest |
Additionally, several airlines operate charter flights to the airport, including:
Cargo
Traffic Statistics
| Year (months)* | Domestic | % change | International | % change | Total | % change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 (June)* | 4,166,026 |  22.0 %
|
1,942,464 | 32.0 %
|
6,108,490 | 25.0%
|
| 2010 (all) | 7,435,158 | 65.0 %
|
3,694,314 | 84.0 %
|
11,129,472 | 71.0%
|
| 2009 (all) | 4,547,673 | 63.0%
|
2,092,285 | 33.4%
|
6,639,958 | 52.3%
|
| 2008 (all) | 2,764,856 | 9.3%
|
1,516,337 | 27.2%
|
4,281,193 | 15.1%
|
| 2007 (all) | 2,528,549 | 17.4%
|
1,191,946 | 56.2%
|
3,720,495 | 27.6%
|
| 2006 (all) | 2,153,561 | 284.7%
|
762,893 | 65.9%
|
2,916,454 | 186.0%
|
| 2005 (all) | 559,824 | 5,323.1%
|
459,922 | 95.5%
|
1,019,746 | 315.2%
|
| 2004 (all) | 10,323 | 265.3%
|
235,278 | 52.3%
|
245,601 | 56.3%
|
| 2003 (all) | 2,826 | - | 154,346 | - | 157,172 | - |
(*) Preliminary data. Source: DHMI.gov.tr[6]
References
External links
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- Sabiha Gökçen International Airport's official site
- Sabiha Gökçen Airport's fan site
- Sabiha Gökçen Airport's facebook page
- Sabiha Gökçen Airport's twitter page
- Sabiha Gökçen International Airport case study on Constructalia
- Sabiha Gökçen International Airport Satellite Photo
- Current weather for LTFJ at NOAA/NWS
- Accident history for SAW at Aviation Safety Network