Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 2 / Trend A. Taghiyeva /
After a third airport is commissioned in Istanbul, Ataturk Airport may be closed, because of safety concerns over two airports operating in such close proximity, the head of the Turkish private aviation company Murat Ersoy was quoted today as saying by the newspaper "The Lira."
Ersoy said that Ataturk Airport could be used in the future for private flights or may even be demolished.
The third airport in Istanbul, Turkey will be built near Terkos River in the north of the city, Istanbul mayor Kadir Topbas said earlier.
Topbas added that the transport capacity of the airport will be 150 million passengers a year.
Earlier, the Air Transport Department under the Turkish Ministry of Transport, Shipping and Communications told Trend that the construction of the third airport in Istanbul will cost ten billion lira.
The ministry also stressed that at the first stage, the airport will have the capacity to serve 90 million people a year. Later, this figure will be increased to 150 million people.
It was earlier reported that the third airport with the area of 750,000 square meters, will be located in the European part of Istanbul, in the north of the city close to the sea.