Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 19
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
The number of airports in Turkey will be increased, Turkish Minister of Transport, Shipping and Communications Lutfi Elvan was quoted Oct. 17 by TRT Haber TV channel as saying.
"New airports, mostly for the domestic flights, will be built in Turkey," he said.
The minister did not specify the number of airports to be built in Turkey.
There are 69 airports in Turkey, 21 of them - international airports, 31 - used for domestic flights, 17 - military airports.
Turkish Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications earlier said in its report that currently, seven new airports are under construction in the country.
The ground-breaking ceremony for the third airport took place in Turkey's Istanbul city on June 7, 2014 in accordance to the agreement signed in May 2013.
The Limak-Kolin-Cengiz-MaPa-Kalyon consortium won the tender for the airport construction, offering 22.1 billion euros for the project.
Earlier, the Air Transport Department of the Turkish Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications told Trend that the construction of the third airport in Istanbul will cost ten billion Turkish liras.
The third airport, which is expected to be one of the largest airports in the world, is being constructed near the Lake Terkos in the north of Istanbul.
Initially, the airport will be able to serve 90 million people per year, with the possibility of reaching 150 million passengers.
The airport will be named in honor of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The official exchange rate is 2,2729 TL/USD.