Istanbul Airport CEO says walking time at Istanbul airport will be reduced to 15 minutes

The Istanbul Airport has received many complaints about walking times since the day it was opened. Regarding the issue it reported that the third runway, which is expected to enter service at Istanbul Airport on June 18, will reduce walking time.

The top official of the airport has made the following statement regarding the issue:

“Departure times are long, but our runways are on the west side of the airport and we also have doors on the east side. Therefore, especially domestic passengers can reach the bellows after 25-35 minutes. We believe when we open the third runway on June 18 this time will be reduced by about half.

Talking about the drop in passenger numbers the official shared following:

“Flights between Turkey and 5 countries have been halted. These are China, Iran, Korea, Iraq and Italy. The number of passengers coming to Istanbul from these countries is 100 thousand people per week. You might think that’s between 8 and 10 percent of the total. Our people have not been able to leave their homes. Because of that, there is a 4-5 percent reduction in occupancy rates. We are affected by this problem around 15 per cent.”

As for details of runway 3 the official made the following statement: As the third runway of Istanbul airport, which is Turkey’s new gate to the world and which is separated from many airports in terms of technical specifications, will be closer to the 18/36 terminal. So the taxi times of the planes will be reduced by 50 percent. When the third runway becomes operational, Istanbul airport will have 5 operational runways with 3 independent runways and spare runways. The new runway will increase air traffic capacity from 80 aircraft takeoffs and landings per hour to 120.