Turkey has a new airport in the southeastern province of Adıyaman. This airport was inaugurated officially on September 14th, and at the ceremony attended also Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“We transformed the airport services building, which was located on a 1,000-square-meter area that was insufficient and impractical for the airport’s needs, into an adequately sized, 23,000-square-meter airport terminal building. We also enlarged the landing field,” explained Erdoğan, quoted by Hurriyet daily news.
The construction of the airport began in 2011, and the total cost was of 66 million Turkish Liras (US $33 million) in investments. At this point, the airport handles only internal flights, but it is expected to expand its services and handle international arrivals and departures as well.
Adıyaman Province was created in 1954 and has a number of tourist attractions that lure visitors each year. Mount Nemrut is perhaps the most famous one of them, with its specific statues near the peak.
In what the air traffic in Turkey is concerned, it showed a 10.4% growth in August 2013 compared to the same period last year, while the number of air passengers increased 15.2% in the same period. The number of passengers on domestic flights rose 17% and reached a total of 66,724 in August, while the number of passengers boarding international flights jumped 8.9% and reached 63,109.
Moreover, according to the same analysis, there was an increase in the air freight transportation as well, of 18.9% on domestic flights in August to 82,071 tons and, on international flights, of 12.4%, to 200,816 tons.