Sabiha Gökçen International Airport

Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Uluslararası Havalimanı
File:ISG Intl Logo (EN).jpg
IATA: SAW ICAO: LTFJ
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	HEAŞ (Airport Management & Aeronautical Industries Inc)
Operator	Malaysia Airports
Serves	Istanbul, Turkey
Location	Pendik
Hub for	AnadoluJet Borajet Pegasus Airlines Turkish Airlines
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Elevation AMSL	312 ft / 95 m
Website	sabihagokcen.aero
Map
SAW Location of airport in Northwest Turkey
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 06/24 3,000 9,842 Concrete
Statistics (2015)
Passengers 28,285,578 Passenger change 14–15 19.7% Aircraft movements 206,180 Movements change 14–15 19.3%
Source: Turkish AIP at EUROCONTROL Passenger Traffic, ACI Europe

Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (IATA: SAW, ICAO: LTFJ) is one of the two international airports serving İstanbul, the largest city in Turkey, the other being Atatürk Airport. Located 35 km (22 mi) southeast of central İstanbul, Sabiha Gökçen is on the Asian side of the bi-continental city and serves as the hub for Pegasus Airlines as well as a base for Turkish Airlines and Borajet. The facility is named after Sabiha Gökçen, the first female combat pilot in Turkey.

Overview

The airport was built because Atatürk International Airport (located on the European side) was not large enough to meet the booming passenger demands (both domestic and international). In June 2007, Turkish conglomerate Limak Holding, 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. The new terminal was inaugurated on 31 October 2009.

SAW's international terminal capacity originally was 3 million passengers per year and the domestic terminal capacity was 0.5 million passengers per year. In 2010, Sabiha Gökçen airport handled 11,129,472 passengers, a 71% increase compared to 2009. The airport was planning (in 2011) to host 25 million passengers by 2023, but handled more than 28 million passengers in 2015 already.

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. 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 Gokcen 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).
• a 400 m² conference center
• 5,000 m² 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.

The airport's cargo terminal has a capacity of 90,000 tons per year and is equipped with 18 cold storage depots.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Sabiha Gökçen International Airport:

Airlines	Destinations
Aegean Airlines	Seasonal: Heraklion, Mykonos
Air Algérie	Algiers, Oran
Air Arabia	Sharjah
Air Arabia Maroc	Casablanca, Tangier
Air Manas	Bishkek
AtlasGlobal	Seasonal: Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, Nicosia–Ercan, Izmir, Jeddah, Mykonos
AZALJet	Baku
Borajet	Adana, Ankara, Cologne/Bonn, Çanakkale, Edremit, Izmir, Tokat, Trieste, Uşak Seasonal: Arak, Ardabil, Dole, Gökçeada, Ibiza, Mykonos, Nicosia–Ercan, Rhodes, Sanandaj, Skopje
Etihad Airways	Abu Dhabi
Eurowings operated by Germanwings	Seasonal: Berlin-Tegel, Cologne/Bonn, Hamburg, Stuttgart
FlyBaghdad	Baghdad, Najaf
flydubai	Dubai-International
Flynas	Jeddah, Madinah, Riyadh
Freebird Airlines	Seasonal charter: Birmingham, London-Stansted
Jordan Aviation	Charter: Amman-Civil
Nile Air	Cairo
Norwegian Air Shuttle	Oslo-Gardermoen
Pegasus Airlines	Adana, Almaty, Amasya/Merzifon, Amsterdam, Ankara, Antalya, Athens, Baghdad, Bahrain, Baku, Balıkesir/Edremit, Barcelona, Basel/Mulhouse, Batman, Beirut, Belgrade, Bergamo, Berlin-Schönefeld, Bishkek, Bodrum, Bologna, Bucharest, Budapest, Charleroi, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Dalaman, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Doha, Dubai-International, Düsseldorf, Elazığ, Erbil, Erzincan, Erzurum, Frankfurt, Gaziantep, Gazipaşa, Geneva, Hamburg, Hatay, Hurghada, Izmir, Kahramanmaraş, Kastamonu, Kars, Kayseri, Kharkiv, Konya, Krasnodar, Kuwait, London-Gatwick, London-Stansted, Lviv, Lyon, Madrid, Malatya, Mardin, Marseille, Milan-Malpensa, Moscow-Domodedovo, Munich, Münster-Osnabrück, Muş, Nevşehir, Nice, Nicosia–Ercan, Nuremberg, Oslo-Gardermoen, Ordu-Giresun, Paris-Orly, Prague, Pristina, Qabala, Rome-Fiumicino, Saint-Étienne, Samsun, Şanlıurfa, Sarajevo, Sharm el-Sheikh, Sivas, Skopje, Sochi, Stockholm-Arlanda, Stuttgart, Sulaymaniyah, Tbilisi, Tehran-Imam Khomeini, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion, Tirana, Trabzon, Van, Vienna, Zaporizhia, Zürich
Qatar Airways	Doha
SunExpress	Antalya, Izmir Seasonal: Stuttgart
SunExpress Deutschland	Dortmund
Transavia France	Paris-Orly
Turkish Airlines	Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Ankara, Antalya, Baghdad, Bahrain, Barcelona, Basra, Berlin-Tegel, Bodrum, Brussels, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Dalaman, Dubai-International, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Izmir, Jeddah, Kiev-Boryspil, Kuwait, London-Gatwick, Milan-Malpensa, Munich, Nicosia–Ercan, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Riyadh, Rome-Fiumicino, Stockholm-Arlanda, Stuttgart, Tbilisi, Tehran-Imam Khomeini, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion, Vienna Seasonal: Baku, Erbil, Venice
Turkish Airlines operated by AnadoluJet	Adana, Ankara, Bodrum, Dalaman, Diyarbakır, Edremit, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kars, Kayseri, Mardin, Nevşehir, Ordu-Giresun, Samsun, Sivas, Trabzon, Van
Wings of Lebanon	Charter: Beirut

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
ASL Airlines Belgium	Liege
Buraq Air	Misrata
Cargolux	Amman-Queen Alia, Luxembourg
CAVOK Air	Lviv
Ethiopian Airlines	Addis Ababa, Liege
MNG Airlines	Leipzig, Barcelona, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Doha
MyCargo Airlines	Baku, Beirut, Frankfurt, Liege
Silk Road Cargo	Tashkent
Silk Way Airlines	Baku
Ukraine Air Alliance	Lviv, Kiev
ULS Airlines Cargo	Beirut, Misrata, Tallinn, Tripoli

Statistics

Traffic figures

Terminal building

Check-in area

Apron view

İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport passenger traffic statistics

Year	Domestic	% change	International	% change	Total	% change
2016 (Apr.)	6,159,530	22%	2,919,803	8%	9,079,333	17%
2015	18,535,463	24%	9,576,975	12%	28,112,438	20%
2014	15,008,600	26%	8,499,541	29%	23,508,141	27%
2013	11,947,424	23%	6,694,418	35%	18,641,842	27%
2012	9,486,469	9%	5,000,773	13%	14,487,242	10%
2011	8,704,249	16%	4,420,421	20%	13,124,670	17%
2010	7,435,158	65%	3,694,314	84%	11,129,472	71%
2009	4,547,673	63%	2,092,285	33%	6,639,958	52%
2008	2,764,856	9%	1,516,337	27%	4,281,193	15%
2007	2,528,549	17%	1,191,946	56%	3,720,495	28%
2006	2,153,561	285%	762,893	66%	2,916,454	186%
2005	559,824	5,323%	459,922	96%	1,019,746	315%
2004	10,323	265%	235,278	52%	245,601	56%
2003	2,826	–	154,346	–	157,172	–

Passenger development

Sabiha Gökçen passenger totals, 2005–2015 (millions)

Ground transport

Sabiha Gökçen International Airport is connected to the city of Istanbul and that city's wider metropolitan area through a number of transport corridors.

Rail

The airport is located 14 km from the town of Pendik's railway and sea-taxi stations but a connection via Marmaray is planned.

Metro

The M4 metro line is being extended towards the airport. The current terminus at Kartal can be reached by a long bus or taxi ride.

Shuttlebuses and coaches

Shuttlebuses serve Taksim and Kadikoy and there are coaches to nearby towns and cities.

Car and taxi

The main airport complex is reachable by car from the E80 (Trans-European Motorway) which passes through the Istanbul Metropolitan Area.

Accidents and incidents

• On 23 December 2015 at approximately 2:00 AM, explosions were reported to have occurred in a parked Pegasus Airlines aircraft, killing one cleaner and wounding another inside the plane. Five nearby planes were reported to be damaged as well. The operations were reported to continue normally soon after, however with heightened security measured in place. Three days later, it was reported that "PKK-affiliated terrorist group". Kurdistan Freedom Falcons had organized the attack.

External links

Media related to Sabiha Gökçen International Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Current weather for LTFJ at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for SAW at Aviation Safety Network