Turkey inaugurated a new control tower and third runway at Ankara’s Esenboğa International Airport on Monday as part of an ambitious expansion plan to increase the airport‘s capacity by at least 10 million passengers a year. The official ceremony was attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The project has involved an investment of 298 million euros, although, as Erdoğan himself explained, it was executed “without a single cent coming out of the state coffers”, since the expansion has been carried out through a public-private partnership (PPP) model whereby the operating company will pay the state a total of 560 million euros, including taxes, as rent for a concession period of 25 years.
The new runway at the Turkish capital’s international airport is 3,750 metres long and 75 metres wide, while the new control tower, with a modern design, is 77 metres high. The expansion project also includes a 13,500 square metre technical block and a new 85,000 square metre cargo apron with the capacity to park up to six aircraft. In a second phase, the airport terminal building will be extended by at least 40,000 square metres.
Turkey has doubled the number of airports in 20 years
Speaking at the ceremony and reported by Turkish media, Turkey’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, highlighted the expansion of the country’s air transport sector in recent years, from 26 active airports in 2002 to 58 today, with the addition of Çukurova International Airport: “From flying to only 60 destinations in 50 countries on international routes, last year we reached 356 destinations in 133 countries“.
Uraloğlu added that the number of passengers on domestic and international routes grew from 34.5 million in 2002 to 247 million by the end of 2025, and recalled that an all-time record was broken on 4 January with 2,177 transit flights in a single day. “With this tremendous momentum, I would like to inform you that we are poised to set a new record and surpass 258 million passengers by 2026,” he said.
The minister also underlined that Esenboğa Airport will strengthen the civil aviation sector thanks to its third runway, its new 77-metre high control tower and complementary facilities. “In recent years, the airport has experienced strong growth, from around 7 million passengers in 2021 to around 14 million passengers in 2025: in other words, traffic has doubled in five years,” he added.
“According to our 10-year forecast, passenger volumes will increase by 65% to reach 23 million in 2035 and 31.5 million in 2045; in the face of this rapid growth and the expected high demand, we are preparing Ankara Esenboğa Airport for the future with a comprehensive two-phase modernisation project, of which we have now completed the first phase,” the minister concluded.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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