Yildirim: Construction to start for Istanbul's 3rd airport by new year

"We aim to finish preparations for the construction of Istanbul's third airport by the end of 2013," Turkish Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim said on Wednesday. Yildirim stated their goal for 2023 was building airports every 100 km across Turkey and enabling people to travel to airports in an hour. Noting that airports in Ordu, Giresun and Hakkari provinces would be established in the short term, "Several additional airports may be constructed in medium term, which would mean reaching our goals for 2023 far before 2023." Yildirim noted. "Turkey's airports now have the capacity to handle 200 million passengers annually. When the third airport is completed in Istanbul, this figure will rise to 375 million passengers." he added.