Istanbul Airport is set to open its fourth main runway on Thursday, expanding the hub’s capacity as Turkey pushes ahead with a major airfield upgrade. The new 2,820-metre concrete runway is the airport’s first east-west strip and will bring the total runway count to six, including four main runways and two backup runways.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu has said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will attend the opening ceremony. The additional runway is designed to shorten taxi and turnaround times, particularly for domestic traffic and eastbound departures, while giving operators more flexibility in poor weather.
The airport already became the first in Europe to handle three independent runways at the same time. The latest expansion further strengthens its role as a connecting hub for traffic between Europe, Asia and the Middle East, where runway availability and quick aircraft movements are central to network performance.