STORY: Türkiye's third-busiest airport inaugurates new runway
SHOOTING TIME: Dec. 25, 2023
DATELINE: Dec. 26, 2023
LENGTH: 00:01:20
LOCATION: ISTANBUL, Türkiye
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Sabiha Gokcen Airport in Istanbul, Türkiye
2. various of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

STORYLINE:

Sabiha Gokcen Airport in Türkiye's largest city, Istanbul, inaugurated a new runway on Monday to better cope with the increasing capacity of the country's financial and cultural hub.
   
At a ceremony held for the opening of the second runway at the airport, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that in the first 11 months of this year, the number of passengers at the Sabiha Gokcen Airport increased by 21 percent to 34 million, aboard 208,000 flights, compared to the same period last year.
   
The airport, located in the Asian part of the bi-continental city, has been the third-busiest in Türkiye, following Istanbul Airport and Antalya Airport in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, as per the passenger traffic recorded last year.
   
"We anticipate that the number of passengers traveling through our airport will exceed 37 million by the end of the year," Erdogan said, adding that the construction of the runway has cost a total of 970 million U.S. dollars.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Istanbul, Türkiye.
(XHTV)