Sabiha Gökçen International Airport

Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport is the secondary international airport serving Istanbul, Turkey. Located southeast of the city centre, Sabiha Gökçen Airport is in the Asian part of the transcontinental city and serves as the operating base for AJet and Pegasus Airlines.
The airport is named after Sabiha Gökçen, adoptive daughter of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the first female fighter pilot in the world. Although Istanbul Airport, located west of the European side of Istanbul, is larger, Sabiha Gökçen is still one of the largest airports in the country and one of the busiest airports in the Middle East.

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Overview

Foundation

The airport was built because Atatürk Airport was not large enough to meet the booming passenger demands. The airport opened on 8 January 2001. In June 2007, Turkish conglomerate Limak Holding, India's GMR Group and Malaysia Airport Holding Berhad 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 to host 25 million passengers by 2023, but has already received and handled more than 35 million passengers by 2019.

Expansion

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 Traffic Growth Award by Airline News & Network Analysis.
A second runway was inaugurated on 25 December 2023. The addition of this runway will increase the hourly capacity from 40 to 80 aircraft movements, making the airport hope for double the capacity. It is also planned to build new passenger terminals between the two runways.

Facilities

Terminal

The new terminal building with a 25 million annual passenger capacity serves domestic and international flights under one roof. It is equipped with 112 check-in, 24 online check-in counters as well as a VIP building and apron viewing CIP halls with business lounges. The terminal additionally features a conference centre, a food court and a duty-free shopping area with a ground of. At the international departures area, on the airside, an hourly hotel and lounge became operational in January 2020 as well.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

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

Statistics

Year	Domestic	% change	International	% change	Total	% change
2025	21,196,789	9%	27,223,968	24%	48,420,757	17%
2024	19,503,828	12%	21,945,216	13%	41,449,044	13%
2023	17,473,660	15%	19,351,764	25%	36,825,424	20%
2022	15,239,756	5%	15,498,098	76%	30,737,854	23%
2021	16,095,763	38%	8,805,144	67%	24,900,907	47%
2020	11,687,578	46%	5,263,612	63%	16,951,190	52%
2019	21,505,088	4%	14,055,522	21%	35,560,610	4%
2018	22,514,048	7%	11,619,569	13%	34,133,617	9%
2017	21,075,833	4%	10,310,205	9%	31,386,038	6%
2016	20,196,261	9%	9,471,592	1%	29,667,853	6%
2015	18,525,649	24%	9,583,089	12%	28,108,738	20%
2014	14,955,571	25%	8,539,075	30%	23,494,646	27%
2013	11,928,074	23%	6,593,688	33%	18,521,762	26%
2012	9,710,105	12%	4,975,947	13%	14,686,052	12%
2011	8,704,249	16%	4,420,421	19%	13,124,670	17%
2010	7,489,479	66%	3,700,199	84%	11,189,678	72%
2009	4,510,895	63%	2,006,591	32%	6,517,486	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	5323%	459,922	96%	1,019,746	315%
2004	10,323	265%	235,278	52%	245,601	56%
2003	2,826	5%	154,346	21%	157,172	21%
2002	2,975	75%	127,302	259%	130,277	175%
2001	11,924		35,453		47,377

Ground transport

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

Rail

The airport is located 14 km from the Pendik railway station and sea-taxi stations.

Metro

The M4 metro line was extended to Sabiha Gökçen Havalimanı station on 2 October 2022.
M10, a metro connection to Marmaray and Yüksek Hızlı Tren via the Pendik station is currently being built.

Road

The airport is reachable by car and taxi from the European motorway which passes through the Istanbul Metropolitan Area. Shuttlebus companies such as Havaist along with express public buses E10 and E11 operated by İETT serve Taksim and Kadıköy and there are coaches to nearby towns and cities.

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 measures in place. Three days later, it was reported that militant group Kurdistan Freedom Falcons had organized the attack.
On 7 January 2020, a plane operated as Pegasus Airlines flight 747, a Boeing 737-800, suffered a runway excursion after landing. Passengers evacuated the aircraft using slides. No fatalities or injuries occurred.
On 5 February 2020, a Boeing 737-800, registration TC-IZK, operated as Pegasus Airlines Flight 2193, skidded off the end of Runway 06, leading to an airport shutdown. There were 177 passengers and 6 crew on board. Three people were killed, another 179 were injured.