Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) attends the runway inauguration ceremony at Istanbul Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 14, 2020. Turkey's biggest Istanbul Airport on Sunday inaugurated its third independent runway, local media reported. (Xinhua)
ISTANBUL, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's biggest Istanbul Airport on Sunday inaugurated its third independent runway, local media reported.
The new runway will increase the hourly aircraft landing and take-off capacity of the airport to 120 from 80, according to press reports.
It will also minimize the taxi time of aircraft on domestic flights by as much as 50 percent, the state-run TRT broadcaster said.
According to the simulations, the average aircraft landing time will decrease from 15 minutes to 11 minutes, and the takeoff time will decline from 22 minutes to 15 minutes, it added.
During the ceremony attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, three planes simultaneously took off from the three separate runways.
Istanbul Airport served 64 million passengers over the last year after it became operational in April 2019.
On June 11, Turkey partially resumed international flights, which have been suspended for nearly two months over the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem
