Istanbul has two international airports: The larger is Atatürk
International, in Yeşilköy, 24 kilometers from the city center which
used to be at the edge of the European part but is now inside the
city,The airport is named in honor of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the
founder and first President of the modern Turkish republic.
The more modern is the airport Sabiha Gökçen Airport, 20 kilometers east
of the Asiatic side and 45 kilometers east of the European city
centre. is one of the airports serving Istanbul, Turkey. The
facility is named after Sabiha Gökçen, the world's first female
combat pilot. It is on the Asian side of the bicontinental city,
Istanbul. It was built because the Atatürk International Airport (on
the European side) was not large enough to meet the booming
passenger demands (both domestic and international). SAW's
international terminal capacity is 3M passengers/year and the
domestic terminal capacity is 0.5M/year.
Operation mode
International Flights Terminal consists of three lounges: two
operating for departures, A and B, and one for arrivals. Each
departure lounge accommodates 11 check-in counters and 4 boarding
gates, and arrival section contains 12 passport counters.
Galleries, interconnecting the transformer, VIP buildings and other
units of the airport, are located 6 m below the ground.
It features:
- 3.000.000 passenger/year capacity.
- CIP and VIP lounges
- Duty-free shops, bars and cafés, pubs and restaurants
- Post Office, Bank, Rent-a-Car
- Offices
Luggage systems
A fully automatic luggage conveyor system to realize all luggage
handling processes of the 3,500,000 passengers/year capacity is
available. The conveyor system is capable of detecting all kinds of
explosives, brought by the passengers or incoming with the luggage.
Atatürk has two passenger terminals, one International and one
Domestic (Terminal A and Terminal B), and a Cargo terminal (Terminal
C). Inaugurated in 2001, the international terminal is considered
one of the most efficient and modern terminals in the world
The Sirkeci Terminal of the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) is the
terminating point of all the lines on the European side and the main
connection node of the Turkish railway network with the rest of
Europe. Currently, international connections are provided by the
line running between Istanbul and Thessaloniki, Greece, and the
Bosphorus Express serving daily between Sirkeci and Gara de Nord
in Bucharest, Romania. Lines to Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest, and
Chişinău are established over the Bosphorus Express
connection to Bucharest.
Beyond the Bosphorus, the Haydarpaşa Terminal on the Asian side
serves lines running several times daily to Ankara, and less
frequently to other destinations in Anatolia. The railway networks
on the European and Asian sides are currently connected by train
ferry across the Bosphorus, which will be replaced by an underwater
tunnel connection with the completion of the Marmaray project,
expected in 2009, also connecting the metro system.
The E5, E90 and Trans European Motorway
(TEM) are the three main motorway connections leading from Europe
into Turkey. The motorway network around Istanbul is well developed
and is constantly being extended. Motorways lead to Ankara and
Edirne. There are also 2 express highways circling the city. The
older one called E5 is mostly used for inner city traffic while the
more recent TEM highway is mostly used by intercity or
intercontinental traffic. The Bosphorus Bridge and the Fatih Sultan
Mehmet Bridge establish the motorway connection between the European
and the Asian sides of the Boshporus.
The port of Istanbul is the most important in the country. The
old port at the Golden Horn serves primarily for personal
navigation. Regular services as well as cruises exist to several
ports such as Pireaus (Greece) and Greek islands, Dubrovnik
(Croatia), Venice, Naples (Italy), Marseille (France), Haifa
(Israel) in the Mediterranean Sea, and also Odessa (Ukraine) in
Black Sea
