# Sabiha Gökçen International Airport

Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (IATA: SAW, ICAO: LTFJ) is an international airport serving Istanbul, Turkey. Located 32 km (20 mi) 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 63 km (39 mi) 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.

## Overview
### Foundation

The airport was built because Atatürk Airport (located on the European side) was not large enough to meet the booming passenger demands (both domestic and international). The airport opened on 8 January 2001. In June 2007, Turkish conglomerate Limak Holding, India's GMR Group and Malaysia Airport Holding Berhad (MAHB) 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 (in 2011) 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 400 m$^2$ (4,300 sq ft) conference centre, a 5,000 m$^2$ (54,000 sq ft) food court and a duty-free shopping area with a ground of 4,500 square metres (48,000 sq ft). At the international departures area, on the airside, an hourly hotel and lounge became operational in January 2020 as well.

### Other facilities

The features and services of the new terminal and its outlying buildings include a four-storey car park with a capacity of about 4,718 vehicles + 72 bus (3.836 indoors and 882 + 72 bus outdoors), a four-storey hotel with 128 rooms adjacent to the terminal. There is also a Multi Aircraft Ramp System (MARS), allowing simultaneous service to 8 aircraft with large fuselages (IATA code E) or 16 middle-sized fuselage aircraft (IATA code C) installed.

## Airlines and destinations
### Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Sabiha Gökçen International Airport:
| Airlines | Destinations |
| Air Arabia | Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Casablanca, Sharjah, Tangier |
| Air Cairo | Cairo |
| AJet | Adana/Mersin, Adiyaman, Ağrı, Algiers, Amsterdam, Ankara, Antalya, Baghdad, Bahrain, Baku, Barcelona, Basel/Mulhouse, Batman, Belgrade, Bergamo, Berlin, Bishkek (begins 24 March 2025), Bodrum, Brussels, Budapest, Cairo, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Dalaman, Dammam, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Dubai–International, Düsseldorf, Edremit, Elazığ, Erbil, Ercan, Erzincan, Erzurum, Frankfurt, Gaziantep, Giza, Hamburg, Hannover, Hatay, Hurghada, Iğdır, İzmir, Jeddah, Kars, Kayseri, Konya, Kuwait City, London–Stansted, Lyon, Malatya, Mardin, Medina, Moscow–Vnukovo, Mostar (begins 4 June 2025), Munich, Nevşehir, Ordu/Giresun, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Pristina, Riyadh, Rize/Artvin, Rome–Fiumicino, Saint Petersburg, Samsun, Şanlıurfa, Sarajevo, Sharjah, Sharm El Sheikh, Shymkent, Şırnak, Sivas, Stockholm–Arlanda (begins 2 June 2025), Stuttgart, Tbilisi, Tehran–Imam Khomeini, Tokat, Trabzon, Tuzla, Urmia, Van, Vienna, Zurich |
| Azerbaijan Airlines | Baku |
| British Airways | London–Heathrow |
| Centrum Air | Tashkent, Urgench (begins 30 March 2025) |
| FlyArystan | Türkıstan |
| Fly Baghdad | Baghdad |
| Flydubai | Dubai–International |
| Flynas | Gassim, Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam |
| Iraqi Airways | Baghdad |
| Jazeera Airways | Kuwait City |
| Kuwait Airways | Kuwait City |
| Nile Air | Cairo |
| Pegasus Airlines | Abu Dhabi, Adana/Mersin, Adıyaman, Alexandria, Almaty, Amasya/Merzifon, Amman–Queen Alia, Amsterdam, Ankara, Antalya, Astana, Athens, Baghdad, Bahrain, Baku, Barcelona, Basel/Mulhouse, Basra, Batman, Batumi, Beirut, Belgrade, Bergamo, Berlin, Bratislava, Birmingham, Bishkek, Bodrum, Bologna, Bremen, Bucharest–Otopeni, Budapest, Casablanca, Charleroi, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Dalaman, Dammam, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Doha, Dortmund, Dubai–International, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Edinburgh, Edremit, Eindhoven, Elazığ, Erbil, Ercan, Erzincan, Erzurum, Frankfurt, Ganja, Gaziantep, Gazipaşa/Alanya, Geneva, Grozny, Hamburg, Hannover, Helsinki, Hurghada, Iğdır, Isfahan, İzmir, Jeddah, Kahramanmaraş (resumes 3 April 2025), Karachi, Kars, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Konya, Kutaisi, Kuwait City, London–Stansted, Lyon, Madrid, Malatya, Manchester, Mardin, Marseille, Mashhad, Medina, Munich, Muş, Muscat, Nice, Nuremberg, Ordu/Giresun, Osh, Oslo, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Podgorica, Prague, Pristina, Ras Al Khaimah, Riyadh, Rize/Artvin, Rome–Fiumicino, Rotterdam/The Hague, Saint Petersburg, Samsun, Şanlıurfa, Sarajevo, Seville, Sharjah, Sharm El Sheikh, Shiraz, Shymkent, Sinop, Sivas, Skopje, Sofia, Stockholm–Arlanda, Stuttgart, Sulaimaniyah, Tabriz, Tbilisi, Tehran–Imam Khomeini, Tirana, Trabzon, Tuzla, Van, Venice, Vienna, Yerevan, Zagreb, Zurich Seasonal: Mytilene, Rhodes |
| Qatar Airways | Doha |
| Royal Air Maroc | Casablanca |
| SalamAir | Muscat |

### Cargo

| Airlines | Destinations |
| Cargolux | Luxembourg |
| Ethiopian Cargo | Addis Ababa |
| MNG Airlines | Leipzig/Halle, Paris–Charles de Gaulle |

## Statistics

İstanbul–Sabiha Gökçen International Airport passenger traffic statistics :
| Year | Domestic | % change | International | % change | Total | % change |
| 2025(Feb.) | 2,863,078 | 3% | 4,026,760 | 18% | 6,889,838 | 9% |
| 2024 | 19,509,605 | 12% | 21,973,296 | 14% | 41,482,901 | 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 | | 154,346 | | 157,172 | |

## 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 has been extended to the airport.
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 E80 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.