# Ankara Esenboğa Airport

Ankara Esenboğa Airport (IATA: ESB, ICAO: LTAC) is an international airport of Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. In 2024, the airport has served more than 12 million passengers in total, 9 million of which were domestic passengers. It ranked 4th in terms of total passenger traffic (after Istanbul Airport, Sabiha Gökçen Airport and Antalya Airport), 3rd in terms of domestic passenger traffic (after Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport) among airports in Turkey. The airport was ranked 22nd in the "100 Things That Give Hope in Turkey" list published in the 100th issue of Newsweek Turkey magazine.

## Overview

The airport is located northeast of Ankara, 28 km (17 mi) from the city center. The airport is connected with Kızılay (the city center) and Ankara Intercity Bus Terminal (Turkish: Ankara Şehirlerarası Terminal İşletmesi, AŞTİ) by EGO city bus number 442 (from 6 am to 11pm). Transportation to the city center is also by taxi (around TRY 900 one way, metered) and through the Havaş bus line (approximately TRY 120 one way). The road between Esenboğa airport and the Ankara ring road was expanded during the summer of 2006, decreasing the driving time between the city center and the airport by several minutes.
The name of the airport comes from the village of Esenboğa (the ğ is silent), which literally means "Windflowing Bull" or "Serene Bull", the modernized form of Isen Buqa, the name of a Turkic warlord in the army of Timur who settled his troops here during the Battle of Ankara in 1402.
Esenboğa International Airport was awarded as the best airport in Europe by ACI Europe (Airport Council International) and the award presented to airport officials on 17 June 2009 in Manchester. The award is given in 4 categories every year and Esenboğa was in 5–10 million per annum category. It is the first time an ACI award was granted to a Turkish Airport. According to ACI-Europe, "As with number of the top candidates in this category, the airport excels in all the keys areas of operations, however the judges singled it out for its work in the area of environmental innovation, securing an incredible 25% energy savings stemming from its recycling of exhaust gases to power its air conditioning plants." In 2020, Esenboğa Airport was awarded as the best European airport with a capacity of 15 – 25 million passengers by Airports Council International.
A new parallel runway is under construction to the east of the terminal building. Upon the completion, the current runway 03R/21L will be resigned as 03C/21C and the new runway will receive the latter's former designation.

## Terminals

Esenboga Airport Domestic and International Terminal constructed under "Build-Operate-Transfer" model has been completed. Esenboga Airport current Terminal, which went into operation on October 16, 2006 with a capacity of 10 million passengers, are spread over a 182,000 square metres (1,960,000 sq ft) area. A new general aviation terminal with 469 m$^2$ (5,048 sq ft) area has been opened in January 2012 to service private and business jets.
The new terminal, opened in 2006, feature 168,000 m$^2$ (1,808,337 sq ft) area, 10,000,000 passenger/year capacity, 18 ea. passenger bridges, 105 check-in counters, 34 passport counters, a parking facility with 123,000 m$^2$ (1,323,961 sq ft) area and 4,000 vehicles capacity.

## Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Ankara Esenboğa Airport:
| Airlines | Destinations |
| Air Albania | Seasonal: Tirana |
| Air Serbia | Seasonal: Belgrade |
| AJet | Adana/Mersin, Adıyaman, Ağrı, Almaty, Amman–Queen Alia, Amsterdam, Antalya, Astana, Baghdad, Baku, Batman, Beirut, Belgrade, Berlin, Bingöl, Bishkek, Bodrum, Bursa, Çanakkale, Dalaman, Diyarbakır, Dubai–International, Düsseldorf, Edremit, Elazığ, Ercan, Erzincan, Erzurum, Frankfurt, Gaziantep, Gazipaşa/Alanya, Hakkari, Hatay, Iğdır, Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen, İzmir, Jeddah, Kahramanmaraş, Kars, London–Stansted, Malatya, Mardin, Medina, Moscow–Vnukovo, Muş, Ordu/Giresun, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Rize/Artvin, Samsun, Şanlıurfa, Siirt, Şırnak, Tashkent, Tehran–Imam Khomeini, Tokat, Trabzon, Van, Vienna Seasonal: Brussels, Cologne/Bonn, Geneva, Hamburg, Munich, Stockholm–Arlanda, Stuttgart |
| Ariana Afghan Airlines | Kabul |
| Azerbaijan Airlines | Baku |
| Caspian Airlines | Tehran–Imam Khomeini |
| Corendon Airlines | Seasonal: Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Nuremberg |
| FlyArystan | Astana |
| Fly Baghdad | Baghdad, Erbil |
| Flydubai | Dubai–International |
| Fly Kıbrıs Airlines | Ercan |
| Iraqi Airways | Baghdad, Erbil, Kirkuk |
| Kam Air | Kabul |
| Mahan Air | Tehran–Imam Khomeini |
| Pegasus Airlines | Almaty, Amman–Queen Alia, Antalya, Bodrum, Bucharest–Otopeni, Cologne/Bonn, Çorlu, Dubai–International, Düsseldorf, Erbil, Ercan, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen, İzmir, Jeddah, Kraków, London–Stansted, Medina, Sharjah, Stockholm–Arlanda, Stuttgart, Tbilisi, Tehran–Imam Khomeini, Vienna, Warsaw–Chopin Seasonal: Berlin, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Moscow–Domodedovo |
| Qatar Airways | Doha |
| Qeshm Air | Tehran–Imam Khomeini |
| Saudia | Jeddah, Medina |
| Sepehran Airlines | Tehran–Imam Khomeini |
| SunExpress | Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover, Munich Seasonal: Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Stockholm–Arlanda, Stuttgart, Tbilisi, Vienna, Zürich |
| Transavia | Paris–Orly |
| Turkish Airlines | Istanbul |
| UR Airlines | Baghdad |
| Uzbekistan Airways | Tashkent |

## Statistics
### Movements

Ankara Esenboğa International Airport Aircraft Movement Statistics :
| Year | Domestic | % change | International | % change | Total | % change |
| 2024 | 71,541 | 3% | 25,341 | 9% | 96,882 | 4% |
| 2023 | 69,762 | 29% | 23,312 | 34% | 93,074 | 30% |
| 2022 | 53,926 | 2% | 17,429 | 23% | 71,355 | 7% |
| 2021 | 52,753 | 28% | 14,160 | 56% | 66,913 | 33% |
| 2020 | 41,321 | 48% | 9,073 | 55% | 50,394 | 49% |
| 2019 | 78,871 | 21% | 20,371 | 4% | 99,242 | 17% |
| 2018 | 100,258 | 1% | 19,513 | 6% | 119,771 | 2% |
| 2017 | 99,384 | 11% | 18,453 | 14% | 117,837 | 12% |
| 2016 | 89,458 | 8% | 16,152 | 3% | 105,610 | 7% |
| 2015 | 82,852 | 5% | 15,758 | 0% | 98,610 | 4% |
| 2014 | 78,712 | 2% | 15,706 | 6% | 94,418 | 2% |
| 2013 | 80,107 | 16% | 16,711 | 1% | 96,818 | 13% |
| 2012 | 69,335 | 3% | 16,548 | 7% | 85,883 | 4% |
| 2011 | 67,513 | 13% | 15,452 | 7% | 82,965 | 12% |
| 2010 | 59,509 | 18% | 14,420 | 17% | 73,929 | 18% |
| 2009 | 50,347 | 4% | 12,273 | 15% | 62,620 | 0% |
| 2008 | 48,463 | 2% | 14,396 | 12% | 62,859 | 2% |
| 2007 | 47,578 | | 16,331 | | 63,909 | |

## Other facilities

* The airport is the head office of AnadoluJet.
* Esenboğa Airport was designated as one of the emergency landing sites for NASA's Space Shuttle.

## Accidents and incidents

* Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871, a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle I registered as OY-KRB, crashed on approach killing all 42 occupants onboard.
* Turkish Airlines Flight 835, a Fokker F27 Friendship registered as TC-TAY, crashed into a hill shortly before landing killing 28 occupants out of the 29.
* British European Airways Flight 226, a de Havilland Comet 4B registered as G-ARJM, crashed shortly after takeoff due to stalling. Twenty-seven out of the 34 occupants were killed.
* 1979 Turkish Airlines Ankara crash, a Fokker F28 Fellowship registered as TC-JAT, crashed during approach killing 41 out of the 45 occupants onboard.
* Turkish Airlines Flight 158, a Boeing 727-2F2 registered as TC-JBR, landed 50 meters short of the runway resulting in the deaths of 47 occupants out of the 67.