ISGIA: Europe’s Fastest Growing Airport
By Ralph Anker Editor, anna.aero
Last year Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen airport reported growth of almost 50 % (from 4.3 million passengers to 6.3 million), the only airport in Europe to increase its passenger throughput by as much as two million passengers. Traffic growth was highest in the domestic market, which was up 58 % while international traffic increased by almost 30 %.
In the first seven months of 2010 passenger numbers grew even faster. Domestic demand is up 90 % while international services have seen passenger growth of 97 %. This suggests that the airport is well on course to pass the 10 million passenger mark before the end of the year.
According to schedule data provided by OAG the leading airline at the airport (for week commencing 6 September 2010) was Pegasus, which operates 500 weekly departures across a network of 47 destinations, both domestic and international. Turkish Airlines (in conjunction with its low-cost subsidiary Anadolujet) and Sun Express (a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa) also both offer a network of domestic and international flights.
Many of Europe’s leading LCC’s now serve SAW
The majority of flights operated at the airport by non-Turkish airlines are provided by some of Europe’s biggest low-cost-carriers. Easyjet serves Basel and London (Gatwick and Luton), germanwings operates to Berlin, Cologne/Bonn, Dortmund and Stuttgart, Vueling serves Barcelona and transavia.com serves Amsterdam, while Blu-Express serves Rome and Milan. In December Wizz Air will begin flights to Budapest. At present Europe’s biggest LCC, Ryanair, does not have a presence in the market but this may change before long. Other carriers launching new routes to SAW before the end of the year are Cimber Sterling (to Copenhagen) and Moldavian Airlines (to Chisinau). Istanbul’s location means that some Middle Eastern carriers also serve the airport; Air Arabia serves Sharjah, flydubai started Dubai flights in June, while Jazeera Airways serves Kuwait.