Upgrating the airport to C-III

Gazipaþa Airport, 45 kilometers from the Alanya city center on the Mediterranean coast, opened on July 13 of this year but is still awaiting its first commercial flight.

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Gazipaþa Airport head Cengiz Asikli said the airport is able to accommodate airplanes that hold 150-160 passengers.

Stressing that the airport, which has an airport reference code of C-II, is technically ready for such landings, Asikli complained that airlines prefer C-III airports. The airport reference code is a coding system that relates airport design criteria to the operational and physical characteristics of airplane types. Reference codes designate what kind of aircrafts can safely land at an airport and at what speed.

Noting that they plan to purchase new land and upgrade the airport to C-III level, Asikli said they will purchase 173,000 square meters of land by February or March of next year.

Gazipaþa District Mayor Cemburak Ozgenc said that with 40 personnel, the airport is open for international air traffic, but only three small airplanes that belong to the State Airports Management General Directorate (DHMÝ), TAV Airports Holding and Beykent University have landed there so far.

The construction of Gazipaþa Airport began in 1991, and it will have an annual capacity of 500,000 passengers once certain technical requirements are met. Operating rights for the airport, whose terminal building spans 2,144 square meters and which has a 105-car capacity parking lot, belong to DHMÝ and TAV Airport Holding. A 1,824-meter landing field has been constructed, its flight control tower is now functional and with its customs control point, the airport is capable of receiving international flights.