Aydın-Çıldır Airport to be used for training

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek attend the lease agreement signing ceremony for the Aydin-Çıldır Airport.

Activity at Aydın-Çıldır Airport will increase and the airport will house an education center to train pilots, Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım said at the airport’s lease agreement signing ceremony yesterday.

“Today Turkey has been able to spread its wings to 200 countries and reach 47 different destinations from seven centers in Turkey.” Yıldırım said, referencing a statement he made in 2003 likening Turkey’s aviation sector to “an eagle with its wings spread.” These developments had increased Turkey’s aviation turnover from $2.2 billion to $17 billion, he said.

The airport, which was built in the 1950s on a plot of land belonging to Mustafa Çıldır would become more active in the near future and will host a pilot training education center, Yıldırım said.

“This is value added to the country, it is [the addition of] employment and taxes,” Yıldırım said, and stressed that Turkish Airlines had increased it passengers from 8 million to 38 million since 2003.

On a comparison basis, Yıldırım stressed that while the global aviation sector was growing by four to five percent not withstanding an economic crisis; Turkey had registered double digit growth in its aviation sector.
Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek also attended the signing ceremony.