Europe's first airport on artificial island opens in Black Sea

ORDU - Anadolu Agency

DHA Photo

Europe's first airport on an artificial island opened on May 22, as a morning Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul carrying 136 passengers touched down on its runway, the first of its kind outside the Far East.

The new airport, off the coast of the Black Sea provinces of Ordu and Giresun, was officially opened by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu later on May 22.

Erdoğan said the next opening ceremony for a new airport will be in the eastern province of Hakkari, adding the number of airports in the country will soon increase to 60. 

Construction of the artificial island in Ordu and Giresun, which cost around 360 million Turkish liras ($132.6 million), began in July 2011.

Around 35 million tons of rocks were used to fill a 1.8-million-square-meter area of the sea.

The airport’s runway is 3,000 meters long and 45 meters wide. 

State-of-the-art technology was used to prevent Black Sea waves from damaging the airport, while a special material, called stone mastic asphalt, was used to build the runway.

Although only serving Istanbul and Ankara flights at the moment, the airport has plans to expand to 42 destinations.

The number of tourists and investors in the Black Sea region is expected to increase with the opening of the new airport.

Ordu Governor İrfan Balkanlıoğlu said tourism investors had already begun to come to the city in April, ahead of the opening of the airport. 

Underlining a striking increase in the number of investor coming to Ordu, Balkanlıoğlu said the governorship of Ordu was aiming to boost interest in the city with promotions.

“We expect that there will be a huge increase in the flow of tourists… Arab investors bought over 100 residences in Ordu, especially in the districts of Akkuş, Ünye, Fatsa and Kabadüz,” he said in a statement in April. 

This number is expected to reach over 600 within this year, Balkanlıoğlu said.