Groundbreaking for Turkey’s second airport on sea to be completed by April: Minister

ISTANBUL

AA photo

The groundbreaking process for Turkey’s second airport to be built on an artificial island on the Black Sea will be completed by April, Transportation Minister Ahmet Arslan has announced.

The minister said financial offers for the Rize-Artvin Airport off the coast of Rize and Artvin had been taken and that the project’s winning firm for the tender would be announced within 15 days, alongside a groundbreaking process slated for completion by April.

“We are planning to break ground by April. We will complete the airport, which will be able to serve 3 million passengers, by 2022. Four out of five [initially interested] firms have placed their bids. The lowest bid was placed by the Cengiz İnşaat-AGA Enerji Ortaklığı,” Arslan said.

Once completed, the Rize-Artvin Airport will be the country’s and Europe’s second airport built on an artificial island after the Ordu-Giresun Airport on the Black Sea, which was opened on May 2015 at a cost of around 360 million Turkish Liras ($96.6 million).