Largest plane lands at Istanbul’s airport

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

The land crew walks around an Airbus A380 that landed at Atatürk International Airport within the scope of an aviation event, which was attended by large companies. DHA photo

The world’s largest passenger jet, Airbus A380, landed at Istanbul’s Atatürk International Airport yesterday.

The jet, which has a capacity of 850 passengers, will be on display at the Airex 2012 Aviation and Airports Exhibition in Istanbul on the first day of the event. The ninth Airex exhibition will take place for the ninth time at the airport between Sept. 6 and 9.

“The new goal in aviation is to make Turkey a country in which 375 million flight tickets are sold per year,” Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım said yesterday at the opening of Airex. The current figure is 87 million, he said.

The Turkish aviation industry has recorded double-digit growth rates in almost every aspect of the sector, he said, adding that Turkey had achieved its previous goals in the aviation industry 12 years early.

“In the last 10 years, the industry has increased its number of aviation agreements to 136 from 51. The turnover exceeded $16 billion from $2 billion. The number of people directly employed in the industry reached between 150,000 and 160,000, from 64,000,” he said, adding that the number of arrivals on domestic lines had increased two fold, while on international lines this figure had increased from 60 to 175.

Turkey is one of the top 10 countries in the world in terms of arrival point numbers and the extent of its service network, Yıldırım also said.

“Turkey, which only has 70 helicopters, urgently needs 300 more. The number licensed heliports id 50, which should reach 300,” he said.

The Airex event will become “Istanbul Airshow” in 2014, contributing into efforts to promote Istanbul, Turkish Arilines Chairman Hamdi Topçu said.