Workers stage protest at Istanbul’s new airport ahead of opening
ISTANBUL
Turkish officials have said they would meet the construction workers at Istanbul’s new airport after they staged a protest on Sept. 14.
Demirören News Agency reported that security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of workers who were protesting dangerous working conditions at the site as it prepares to open next month.
Kadri Samsunlu, CEO of IGA, the company that was founded to build Istanbul’s third airport, said in a statement after the protest that officials will meet the workers.
IGA’s statement said the workers were “aggrieved” because they had to wait under the rain on the morning of Sept. 14 as their shuttles arrived late to take them to the construction site.
Samsunlu “will meet the representatives of the workers and find ways to solve the issue,” the statement said.
Located by the Black Sea, the new airport will initially have the capacity to handle around 90 million passengers per year, but that number is expected to rise to 150 million by 2023.
To publicize the project, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s plane landed there in June just days before the presidential election.
Some 35,000 people are working round-the-clock to finish it on time for the inauguration at the end of October.
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