Sabiha Gokcen Upgrade Date Brought Forward

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tightened the deadline for the redevelopment of Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen International Airport – bringing the completion date forward 12 months.

A consortia led by infrastructure major GMR won the bid to develop the new international terminal in June 2007 at a cost of US$250m over 30 months.

GMR Group Chairman GM Rao told local media although the shorter deadline would be a challenge, the consortia has the technical expertise to achieve it.

After the upgrade the airport will be capable of handling ten million passengers annually.