New airport terminal to bring new lease of life to Turkish tourism

Expectations are high for the Turkish tourism industry in 2018, and one key player that will be cashing in on the glory is Dalaman Airport on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

Dalaman airport is a major transport hub for the touristic resorts of Marmaris, Dalyan, Sarigerme, and the Fethiye region, and the average yearly passenger traffic for both the domestic and international terminals is 4.5 million.

At the end of April, the airline hub will unveil its new €250 million domestic terminal – a project which has been more than four years in the making.

First opened in 1981, the airport, which covers more than 6,000,000 square metres of land, will have the capacity to deal with 15 million passengers every year thanks to the long awaited upgrade from YDA, the company in charge of site management.

This is the first modernisation of the building in more than a decade, after renowned Turkish architect Emre Aralot upgraded the international terminal back in 2006 - which came at a cost of more than $150 million.

Construction on the new terminal building also includes a power plant, new parking lot, and new terminal roads. Newly installed solar energy also makes the terminal energy efficient.

UK airlines are already set to take advantage of the extra capacity the new terminal will offer, as TUI has introduced another flight schedule from Manchester to Dalaman every Sunday during the tourism season.

Jet2 has also increased capacity on already existing routes and added an additional route from Birmingham to Dalaman, while EasyJet has focused on extra capacity from Liverpool to Dalaman.

They also run flight schedules to Dalaman from Bristol, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Luton, Stanstead and Manchester. Uniquely some of their flights will start from the end of March, adding an extra month to the typical tourist season of May to October.

The other star player in the aviation industry of Turkey and the world will be the New Istanbul Airport that is set to open the first phase of operation in October 2018. Once the airport is fully up and running, in ten years, it will be a global transport hub for domestic and international traffic as well as cargo.

https://www.jet2.com/flights/turkey