AnkaraEsenboğa Airport is the international airport of Ankara, the capital city ofTurkey. It has been operating since 1955. In 2017, the airport has served more than 15 million passengers in total, 13 million of which were domestic passengers. It ranked 4th in terms of total passenger traffic, 3rd in terms of domestic passenger traffic among airports in Turkey.
Overview
The airport is located northeast of Ankara, from the city center. The airport is connected with Kızılay and Ankara Intercity Bus Terminal by EGO city bus number 442. Transportation to the city center is also by taxi and through the Havaş bus line. The road between Esenboğa airport and the Ankara ring road was expanded during the summer of 2006, decreasing the driving time between the city center and the airport by several minutes. The name of the airport comes from the village of Esenboğa, which literally means "Windflowing Bull" or "Serene Bull", the modernized form of Isen Buqa, the name of a Turkicwarlord in the army of Timur who settled his troops here during the Battle of Ankara in 1402. Esenboğa International Airport was awarded as the best airport in Europe by ACI Europe and the award presented to airport officials on 17 June 2009 in Manchester. The award is given in 4 categories every year and Esenboğa was in 5–10 million per annum category. It is the first time an ACI award was granted to a Turkish Airport. According to ACI-Europe, "As with number of the top candidates in this category, the airport excels in all the keys areas of operations, however the judges singled it out for its work in the area of environmental innovation, securing an incredible 25% energy savings stemming from its recycling of exhaust gases to power its air conditioning plants." In 2020, Esenboğa Airport was awarded as the best European airport with a capacity of 15 – 25 million passengers by Airports Council International. A new parallel runway is under construction to the east of the terminal building. Upon the completion, the current runway 03R/21L will be resigned as 03C/21C and the new runway will receive the latter's former designation.
Terminals
Esenboga Airport Domestic and International Terminal constructed under "Build-Operate-Transfer" model has been completed within a record time; a year earlier than the committed completion date. Esenboga Airport Domestic and International Terminal, which went into operation on October 16, 2006 with a capacity of 10 million passengers, are spread over a 182 thousand m2 area. A new general aviation terminal with area has been opened in January 2012 to service private and business jets. The New Domestic and International Terminals, opened in 2006, feature area, 10,000,000 passenger/year capacity, 18 ea. passenger bridges, 105 check-in counters, 34 passport counters, a parking facility with area and 4,000 vehicles capacity.
