The construction of Istanbul’s third airport will be complete on time, Turkey’s Minister of Transportion, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ahmet Arslan had said on Tuesday. “Financial bottleneck is out of question in the project. The project will be completed on time.” Arslan had told Anadolu Agency. Arslan also said the contractor continues its investment in accordance with the approved work program.
Right after Arslan’s statements, US’ media organ Bloomberg twisted minister’s words around. Bloomberg claimed that new Istanbul airport was facing challenges even before the government minister in charge of the project started talking about insolvency.
It was claimed that Minister Ahmet Arslan had confirmed the government was considering giving the consortium an unspecified amount of time before requiring it to start paying rent, which has been set at more than $1 billion annually over 25 years. It was even written in a sarcasticical way that the new airport will be larger than Manhattan into a series of buildings and runways able to eventually handle as many as 200 million passengers a year.
“NEW AIRPORT WILL BE COMPLETED ON TIME”
The official opening of the first phase of the new airport is planned to take place on Oct. 29, the day Turkey marks its Republic Day.
When it is completed, the new airport will assume most of the passenger traffic from Ataturk International Airport, hosting 250 airlines flying to more than 350 destinations, making it one of the world’s largest transport hubs.