Turkey earning billions from flight navigation services

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s status as a top regional air hub is reaping it billions of dollars in revenue, and those earnings will balloon in the years to come, the state’s airport authority has announced.

Turkey's revenue from air navigation services in 2015 totalled $1.13 billion, reported the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI) Thursday.

DHMI stated that those funds had been received from Eurocontrol, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation.

Turkey last year became the number one country contributing to air traffic in Europe through providing over 1.8 million flight navigation services in the country's airspace, according to the DHMI's 2105 annual report.

Citing the high accelerated traffic growth in Turkish airspace, DHMI stressed that Turkey had the sixth-largest air navigation market in Europe in 2015.

"Although there was a huge increase in air traffic, the country did not implement any regulation or limitation on flight activities. We continued our flight control services at the highest level of quality despite the increasing workload," stated the report.

The report projected that by 2021, Turkey will earn $3.26 billion annually from air navigation services, under a five-year program with infrastructure and superstructure upgrades.

On achieving the targets, the report said, "The country will provide many more services in light of the work to expand the capacity of Istanbul Ataturk Airport and the construction of Istanbul's new airport with an annual capacity of 150 million passengers."