Northern Cyprus' newly expanded airport to be 'gateway to world'

By Mehmet Kemal Firik

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (AA) — With a new runway and terminal building, the international airport serving the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus' (TRNC) capital will become a "window to the world," a top official said Wednesday.

The expansions to Ercan Airport, a roughly 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) drive from the city of Lefkosa, are set to be inaugurated in a ceremony on Thursday, Public Works and Transport Minister Erhan Arikli told Anadolu.

"Ercan Airport will be the TRNC's window to the world," said Arikli, adding that the €450-million expansion would raise the facility's annual passenger capacity to 10 million.

"But with an additional investment, this can rise to 15 million. So, we can call this an investment that will carry us into the 2050s," he said.

Arikli elaborated that initially, Ercan Airport's annual passenger capacity, currently at 4 million, may increase to as much as 8 million after the new terminal and runway are brought online and ticket prices fall.

It will also generate about €30 million of annual public revenue, he added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend Thursday's opening, which will coincide with anniversary of the Türkiye's peace operation on the Eastern Mediterranean island, launched on July 20, 1974 to end ethnic violence committed by the Greek Cypriots against the Turkish Cypriots.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aiming at Greece's annexation led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. The TRNC was founded in 1983.