Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport

Understand

The airport is named after Sabiha Gökçen, adopted daughter of Atatürk, the world's first female fighter pilot. It was built to relieve pressure on Istanbul Atatürk Airport (ISL IATA) on the European side and opened in 2001. As passenger numbers at Atatürk Airport rose even further, it was ultimately replaced by the new Istanbul Airport on the European side. Sabiha Gökçen airport continues to grow despite this, but isn't served by many of the big legacy airlines that serve the main airport on the European side. Low-cost carriers and charter airlines in particular use this airport. While most passengers will not think of SAW as a hub, Pegasus airlines operates a pretty extensive network via SAW (including secondary Turkish cities which don't have direct flights from much of Europe but also destinations throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa) and may be an alternative to Turkish Airlines via IST whether your final destination is in Turkey or not. A new terminal opened in October 2009, expanding the airport's capacity to 25 million passengers per year. In 2023 the airport opened its second runway and there are plans for additional terminals to deal with the continued passenger growth, which reached 48 million in 2025. The airport can get pretty busy at high Turkish holidays as it sees a lot of domestic travel. Plan for plenty of time (three hours to be on the safe side) to make your flight and check in online if possible.