The General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMİ), Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA) Corp. and relevant banks have signed a verification protocol for the 4.5 billion-euro loan that will be provided by six banks for the construction of the first phase of Istanbul's third airport. According to a statement released on the DHMİ's website, DHMİ General Manager Serdar Hüseyin Yıldırım, DHMi Deputy General Manager Funda Ocak, IGA authorities and bank authorities attended the signing ceremony that was held to verify the financing loan to be provided for the construction of the first phase of the airport.

The IGA consortium, which won a tender held in May 2013 to build Istanbul's new airport, signed an agreement with six banks, including state-owned Halkbank, Ziraat Bankası and VakıfBank as well as the foreign-financed banks DenizBank, Garanti Bankası and Finansbank, that will provide credit for the investments in the first phase, which has a passenger capacity of 90 million and will have three runways. The consortium includes Turkish construction companies Cengiz, Mapa, Limak, Kolin and Kalyon. According to the agreement, the loan maturity date will be in 16 years. Moreover, 3.5 billion euros belong to state-owned banks, while the rest are provided by private banks.

The total investment cost of the project is 10.2 billion euros, which is the highest investment amount Turkey has ever spent in this area. According to the IGA website, the airport will contribute 22.2 billion euros, in addition to value-added taxes, over 25 years to the state. The third airport, which is being built under the build-operate-transfer model, will be managed by the IGA for 25 years. The total budget of the project's first phase is about 6 billion euros, and 25 percent of this budget will be financed by the consortium's equity capital. The four phases of the project will be financed by bank credits totaling 80 percent and equity capital totaling 20 percent. Moreover, it is not expected to be a burden on the Treasury. The airport is planned to serve an average of 200 million people annually when all four phases become operational.