The Transport, Maritime and Communication Ministry will assume the construction of the railway system, which will ease transportation to Istanbul's new airport, and is set to be operational in the first quarter of 2018.

According to an announcement in the Official Gazette yesterday, the ministry will build the metro lines for Gayrettepe-third airport and Halkalı-third airport. The construction has already been in the agenda of the government, and is aimed to be completed when the first phase of the airport becomes operational.

The first stage of Istanbul's third airport includes three runways from north to south and a terminal building with an annual capacity of 90 million passengers. When the first stage is completed it will enable two planes to land simultaneously, which is unprecedented in the world. The annual passenger capacity is estimated to reach 150 million when all four stages are completed in 2028.

The airport will have 165 passenger jetways, four terminals connected with a railway system, three maintenance buildings, eight air traffic control towers, six runways, 16 taxiways, a 6.5 million-square-meter airport hangar with a capacity of 500 airplanes, an approximately 70,000 vehicle capacity parking area - touted as the largest airport parking lot in Europe - a clinic, fire department, hotels, a convention center and recycling and waste disposal plants. The airport will also host 150 airlines.

Along with these, the airport will be connected to the Istanbul metro, and multi-lane highways will also be built to facilitate access.