More than 88 per cent of the construction work on Istanbul New Airport (INA) - or İstanbul Yeni Havalimanı – the Turkish city’s third airport has been completed, with test flights expected to start on October 25.

“All flights to Ataturk airport will be suspended on October 31 this year and the airport will be closed,” reported Trend News Agency, citing the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications of Turkey.

The construction contract was won by the Turkish consortium comprising Limak, Kolin, Cengiz, MaPa and Kalyon.

The new airport will have an initial annual capacity of 90 million passengers and will rise to serve 150 million passengers by 2023.

The third airport is being built near the Lake Terkos in northern Istanbul at a cost of $2.12 billion.

Some 300 passenger and service elevators are being installed at the airport.

The first runway at Istanbul New Airport is now ready for takeoff and landing. Runway number one, which is 3,750 m long and 60 m wide, has been lit up, according to a spokesman for INA.

“INA has installed the world’s biggest and most sophisticated airfield ground lighting (AGL) at its first runway, featuring 34,183 LED lights. Intelligent lighting makes the visual guiding process easier and improves situational surveillance and aircraft tracking systems. This allows for optimised aircraft routing to and from the gates, a more efficient traffic flow and an increase in safety,” he says.

The baggage conveying system is also in place.

About 300 passenger and service elevators are being installed at the airport. In addition, a network of shops, logistics and exhibition centres will be also built.

Currently, construction and assembling work is under way to build 28 bridges and a hydro-meteorological tower at the airport and more than 31,000 workers are involved in the project.

The initial phase will be commissioned with three independent parallel runways, taxiways, a terminal building, an air traffic control tower, communication and weather systems as well as other utility buildings.

After commissioning of the airport, the number of flight destinations from Turkey will increase to 350 from the current 282.

According to the spokesman, Turkey’s Ziraat Bankasi had allocated €1.54 billion ($1.8 billion) for the airport’s construction, while Halkbank and Vakifbank are providing $1 billion, Denizbank €500 million, and Garanti and Finansbank €300 million.