ISTANBUL (Jan 9): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) will invest €12 million in an expansion of its first wholly-owned overseas airport – the Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISG) in Turkey over the next few years to meet passenger growth.

The airport operator plans to increase ISG's capacity to 33 million passengers per year by 2018 from 23 million per year currently.

ISG CEO Gokhan Bugday said the bulk of the €12 million capital expenditure will be used to upgrade the airport's existing facilities such as adding check-in counters and boarding gates, as well as increasing the commercial and retail outlets.

He added that in the longer term, ISG aims to eventually serve approximately 50 million passengers per year when the second runway and other complementary facilities funded by the Turkish government, are build in 2017. This will bring ISG on par with some of the biggest and busiest airports in the Europe.

ISG's growth ambitions appears to be on track as it has achieved a compounded annual growth rate at the average of 34% since MAHB first bought into the Turkish airport in 2009 in terms of passenger traffic.

With this double-digit passenger traffic growth rate, MAHB is targeting to turn the loss-making ISG into a profitable outfit by 2015.

The growth prospects are also further boosted by the developments by the Turkish government and the private sector which include residences, schools, hospital and a financial centre on the Asian side of Istanbul where ISG is located.

In addition, ISG is expected to be the most connected airport in Turkey as the Turkish government implements its infrastructure ambitions, which involve building two bridges across, an underwater subway tunnel and a new metro line to connect ISG with different parts of Istanbul and other Turkish cities.

"When I became CEO of ISG in 2008, I believed that ISG was a strategic airport that has tremendous potential. This has been proven by the consistent and excellent (passenger) growth rate we have seen over the last five years," Bugday told Malaysian journalists here yesterday.

"I am confident that this growth will continue into the future and that ISG will be the main city airport that provides the most connectivity to the city," said Bugday.