As officially reported by the Turkish press, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will participate in the grand opening of Chukurova Airport, located 20 km from the city of Tarsus in Mersin Province, on August 10. It is not ruled out that direct flights from Russia may appear there, which will increase the attractiveness of beach holidays at Mersin's resorts.
Chukurova Airport is a record long-term construction project. The tender for the construction of this airport was announced back in 2011. The solemn laying of the airport complex took place in 2013. But then the construction, carried out in the form of a public-private partnership, proceeded extremely slowly.
Chukurova was repeatedly promised to be opened in 2021, 2022, 2023. In 2023, "test" flights began from the almost ready airport, and the airport was again "firmly" promised to be opened in the first quarter of 2024. But it didn't happen this time either.
But still, the airport will be opened this year, finally: on the last weekend it was officially announced that on August 10, 2024, Turkish President Erdogan will arrive for the grand opening of Çukurova.
Initially, when designing the Çukurova Airport, it was assumed that it would serve two provinces at once - Mersin and Adana. This was dictated by the location - the place where the airport is located is approximately halfway between the two centers of the provinces of the same name, 20 km south of the city of Tarsus.
Çukurova Airport is expected to become an important hub for both cargo and passenger transportation. It will receive international and domestic flights, it already has international status, and in 2022, a border control and customs service division was formed.
The total area of the Çukurova airport complex is 800 hectares. The runway of the new airport is 3,500 meters long, it is built according to CAT-II standards and is capable of receiving and sending all types of aircraft, including all existing wide-body airliners.
There are three aprons (parking areas) for aircraft on the airfield: for passenger flights – with an area of 217 thousand square meters with a capacity of 40 aircraft, an apron for cargo aviation (62 thousand square meters for 4 aircraft), and an apron for business aviation (56 thousand square meters for 54 aircraft). The air terminal building in Chukurova has an area of 110 thousand square meters.
With the commissioning of Chukurova Airport, passenger traffic to Mersin Province may improve, for which tourists now have to fly to Adana.
The province of Mersin has long been touted as a competitor to Antalya - the local beaches are in no way inferior, and in some ways even surpass those of Antalya. There are many more beaches with fine sand and a gentle entrance to the water that are loved by Russian families with children. There are also huge, wide, extended 'postcard' beaches that are not inferior to the famous Patara in Kashe. Among the beaches of Mersin - 11 with 'Blue Flags'.
In the summer, there is a quite 'Antalyan' climate here, rather even the same as in Alanya. In winter, it is warm enough to spend a vacation in hotels with heated pools (if they are built here, of course).
In addition to the beaches, there are a large number of historical attractions in Mersin Province. There are at least 5 ancient cities near the main city of the province, which are quite comparable to Antalya's Phaselis or Olympos, and several interesting medieval fortresses.
There are also places of interest for Christians, for example, not far from the new airport is the ancient Tarsus, the birthplace of the Apostle Paul. In the province of Mersin, there are many natural attractions: beautiful mountain rivers, canyons, waterfalls, caves. For excursions on beach rest - more than enough.
Currently, the tourist flow from Russia to Mersin is relatively small: mainly people connected with the construction of the Akkuyu NPP (builders, nuclear specialists and their families), property owners, whose property is almost half the price of Antalya, as well as a few independent tourists come here.
Tour operators do not currently offer organized tours to Mersin province. They admit that Mersin has great prospects, but the province has not yet grown up to charter flights. There are still few large hotels with an all-inclusive system, to which Russians are accustomed in Turkey, and not many tourists from the Russian Federation are willing to stay in small facilities with breakfast or half-board.
The construction process of large modern hotel complexes in Mersin is nevertheless underway, and a number of new high-quality facilities have recently opened. Turkish experts believe that with the commissioning of the new airport, investments in hotel construction should accelerate, which means that 'big tourism' is not far off, including from Russia.
