Ankara Esenboğa Airport (IATA: ESB, ICAO: LTAC) (Turkish: Ankara Esenboğa Havalimanı) is the international airport of Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It has been operating since 1955. In 2017, the airport has served more than 15 million passengers in total, 13 million of which were domestic passengers. It ranked 4th in terms of total passenger traffic (after Atatürk Airport, Antalya Airport and Sabiha Gökçen International Airport), 3rd in terms of domestic passenger traffic (after Atatürk Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport) among airports in Turkey. The airport was ranked 22nd in the "100 Things That Give Hope in Turkey" list published in the 100th issue of Newsweek Turkey magazine.

Overview

The airport is located northeast of Ankara, 28 km (17 mi) from the city center. The airport is connected with Kızılay (the city center) and Ankara Intercity Bus Terminal (Turkish: Ankara Şehirlerarası Terminal İşletmesi, AŞTİ) by EGO city bus number 442 (from 6 am to 11pm). Transportation to the city center is also by taxi (around TRY 90 one way, metered) and through the Havaş bus line (approximately TRY 12,5 one way). The road between Esenboğa airport and the Ankara ring road was expanded during the summer of 2006, decreasing the driving time between the city center and the airport by several minutes.

The name of the airport comes from the village of Esenboğa (the ğ is silent), which literally means "Windflowing Bull" or "Serene Bull", the modernized form of Isen Buqa, the name of a Turkic warlord in the army of Timur who settled his troops here during the Battle of Ankara in 1402.

Esenboğa International Airport was awarded as the best airport in Europe by ACI Europe (Airport Council International) and the award presented to airport officials on 17 June 2009 in Manchester. The award is given in 4 categories every year and Esenboğa was in 5–10 million per annum category. It is the first time an ACI award was granted to a Turkish Airport. According to ACI-Europe, "As with number of the top candidates in this category, the airport excels in all the keys areas of operations, however the judges singled it out for its work in the area of environmental innovation, securing an incredible 25% energy savings stemming from its recycling of exhaust gases to power its air conditioning plants." In 2020, Esenboğa Airport was awarded as the best European airport with a capacity of 15 – 25 million passengers by Airports Council International.

A new parallel runway is under construction to the east of the terminal building. Upon the completion, the current runway 03R/21L will be resigned as 03C/21C and the new runway will receive the latter's former designation.

Terminals

Esenboga Airport Domestic and International Terminal constructed under "Build-Operate-Transfer" model has been completed within a record time; a year earlier than the committed completion date. Esenboga Airport current Terminal, which went into operation on October 16, 2006 with a capacity of 10 million passengers, are spread over a 182,000 square metres (1,960,000 sq ft) area. A new general aviation terminal with 469 m (5,048 sq ft) area has been opened in January 2012 to service private and business jets.

The new terminal, opened in 2006, feature 168,000 m (1,808,337 sq ft) area, 10,000,000 passenger/year capacity, 18 ea. passenger bridges, 105 check-in counters, 34 passport counters, a parking facility with 123,000 m (1,323,961 sq ft) area and 4,000 vehicles capacity.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Ankara Esenboğa Airport:

Airlines	Destinations
Air Albania	Tirana
Air Serbia	Seasonal: Belgrade
AJet	Adana, Adıyaman, Ağrı, Almaty, Amman–Queen Alia, Amsterdam, Antalya, Astana, Baghdad, Baku, Batman, Beirut, Belgrade, Berlin, Bingöl, Bishkek, Bodrum, Bursa, Çanakkale, Dalaman, Diyarbakır, Dubai–International, Düsseldorf, Edremit, Elazığ, Ercan, Erzincan, Erzurum, Frankfurt, Gaziantep, Gazipaşa/Alanya, Hakkari, Hatay, Iğdır, Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen, İzmir, Kahramanmaraş, Kars, London–Stansted, Malatya, Mardin, Moscow–Vnukovo, Muş, Ordu/Giresun, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Rize/Artvin, Samsun, Şanlıurfa, Siirt, Şırnak, Tashkent, Tehran–Imam Khomeini, Tokat, Trabzon, Van, Vienna Seasonal: Brussels, Cologne/Bonn, Hamburg, Munich, Stockholm–Arlanda, Stuttgart
Ariana Afghan Airlines	Kabul
Azerbaijan Airlines	Baku
Caspian Airlines	Tabriz, Tehran–Imam Khomeini
Corendon Airlines	Seasonal: Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Nuremberg
FlyArystan	Astana
Fly Baghdad	Baghdad, Erbil
flydubai	Dubai–International
Flynas	Jeddah, Medina
Iraqi Airways	Baghdad, Erbil, Kirkuk
Kam Air	Kabul
Mahan Air	Tehran–Imam Khomeini
Pegasus Airlines	Almaty, Amman–Queen Alia, Antalya, Bodrum, Bucharest–Otopeni, Cologne/Bonn, Çorlu, Dubai–International, Dublin (begins 3 July 2024), Düsseldorf, Erbil, Ercan, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen, İzmir, Krakow, London–Stansted, Sharjah, Stockholm–Arlanda, Stuttgart, Tbilisi, Tehran–Imam Khomeini, Vienna, Warsaw–Chopin Seasonal: Berlin, Lisbon, Moscow–Domodedovo
Qatar Airways	Doha
Qeshm Air	Tehran–Imam Khomeini
Saudia	Jeddah, Medina
Sepehran Airlines	Tehran–Imam Khomeini
SunExpress	Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover, Munich Seasonal: Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Stockholm–Arlanda, Stuttgart, Tbilisi, Vienna, Zürich
Transavia	Paris–Orly
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul Seasonal: Jeddah, Medina
UR Airlines	Baghdad
Uzbekistan Airways	Tashkent
Wizz Air	Abu Dhabi

Statistics

Passengers

Ankara Esenboğa International Airport Passenger Traffic Statistics

Year	Domestic	% change	International	% change	Total	% change
2023	9,090,436	35%	2,823,646	47%	11,914,082	37%
2022	6,742,033	18%	1,902,934	46%	8,644,967	23%
2021	5,727,199	30%	1,298,976	74%	7,026,175	36%
2020	4,415,805	61%	746,764	67%	5,162,569	62%
2019	11,417,759	21%	2,275,195	1%	13,692,954	18%
2018	14,498,102	5%	2,241,901	13%	16,740,003	6%
2017	13,828,365	20%	1,988,793	33%	15,817,158	21%
2016	11,554,882	9%	1,488,095	4%	13,042,977	8%
2015	10,562,282	10%	1,551,157	7%	12,113,439	10%
2014	9,591,350	2%	1,444,256	8%	11,035,606	1%
2013	9,369,832	22%	1,572,228	1%	10,942,060	18%
2012	7,679,371	9%	1,593,737	13%	9,273,108	9%
2011	7,080,072	10%	1,405,395	6%	8,485,467	9%
2010	6,435,211	29%	1,328,693	21%	7,763,914	28%
2009	4,990,134	12%	1,094,270	12%	6,084,404	7%
2008	4,444,311	23%	1,247,822	8%	5,692,133	15%
2007	3,609,122	10%	1,349,006	7%	4,958,128	9%
2006	3,287,585	25%	1,259,993	6%	4,547,578	19%
2005	2,640,604	23%	1,189,250	5%	3,829,854	17%
2004	2,141,047	21%	1,134,678	12%	3,275,725	18%
2003	1,773,531	2%	1,010,396	1%	2,783,927	2%
2002	1,814,563		1,022,065		2,836,628

Movements

Ankara Esenboğa International Airport Aircraft Movement Statistics

Year	Domestic	% change	International	% change	Total	% change
2023	59,992	31%	20,433	39%	80,425	33%
2022	45,734	5%	14,716	24%	60,450	9%
2015	82,852	5%	15,758	0.3%	98,610	4%
2014	78,712	2%	15,706	6%	94,421	2%
2013	80,107	16%	16,711	1%	96,818	13%
2012	69,335	3%	16,548	7%	85,883	4%
2011	67,513	14%	15,452	7%	82,965	12%
2010	59,509	18%	14,420	18%	73,929	18%
2009	50,347	4%	12,273	15%	62,620	0.4%
2008	48,463	2%	14,396	12%	62,859	2%
2007	47,578		16,331		63,909

Other facilities

• The airport is the head office of AnadoluJet.
• Esenboğa Airport was designated as one of the emergency landing sites for NASA's Space Shuttle.

Aviation accidents and incidents at or near the airport

• Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871
• Turkish Airlines Flight 835
• 1964 Turkish Airlines Ankara crash
• 1979 Turkish Airlines Ankara crash
• Ankara Esenboğa Airport attack
• Turkish Airlines Flight 158

Other airports in Ankara

There are three military airports in Ankara as follows:

• Akıncı Air Base
• Etimesgut Air Base
• Güvercinlik Army Air Base

See also

• List of the busiest airports in the Middle East