A TENDER for the construction of an airport near Alaçatı will take place on April 20.

The announcement of the tender by the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI) appeared in the Official Gazette on Feb. 17.

The airport will be constructed under the build-operate-transfer scheme.

Potential bidders must pay 5,000 Turkish Liras to obtain the tender files while the amount of the bid bond is set at one million Turkish Liras.

Alaçatı, located on the Çeşme peninsula, is some 80 kilometers from İzmir, which is Turkey’s third largest city and also hosts the Adnan Menderes Airport.

Alaçatı is a well-known windsurfing spot and is famous for its stone houses that were built mostly in the mid- to late-19th century. Its proximity to İzmir makes it an accessible and popular location.

The proposed airport in Alaçatı will be İzmir’s second airport.

According to data from the DHMİ, the Adnan Menderes Airport served a total of 12.8 million passengers in 2017, a 38-percent increase from the previous year.

The number of foreign passengers rose by 12 percent to 2.35 million while domestic passenger traffic increased by 5 percent to 10.5 million.

Hurriyet