Antalya Airport is an international airport located 13km northeast of the city center of Antalya, Turkey. It is a major destination during the European summer leisure season due to its location at the country's Mediterranean coast. It handled 27,724,249 passengers in 2015, more than 20.8 million of which were international passengers, making it the third busiest airport in Turkey and the fifteenth busiest in Europe. The airport has two international terminals and one domestic terminal. Antalya is one of the major airports on the Southwest of Turkey, the others being Bodrum and Dalaman.HistoryThe airport was built to accommodate the millions of passengers who come to Turkey's Mediterranean beaches in summer. The construction of International Terminal 1 started in 1996 by Bayindir Holding and it was ready for service on 1 April 1998. In 1999 Fraport AG and Bayindir Holding signed a joint venture agreement. Terminal 1 is operated by Fraport AG. Now there is an additional new International Terminal, Terminal 2, which is operated by the company Celebi.In July 2011 the airport was selected as Best Airport in Europe (10-25 million passenger category) by Airports Council International (ACI).In 2003 the airport handled 10 million passengers, representing an increase of 78% since 1998. According to ACI statistics, Antalya Airport ranked 30th in 2005, 2008 and 2009 for international passenger traffic. In 2008, AYT was the world's 30th busiest airport in international passengers traffic. In 2009, AYT also held its 30th spot in that category among world airports, with 15,210,733 international passengers. By the end of 2010, it rose to the 23rd spot with over 18 Million international passengers.