TURKEY’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan officially opened the final 21.7km section of Istanbul’s Airport Express Line M11 on June 19. At 67.7km, Line M11 is the city’s longest metro line.
The line now follows an inverted U-shape running from Halkali in the west via the airport in the north to Gayrettepe in Istanbul’s business district.
The underground line with 15 stations has a maximum speed of 120km/h, making it the fastest metro line in the city.
The final section runs from Halkali north to Arnavutköy Hastane. Prior to this, Line M11 has been completed in three stages. The first 34km stage opened in January 2023 from the airport freight terminal to Kagithane, followed a year later by the 3.5km section from Kagithane south to Gayrettepe. The 8.5km freight terminal - Arnavutköy Hastane section opened in March 2024.
Line M11 connects with Marmaray cross-city and main line services at Halkali, as well as lines M9 at Olimpiyatköy and M3 further north at Kayaşehir, and Line M2 at Gayrettepe.
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