Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced plans Monday to build more airports for Istanbul.

At the opening of a transport conference in Istanbul, Tayyip said Turkey would invest 240 billion euros (350 billion dollars) in transport systems and communications over the next 25 years.(Sept. 28, 2009 - M&C)

A third bridge over the Bosporus to improve the links between the Asian and European sides was also necessary, said Erdogan. Istanbul and Turkey were the gateway to both the East and the West.

At least 12 million people live in Istanbul. Currently the city has two airports for international civilian air traffic, the Ataturk airport on the European side and the Sabiha-Gokcen airport on the Asian side.

But these would not be able to cope with demand in the future, said Erdogan: 'We must build more airports in Istanbul.'

In the middle of the financial crisis, Turkey was the only country with increasing amounts of air travel, said Ali Ariduru, head of Turkey's civil aviation authority.

Over the past year, Turkey counted some 77 million air passengers. This year the authority expects a higher figure.