Sea Refreshment in Izmir Traffic

Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç SoyerIn line with the goal of strengthening maritime transportation, the number of trips has increased by 30 percent in the last two years. While the number of ferries in the Gulf increased to six, 9 vehicles were transported in the 990 months of this year, breaking the record of the last five years. President Soyer announced that they will put another ferry into service by the end of the year.

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, President Tunç SoyerIt has made important strides in line with the goal of reducing the traffic load in the city by increasing the share of maritime transport in the Gulf. While the number of ferries operating in the Gulf was increased to six, the number and frequency of voyages were increased. Despite the coronavirus measures and curfews in the rest of 2021, 990 thousand 111 vehicles were transported. The number of vehicle transports reached in the 2021-month period of 9 was the highest number reached compared to the same period of all the previous years. The number of transported vehicles, which was 2019 thousand 9 in the first 760 months of 752, increased by 2021 percent to 30,15 thousand 990 in 111.

Emphasizing that Izmir Bay is one of the greatest riches for the city, Mayor Soyer said, “Since the day I took office, we have been working to increase sea transportation. We are expanding our fleet in order to transfer the road traffic in the city to the sea as much as possible. Despite the decrease in passengers during the pandemic period, we did not reduce the frequency of flights. As the voyages became more frequent, our citizens started to prefer sea transportation more and we experienced serious increases in sea transportation. We will increase the volume of traffic at sea by focusing on maritime transportation. The data show that we are on the right track," he said.

137 million TL investment was made

In the last two and a half years, Fethi Sekin and Uğur Mumcu ferries with a capacity of 137 passengers and 322 vehicles were put into service with an investment of 51 million lira in order to strengthen sea transportation in the Gulf. With these two new ferries joining the fleet of İZDENİZ, which has the youngest maritime public transportation fleet in Europe, the number of ferries has increased to 5. A ferry chartered in September joined the fleet.

The number of daily expeditions increased, the last expedition time extended

With the increase in the interest shown by the people of İzmir to the ferryboats with each passing day, the occupancy rate of the expeditions reached 82 percent. The number of flights per day, which was 2019 in 30, was increased to 2020 in 48 and 2021 in 56. In response to the increasing interest, İZDENİZ General Directorate increased the number of daily voyages to 4 with the arrangement it made on October 2021, 61, and extended the last departure time of ferries from 23.00 to 23.20.

The number of ferries increases to 7

Another ferry will be rented by the end of the year, thus increasing the number of ferries carrying vehicles in the Gulf to 7. In this way, vehicle density in the waiting areas will be reduced by enabling two ships to move at the same time during rush hours.