Esenboğa International Airport — Ankara, Turkey

Esenboğa International Airport, coded ESB, functions as the primary air gateway to Ankara, Turkey's capital and its political nerve center. Named after a nearby village, the airport underwent a significant expansion in the mid-2000s with a new terminal designed by prominent Turkish architects, replacing older facilities that had struggled to handle growing government and diplomatic traffic. Ankara's role as home to parliament, foreign embassies, and major universities gives ESB a passenger mix weighted more toward business and official travel than the leisure-heavy flows through Istanbul. The city itself, built around the ancient Ankara Castle and Atatürk's mausoleum Anıtkabir, sits on the Anatolian plateau at a considerably higher and drier elevation than Istanbul. Domestic shuttle flights between ESB and Istanbul's airports run frequently throughout the day, forming one of Turkey's busiest air corridors.