Istanbul New Airport

Istanbul Airport İstanbul Havalimanı
Aerial view of the airport in September 2018.
IATA: ISL ICAO: LTFM
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	General Directorate of State Airports (DHMİ)
Operator	IGA (Istanbul Grand Airport) Havalimanı İşletmesi A.Ş.
Serves	Istanbul, Turkey
Location	Arnavutköy, Istanbul
Opened	29 October 2018 (2018-10-29)
Hub for	Turkish Airlines (begins 1 January 2019)
Time zone	TRT (UTC+03:00)
Elevation AMSL	325 ft / 99 m
Coordinates	41°16′31.00″N 28°45′07.00″E
Website	www.igairport.com
Map
Istanbul Airport Location of airport in Istanbul Istanbul Airport Istanbul Airport (Turkey) Istanbul Airport Istanbul Airport (Europe)
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 16L/34R 12,303 3,750 16R/34L 12,303 3,750 17L/35R 13,451 4,100 17R/35L 13,451 4,100
Statistics
Planned Passenger Capacity 150 million/yr.

Istanbul Airport (IATA: ISL, ICAO: LTFM) (Turkish: İstanbul Yeni Havalimanı) is the main international airport serving Istanbul it is based in the Arnavutköy district on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey.

The airport was planned as the largest airport in the world with a 150 million annual passenger capacity in its last planned expansion stage, while remaining upgradable to handle 200 million annual passengers if required in the future. It is the third international airport to be built in Istanbul after Atatürk Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport. Atatürk Airport will be closed down for scheduled passenger flights once the new airport is fully operational; and its IATA code IST will be transferred to the new airport.

The opening ceremony took place on 29 October 2018, scheduled so as to coincide with the 95th anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic. On November 1 2018 five daily flights will start to arrive and depart from the airport: Ankara, Antalya, Baku, Ercan, İzmir. These flights will all be operated by Turkish Airlines. Regularly scheduled flights to these destinations will still depart from Atatürk alongside these trial flights. During this time the New Airport will have the IATA airport code ISL. On December 31 2018, all equipment from Atatürk Airport will be transferred by truck to the new airport via the O-7 Motorway. After the equipment transfer, Atatürk Airport will be closed to all scheduled passenger air traffic. Its IST IATA airport code will be inherited by Istanbul Airport.

History

Background

Atatürk Airport, Istanbul's current main airport, is located in the Yeşilköy neighbourhood of the Bakırköy district and is surrounded by urban Istanbul. Additionally, there is an increasing problem of air traffic congestion. Atatürk Airport is one of the busiest airports in Europe. Since 2013, it has ranked among the five busiest airports in Europe by passenger traffic.

There is no space to build an additional runway on the Atatürk Airport site, as the airport is surrounded on all sides. Because of the limited capacity, the Turkish Airport Authority does not allow additional cargo or charter flights to the airport. Due to a lack of slot capacity and parking spaces, some of Turkish Airlines' aircraft are based in Sabiha Gökçen Airport. Sabiha Gökçen Airport itself is already at maximum terminal capacity of 25 million passengers, and handled 28 million passengers in 2015 after posting traffic growth rates averaging over 20% a year since 2013.

In 2015 and 2016, the two Istanbul airports handled almost 90 million passengers, with more than 95 million passengers in 2017. In terms of area airports, the six London-area airports serve more than 150 million passengers a year, while the three Paris-area airports serve around 100 million passengers a year.

Location

The new airport is constructed at the intersection of roads to Arnavutköy, Göktürk, and Çatalca, north of the Istanbul city centre and between the Black Sea coast towns of Yeniköy, Tayakadın and Akpınar. The construction zone is a 7,659-hectare region near Lake Terkos. Some 6,172 hectares of this area was state-owned forest. The distance between Istanbul New Airport and Atatürk Airport is approx. 35 km (22 mi) as the crow flies. The area encompasses old open-pit coal mines, which are to be filled up with soil. The new airport will eventually be linked by several lines of the Istanbul Metro: one starting from Gayrettepe station on the new M11 line, another from Halkalı on the Marmaray rail line.

According to the Environmental Impact Assessment (ÇED) report published in April 2013, there were a total of 2,513,341 trees in the area and 657,950 of them would need to be cut indispensably, while 1,855,391 trees would be moved to new places. However, the Ministry of Forest and Water Management said the exact number of trees cut and moved will only be revealed after construction is complete.

Controversies

The Turkish Chamber of Environmental Engineers (ÇMO) took the project tender to court on grounds that the project violated the existing legislation for the preparation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (ÇED) report. In February 2014, an Istanbul administrative court ordered construction of the airport to be suspended. However, the groundbreaking ceremony took place a few months later, on 7 June 2014.

As of February 2018, the Turkish Ministry of Labour announced 27 fatalities during the construction of the airport. Local trade unions however speak of much higher figures with three to four fatalities per week. According to the Cumhuriyet daily newspaper, families of workers killed on site are being paid to remain silent about the incidents.

A report that up to 400 workers had been killed during the construction of the airport prompted opposition MP Veli Ağbaba to submit a written questionnaire to the Turkish parliament on 13 February 2018.

Mass worker protests broke out on 14 September 2018 after a bus carrying workers crashed, injuring 17. Complaints by workers included poor living conditions in "vermin-infested dormitories", issues in transportation that had left them stranded under the rain or on site during holidays, and long delays in payments, among others. Police and gendarmerie forces were called in and workers eventually returned to work under alleged threats of arrest or further withholding of wages.

Construction

Location of Istanbul New Airport relative to Istanbul city centre, as well as the city's two current airports.

The tender for construction and operation of the facility until 2030 was held on May 3, 2013. The project is made up of four construction stages. If all stages are completed, the airport will reach a capacity of 150 million passengers, which would have made it the biggest in the world at the time of planning. The first stage of construction was planned to finish within 42 months of the handover of the land. The total project cost is expected to be approximately €7 billion, excluding financing costs. The construction and operation consortium has been guaranteed 342 million passengers in 12 years by the government.

The design team was led by London-based Grimshaw. and also included the Norway-based Nordic Office of Architecture and London studio Haptic.

At the bidding session on May 3, 2013, only four out of fifteen Turkish and two foreign companies that were qualified as bidders showed up. The Turkish joint venture consortium of Cengiz-Kolin-Limak-Mapa-Kalyon won the tender, and were obliged to pay the government €26.142 billion including value-added tax for a 25-year lease starting from 2018. The completion date of the construction's first stage was officially set for 2018 – 42 months after the finalization of the tender's approval.

The groundbreaking ceremony took place on 7 June 2014, yet construction only started in May 2015 after official handover of the land.

As of August 2018, 94% of the first stage of construction was completed. The inauguration of the airport is planned to take place on 29 October 2018. It was reported that the first test landing at the airport would take place on February 26, 2018; however the first landing took place on 20 June 2018. Testing of navigational and electronic systems with DHMİ aircraft began on 15 May 2018.

Project stages

The construction of the airport is set to take place in several stages, expanding the airport and its facilities over time:

First stage

• A main terminal with a total passenger capacity of 90 million, with an area of 1,300,000 m² (14,000,000 sq ft)
• Second terminal building with an area of 170,000 m² (1,800,000 sq ft)
• 88 aircraft jet bridges
• Indoor car-park with 12,000 vehicles capacity
• 2 independent runways
• 8 parallel taxiways
• Approximately 4,000,000 m² (43,000,000 sq ft) of apron space
• 3 technical blocks
• 1 air traffic control tower
• VIP Lounge
• Cargo and general aviation terminals
• Other services including hospitals, prayer rooms, convention centres, hotels etc.

Second stage

• 1 runway
• 3 parallel taxiways

Third stage

• Terminal with a capacity of 30 million annual passengers and an area of 500,000 m² (5,400,000 sq ft)
• 1 runway
• 1 parallel taxiway
• Additional apron area

Fourth stage

• A terminal with a capacity of 30 million passengers and an area of 340,000 m² (3,700,000 sq ft)
• 1 runway

Upon completion (estimated before 2023)

• 6 runways
• 16 taxiways
• 150 million annual passenger capacity – expandable to 200 million
• 1,500,000 m² (16,000,000 sq ft) indoor area
• 165 aircraft jet bridges
• 4 terminal buildings, with rail access between terminals
• 3 technical blocks
• 1 air traffic control tower
• 8 ramp control towers
• A 6,500,000 m² (70,000,000 sq ft) apron with 500 aircraft parking capacity
• VIP Lounges
• Cargo and general aviation terminals
• State palace
• Indoor and outdoor parking with a capacity of approx. 70,000 cars
• Aviation medical center
• Aircraft rescue and firefighting stations
• Garage buildings
• Hotels
• Convention centers
• Power plants
• Water treatment and waste facilities

Airlines and destinations

Turkish Airlines announced their first flights from the airport would be to Ankara, Antalya, Izmir with international services to North Nicosia-Ercan and Baku between 29 October 2018 and the end of the year, when all of the airline's passenger services will be transferred from Atatürk Airport.

See also

• Istanbul Canal
• Northern Marmara Motorway
• Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge

External links

Media related to Istanbul New Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Operator's website
• Project plan