Istanbul Airport

İstanbul New Airport (Turkish: İstanbul Yeni Havalimanı) is a projected airport to be built in Arnavutköy district of İstanbul, Turkey. The airport is planned to be the largest airport in the world with 150 million passenger capacity due to lack of capacity in the existing airports of Istanbul. It will be the third international airport to be built in Istanbul. It is not yet known whether the existing airports will shut down once the new airport is in operation.

Origin

Existing Atatürk Airport on the European side of Istanbul does not meet increased demands and there is an increasing problem with slot times. There is not enough space to build an additional runway as the airport is absorbed within the city of Istanbul. North of the airport is covered with industrial areas where as east and west covered with residential areas. Because of the limited capacity, the Turkish Airspace Authority does not allow additional cargo or charter flights to the airport. Airlines which want to start new routes and/or to add additional flights urgently need new capacity. Especially, the national carrier Turkish Airlines was planning to gather all flights in Atatürk Airport in order to convert it into a transfer hub. Due to lack of slots and parking space some of Turkish Airlines aircrafts are based in Sabiha Gökçen Airport which is on the Asian side of Istanbul. Sabiha Gökçen Airport is further away from the European part of the city in comparison with the Atatürk airport. Due to hub strategy of Turkish Airlines, most of the airlines passengers need to use Atatürk Airport instead of Sabiha Gökçen Airport as the later is used mostly by charter and low-cost airlines. Studies to maximize the capacity of Atatürk Airport have shown that general aviation and training flights should be minimised. According to the results of 2012, Istanbul handled more than 60 million passenger with two airports.

Location

The new airport will be constructed at the intersection of junction roads of Arnavutköy, Göktürk and Çatalca, north of European side of Istanbul between the Black Sea regions of Yeniköy and Akpınar. Construction zone will be 7,659 hectares region near Lake Terkos. Some 6,172 hectares of this area is state-owned forest land. Fly distance between Istanbul New Airport and Atatürk Airport is about 35 km (22 mi). In the area there are old open-pit coal mines, which have to be filled up with soil.

The project

The tender for construction and 25-year-operate will be held on May 3, 2013 according to a statement made by Binali Yıldırım, Minister of Communications, Maritime affairs and Telecommunications. The project is made up of four construction stages. After all stages completed, the airport will be the biggest airport of the world with 150 million passenger capacity. First stage construction is planning to finish in 42 months after the delivery of area. The total project cost is expected to be approximately EUR 7 billion, excluding financing costs. It has guaranteed 342 million passengers for 12 years.

At the bidding session on May 3, 2013, from fifteen Turkish and two foreign companies, which were qualified as bidders, only four showed up. The Turkish joint venture consortium of Cengiz-Kolin-Limak-Mapa-Kalyon won the tender for Istanbul's third airport, promising to pay the government €26.142 billion including value added tax for a 25-year lease starting from 2017. The begin of the construction's first stage is set for 2017, 42 months after the finalization of the tender approval.

First Stage

• A main terminal total of 90 million passengers capacity, capable of all kinds of equipment for the use of passengers with an area of 680,000 m² (7,300,000 sq ft).
• Second terminal building or two satellite terminal. (170,000 m² (1,800,000 sq ft))
• 88 aircraft passenger bridges at terminals
• Indoor parking with 12,000 vehicles capacity
• 3 independent runway accordance with international norms, such as large-bodied A380, B777 aircraft could easily up and down
• 8 parallel taxiway
• Approximately 4,000,000 m² (43,000,000 sq ft) apron
• 3 technical blocks,
• 1 air traffic control tower
• VIP Lounge
• Cargo and general aviation terminals
• Other social reinforcement areas where in hospitals, prayrooms, convention centers

Second Stage

• 1 runway
• 3 parallel taxiway

Third Stage

• A terminal with a capacity of 30 million passengers, where will build at sea side in an area of 500,000 m² (5,400,000 sq ft)
• 1 runway
• 1 parallel taxiway
• Apron

Fourth stage

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

At the End of the Stages

• 6 runway
• 16 taxiway
• 150 million passengers capacity
• 1,400,000 m² (15,000,000 sq ft) indoor area
• 165 aircraft passenger bridges at all terminals
• 4 terminal buildings, where rail access between terminals
• 3 technical blocks
• 1 air traffic control tower
• 8 ramp control tower
• 650,000 m² (7,000,000 sq ft) apron with 500 aircraft parking capacity
• VIP Lounge
• Cargo and general aviation terminals
• State Palace
• Indoor and outdoor parking with a capacity of about 70,000 cars
• Aviation medical center
• ARFF buildings
• Garage buildings
• Hotels
• Convention centers
• Power plants
• Water treatment and waste facilities

Controversy

As stated by the Forestry Ministry, a study conducted on the environmental impact of the project and published in April 2013, reports that there are a total of 2,513,341 trees in the area and 657,950 of them will need to be cut indispensably while 1,855,391 trees will be moved to new places.

The Turkish Chamber of Environmental Engineers (ÇMO) has taken the project tender to court on grounds that the project violated the existing legislation for the preparation of the environmental impact assessment report.