TURKEY. IGA CEO Kadri Samsunlu yesterday confirmed further details of the new Istanbul Airport, which as reported will be fully operational on 3 March 2019. In a statement he declared that everyone connected with the airport is “ready for the occasion”.
The new airport – set to become the world’s largest – will service over 350 destinations and replace the current Istanbul Atatürk Airport, which will be closed for scheduled passenger flights. Its first phase opened in October last year.
“As a major hub at the intersection of Asia, Europe and the Middle East, we will bring the world closer together,” said Samsunlu, whose organisation was founded in 2013 to construct and operate Istanbul Airport for 25 years. “Our challenge is to be the biggest and the best.”
The new Istanbul Airport will initially have a capacity for 90 million passengers annually, with a planned expansion to 200 million once all phases are completed. This will give it a higher capacity than Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International, the world’s current largest airport by passenger capacity (104 million).
It will also become the world’s largest airport in land terms, standing at three and a half times the size of the 23 million sq m Beijing Capital International.
The airport’s retail offering took a major step forward earlier this month when Unifree Duty Free and Heinemann unveiled five stores. There is currently provision for about 53,000sq m of retail space.
