Mega-Airport opened in Istanbul

The new flagship of Istanbul will become the largest airport in the world – the major project will provide space for 200 million pbadengers.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurates Monday the new mega-airport of Istanbul. According to the Turkish news agency Anadolu, more than 50 high-ranking guests from around the world are expected to attend the ceremony. The Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Jawad Sarif. The Pakistani government has announced the presence of President Arif Alvi.

According to information provided by the IGA operating company, the airport has a capacity of 90 million pbadengers per year during a first phase. In ten years, it should then have a capacity of 200 million pbadengers, which would place it in the current state of the world's largest airport. According to the International Airport Review, the busiest airport last year was that of Atlanta in the United States (just under 104 million travelers). In comparison, the largest German airport in Frankfurt am Main handled almost 64.5 million pbadengers in 2017.

For the moment, only a few destinations are served

The airport is fully operational – its name is not yet known – but only at the end of December. As of Monday, the new Istanbul airport will serve only five destinations: three in its territory and two abroad (North Cyprus and Azerbaijan).

On 29 December, the semi-public airline Turkish Airlines begins the transfer of Atatürk airport to the new Black Sea airport. The move should take 45 hours, according to the airline. The laying of the foundation stone took place in June 2014.

According to IGA data, the construction of the airport costs a total of 10.25 billion euros. It will replace Atatürk airport, which is chronically invaded. Erdogan had announced that he would make a park of it.