Although not yet fully completed and will not officially be fully operational until the end of this year, Istanbul New Airport was officially opened on October 29 because that marked the 95th anniversary of Türkiye's declaration of a republic.
The total area of the project is up to 76.5 million m2. At the moment, only a few flights will be taking off first, with other routes gradually being deployed. However, the PR team said that the airport is "built to grow", so they expect that the airport will handle around 200,000 or more passengers per day.
A controversial project
The tulip-shaped control tower at the airport won first prize in the “Future Projects – Infrastructure” category at the 2016 World Architecture Festival in Berlin. Istanbul New Airport bills itself as a “green” airport with recycling and rainwater harvesting capabilities. However, some environmental groups have argued that the airport’s construction has caused serious damage to forest resources.
The control tower at the airport is shaped like a tulip.
New aviation center
By the end of December 2018, Türkiye's main airport, Ataturk International Airport, will cease operations. In its place, Istanbul New Airport will become the city's new aviation hub. City residents can travel to the airport by metro, road or high-speed train.
The airport is expected to receive 200,000 passengers per day.
The importance of Istanbul New Airport
According to some European aviation experts, from the perspective of airport planning, this is "an unprecedented project" in both scale and speed of project implementation. The airport is expected to have a capacity of 200 million passengers - twice the size of the world's current largest airport - Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Completing an airport of such scale in three and a half years is really a challenge, at least in ensuring the timely operation frequency of related facilities, systems, as well as the procedures and equipment needed for the airport to come into operation.
Politically, the opening of the airport on the 95th anniversary of the Turkish Republic is of great significance for the country and for President Erdogan. Building a new airport is very expensive (about 12 billion USD), so there are concerns about the general recession in the Turkish economy as well as the labor force.
The airport is connected to the metro, road and high-speed train systems.
But whatever the case, the New Istanbul Airport will certainly have a positive impact on the aviation industry in the region as well as the world.
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