Over this last weekend, Turkish Airlines will have attempted a major relocation from its hub at Istanbul’s existing Atatürk airport to the new and highly publicized Istanbul airport located some 30km to the north of the Turkey’s largest city. While some other flights have already started to use the new airport, Turkish Airlines is the first of the major carriers to relocate. Other airlines will follow suit, but their relocation has been postponed owing to problems with logistics and they will continue to operate out of Atatürk for the foreseeable future. The Turkish Airlines relocation involves the movement of an estimated 10,000 pieces of equipment, from planes to huge aircraft-towing vehicles to fragile security sensors.
Having pushed back the opening date three times, the Istanbul airport will have a fully operational main terminal and two runways, though critics of the new airport have expressed concerns that this has been rushed and is only as a result of a dangerous schedule. When completed in 2027 at an estimated cost of US$6 billion, the airport will have six runways, four terminals and will be the busiest airport in the world at projected figures of 200 million passengers per annum. Currently Atatürk Airport is running at capacity with 100 million passengers per annum with no room to build an additional runway to extend capacity.
The site of Istanbul Airport has raised considerable concern owing to its location, while the economic impact on a country is yet to be witnessed as many suspect that Turkey is on the brink of financial collapse. It was originally intended that the airport would be built at a height of 105m above sea level owing to its location on wetland by the Black sea, but this has subsequently been lowered to 60m to reduce costs. Aviation experts have insisted that the unstable ground, the local bird population and the Black Sea’s changeable weather – including strong winds and fog – pose a safety threat to air traffic.
