Turkey tourism offers sneak peek at Istanbul's new airport

Air passengers flying into Istanbul next year will find themselves landing at what may be the world’s busiest airport.

A new international airport – called “Istanbul New Airport,” for now – is being constructed in the Arnavutköy district on the European side of Istanbul. It plans to accommodate 150 million passengers a year upon its full completion.

To put that into perspective, in 2015, Atlanta International Airport welcomed 101 million passengers, Dubai International Airport handled 78 million passengers and Heathrow processed 75 million travelers, according to the Airport Council International.

Istanbul’s new airport, scheduled to be in operation by October 2018, will take up 7,594 hectares of space, and will serve as Instanbul's main hub for international and domestic flights.

Renderings show the inside of Instanbul's new airport coming October 2018.

The need for a new airport was identified as both Ataturk and Sabiha Gökçen Airports – Instanbul’s two existing airports – face ongoing challenges with overcrowding and increase traffic demand, Abdullah Nergiz, airline and cargo marketing director for Instanbul’s new airport told press and airline reps yesterday (May 25) at Turkish Airlines’ head office in downtown Toronto.

According to Nergiz, passenger numbers in Turkey are expected to grow in the coming years despite a rough 2016, which saw a decline in visitors after a series of terrorist bombings in Ankara, Diyarbakir and Istanbul.

Regrettably, the impact of those events created a sense of unpredictability in the cruise industry, leading major companies such as Crystal, Disney, MSC Cruises, Royal Caribbean and others to either suspend, cancel or avoid Turkey’s ports until further notice.

Still, despite those “terrible events,” Istanbul’s two airports welcomed 90 million passengers in 2015, almost tripling the 37 million passengers it saw in 2009, Nergiz pointed out in his presentation.

“In the coming months we will see recovering passenger numbers in Turkey and Istanbul airports. Therefore, the government has decided to complete the new airport,” Nergiz said.

Computer renderings show Instanbul's new airport currently under construction.

Located along the Black Sea coast on the European side of Turkey, the new airport will be 35 km outside of Istanbul and serve the ancient city with metro, rail and bus links.

The ultra-modern and futuristic facility will be Istanbul’s third international airport; however, once it is operational, Ataturk airport will close and be used strictly for charter and private flights, Nergiz said.

As such, all scheduled and charter commercial passenger flights operated from Istanbul Ataturk Airport will be rerouted to Istanbul New Airport once it opens, Nergiz said.

The mega airport is being constructed in four phases and will be fully operational by 2028. By then it will boast six runways, flights to 350 destinations and reach an eventual annual capacity of 200 million passengers, reports say.

It will also be home to what is being called the largest duty free shopping area in Turkey and the world, measuring a whopping 53,000 square meters in space.

Home to 78.7 million people, Turkey generated nearly 31 billion dollars in tourism revenue in 2014.

With its ancient cities, islands, beaches, spice markets, UNESCO heritage sites, religious excursions and outdoor activities, the country hopes to reach 50 million visitors and generate 50 billion dollars in revenue by 2023, according to stats presented by tourism officials at a Turkish-Canadian Tourism Sector Workshop held in Toronto last year.

Images courtsey of Istanbul New Airport.