Thread: 'World's largest airport' in Istanbul

Turkey's Erdogan inaugurates 'world's largest airport' in Istanbul

President declared airport will be named Istanbul Airport and 'is a great service we are offering to the region and the world'




Turkey’s ambitious and long-serving leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Monday inaugurated what supporters have touted as the world’s largest airport, a sprawling complex of terminals and runways spread out across a set of former coal mines on a plot of land larger than New York’s Manhattan Island.

Mr Erdogan dubbed the new facility Istanbul Airport, ending months of speculation over its name which included rumours that he would allow it to be called after himself.

"Istanbul is not only our largest city," he said before a massive crowd of dignitaries, officials, and journalists, gathered beneath the vaulted ceiling of the airport terminal, "It is our most important brand. It’s a beautiful jewel between two seas. It can be compared to the sun of this earth."

He noted that many doubted that the colossal airport could be built when it was first proposed, and noted the country has managed to do so despite major challenges in a reference to several major terrorist attacks, spillover from the war in Syria, and a 2016 coup attempt that shook the nation.

"We have completed this project," he declared, "and we are officially launching the first stage. We did not built the Istanbul airport for our country. It is a great service we are offering to the regional and the world."

The airport's size corresponds to the grand ambitions of Mr Erdogan, who has vowed to make Turkey, a nation of 81 million perched between Europe and Asia, a world power. “This is not just an airport. This is a monument to victory,” said a sign inside the facility at the opening ceremony.

The official inauguration of the $11 billion airport, the most expensive public works project in Turkey's history, coincided with the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic. But the airport will only regularly operate three domestic and two international routes until the end of the year. That’s when all planes and equipment from Istanbul’s main Ataturk International Airport will be transferred to the new facility, with some aircraft taken by road and others flying the 15-minute route.

Istanbul's main airport, first opened 65 years ago and rebuilt 21 years ago, was named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who founded Turkey as a secular republic out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. It is scheduled to be closed to regular commercial flights once the new airport is underway, and possibly used for private planes and training of pilots. Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport, on the city’s Asian or Anatolian side, will remain open.

Mr Erdogan, a former mayor of Istanbul, casts himself as Turkey’s master builder. Under the reign of his Justice and Development Party (AKP), hundreds of glittery shopping centres and apartment towers and signature public works projects including new universities, mosques, bridges, tunnels, hospitals, and railway projects have been built. Just a week earlier, Mr Erdogan was on hand to inaugurate a significant expansion of an Istanbul metro line.

But environmentalists, urban planners, and economists have critiqued the development rush, saying it takes little heed of the country’s ecology, generates haphazard urban sprawl, and has burdened the country with vast foreign debt.

While opening of the new airport was lauded as a “day of pride” by pro-government media, opposition newspapers lamented the shuttering of Ataturk, the world’s 15th busiest airport.

"The biggest closure in history of Republic," said a headline in the leftist Birgun. Human Rights Watch, the New York-based advocacy group, urged the release of dozens of labour leaders and activists arrested last month at the airport site in a protest over wages and rough working conditions. Airport officials say of 200,000 labourers employed, 30 have workers died on the job during the 42-month construction of the airport, while labour activists say 38 have died.

“Behind the glass and steel of President Erdogan’s newest mega-project, 30 construction workers and a union leader are sitting in jail for protesting poor working conditions,” Emma Sinclair-Webb, Human Rights Watch's Turkey director, said in a statement. “The jailed workers should be freed, the criminal investigations against them and many others dropped, and workers unfairly fired for protesting should get their jobs back."

Huseyin Kadri Samsunlu, CEO of the airport, told reporters on Thursday that management was sensitive to labour concerns and that improvements had already been made. "We are fixing the problems they raised," he said. "I'm always open to peaceful demands. They raised issues, and I listened."

Mr Samsunlu said Turkish airlines urged the soft opening to identify any potential problems before the move from Ataturk gets underway. It will be a massive logistical operation, and may be documented by a National Geographic film crew.

A metro line connecting the airport to the city 20 miles away will begin operations in two years; in the meantime buses will shuttle passengers to the terminal, located near the shores of the Black Sea, from 18 locations throughout the city. A new smartphone app will help guide passengers from the city to the terminal.

The new airport is set to eventually handle as many as 200 million passengers a year, twice is many as Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson. It was built by a consortium of five large, politically connected Turkish contractors – Limak, Kolin, Cengiz, Mapa and Kalyon – on a build-operate-transfer model that will allow the builders to reap profits off the facility for the next 20 years while paying the country $25 billion in rent. London-based firm Grimshaw Global led the design team for the terminal, which includes skylights inspired by Ottoman-era mosques.

The first daily flight from the airport will begin on 31 October, to the Turkish capital of Ankara, followed by daily flights to Izmir, and Antalya as well as to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku and the Ercan, capital of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. The launch of full operations has been pushed back to 29 December.

Its cheerleaders have boasted of its outsize specifications that include a 22,000-camera surveillance system, a 53,000 square-meter duty free complex described as the world's largest, a 42 kilometre baggage handling system, 225,000 employees, and a footprint of 76 million square meters.

During the first phase it eventually expected to handle up to 90 million passengers a year flying to 350 destinations by over 250 carriers, some of whom have been clamouring for years for access to Istanbul. Two more phases will bring capacity up to 200 million passengers per year.

The airport will give a boost the country's flagship carrier, Turkish Airlines, as it competes with Arabian Peninsula airlines such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Ettihad as well as European airlines for dominance of Eurasia. On Monday, Turkish Airlines announced a code-sharing partnership with Hong Kong Airlines, expanding its reach into fast-growing Asian cities.

Istanbul – located nine hours by plane from both New York and Shanghai – may be ideally situated to serve as such a hub. One economist noted that it lies within an 11-hour flight of 80 percent of the world's population.

“With this airport we aim to bring the world closer together with a major hub at the intersection of Asia, Europe and the Middle East," Mr Samsunlu told reporters on Thursday. "Our challenge is to be the biggest and the best."


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8606666.html

^I watched it yesterday live on TRT World, they made a big show. The main hall is really huge, not cut into small areas as in Bkk.

good, because the old one is shit, Turkish are decent to fly though

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Turkey's Erdogan inaugurates 'world's largest airport' in Istanbul


Mr Samsunlu told reporters on Thursday. "Our challenge is to be the biggest and the best."

The biggest airport,...yes (for the time being),...until some UAE princely brat decides to "up-it-one".

However, w/ all things considered (on the flip-side) of Turkish mentality......, re: being "the best" airport,...

indeed(s),...could well-become a monumental stretch,...even for the logistics "management" savvy Turks.

Well Dubai World Central (DWC) was supposed to expand greatly in the next year or so as the worlds largest in terms of international pax numbers but has just been put back at least five years. More modest expansion will be undertaken in the short-term. Things are not well in Dubai and likely to get worse.

Originally Posted by TuskegeeBen

The biggest airport,...yes (for the time being),...until some UAE princely brat decides to "up-it-one".

However, w/ all things considered (on the flip-side) of Turkish mentality......, re: being "the best" airport,...

indeed(s),...could well-become a monumental stretch,...even for the logistics "management" savvy Turks.

Who flies into and out of Instanbul (airlines)?

I am not one to go anywhere near the ME....

Originally Posted by Troy

Who flies into and out of Instanbul (airlines)?

I am not one to go anywhere near the ME....

It's not a bad airport as it happens.

I've flown Turkish a few times, they have new planes and often decent fares, but the layovers can be a bit crummy.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

It's not a bad airport as it happens.

I've flown Turkish a few times, they have new planes and often decent fares, but the layovers can be a bit crummy.

Do they still allow smoking at the back?

Originally Posted by jabir

Do they still allow smoking at the back?

According to my records, the last airline that did that was Biman.

Originally Posted by Troy

Who flies into and out of Instanbul

Possibly quite a few people

Originally Posted by Klondyke

One economist noted that it lies within an 11-hour flight of 80 percent of the world's population.

With the increased range and endurance of the latest Boeing and Airbus jets Istanbul and Turkish Airlines are well placed to be a better hub choice than the main ME airports in Dubai, Qatas and Abu Dhabi. The Turkish government recognized this a decade ago and hence built this new airport.

Originally Posted by BoganInParasite

With the increased range and endurance of the latest Boeing and Airbus jets Istanbul and Turkish Airlines are well placed to be a better hub choice than the main ME airports in Dubai, Qatas and Abu Dhabi. The Turkish government recognized this a decade ago and hence built this new airport.

With the increased range and endurance, etc. The Middle East is best placed because it's pretty well half way between SE Asia and Europe.

And now they can fly over the pole as far as LA and all the way to Australia.

Originally Posted by Troy

Who flies into and out of Instanbul (airlines)?

I am not one to go anywhere near the ME....

Turkish Air has become a huge airline using Istanbul as a hub to Europe and the world.

It is ranked as the 15th busiest airport in the world. Suwanaphum is nowhere to be seen in the top 30 no matter what the government says.

Yep. It is predicted within the industry that this new Istanbul airport will be the major world international long-haul hub within 15 years. Ultra long-haul travel in the 16+ hours category will continue to grow but be dwarfed by traditional long-haul. I worked for or consulted to half a dozen international airlines over the past twenty years and most recognized from around 2005 the geographic advantage Turkey and Turkish Airlines had when you consider international pax volumes by origin and destination, the number and density of the popular airports in various key geographic regions including East/SE/South Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America and what was then predicted and now being seen the increased range and endurance of new jets to carry viable commercial loads of pax and cargo such long distances. Some hub airports in Asia are already suffering as aircraft that once stopped now fly over them. The same is beginning to happen to Dubai. In a somewhat bizarre twist the new 777 coming into service over the next two years only got off the ground with the support of Emirates. Dubai is likely to suffer the greatest loss of hub business as other airlines get their hands on it. You will be surprised by announcements over the next couple of years of airlines setting up secondary hubs in Istanbul.

Originally Posted by aging one

Turkish Air has become a huge airline using Istanbul as a hub to Europe and the world.

It is ranked as the 15th busiest airport in the world. Suwanaphum is nowhere to be seen in the top 30 no matter what the government says.

Originally Posted by Troy

Who flies into and out of Instanbul (airlines)?

I fly turkish to and from istanbul - I will be doing ERC-IST-BKK tomorrow

istanbul airport at the moment is not very good - the new one will only operate TK flights to izmir , antalaya domestic and northern cyprus and azerbyjan international until 31 december

Will surge in traffic to challenge the busiest airports when Turkey joins the EU.

Originally Posted by jabir

Will surge in traffic to challenge the busiest airports when Turkey joins the EU.

Please,..do not hold your breath (another 67 years) waiting for Turkey to become a member of the EU...

There's always the back door, reserved for EU executive to circumvent due process. And with the clock ticking as EU sets the fuses, might as well go out with a more impressive bang.

Or if the gods decide to do things legally and democratically, let's see how they're going to swing Turkey over the fence while it occupies another EU member.

And btw, do you honestly and sincerely believe the EU will be around in another 67, or even 17 years?

Originally Posted by TuskegeeBen

Sorry, for not getting back to you sooner. Perhaps I should have originally written "Please,..do not hold your breath (another 67 years) waiting for Turkey to qualify, to become a member of the EU", instead.

Anyway, since ESL is the EuroZone Trade /Treaty negotiations "median" language, that factor alone completely disqualifies Turkey, as an eligible EU candidate.

For example, the average (on-the-street) Thai person of Bangkok, has a higher working knowledge of English, than does the average Turk, in Istanbul,...and even Ankara (the Capitol city).

Sophia, Bulgaria is a 55-minute flight from Istanbul. The level of spoken English, in Bulgaria, would make a new arrival believe they had arrived at London's Heathrow, instead.

Re: your closing question ~ my answer is NO! Of course, that's an entirely new OP topic thread, for you to initiate. Are you game?

???
where on earth is the link between level of spoken English and eligibility for EU membership ??

Originally Posted by melvin

???
where on earth is the link between level of spoken English and eligibility for EU membership ??

No worries. I made it up...K?

We sent a cricket team to the UK via Istanbul a few years back. A couple of them never made it.

After a few inquiries, it turned out that while wandering around the airport, they went through a door that closed behind them and found themselves outside the building.

They got arrested and spent two weeks shitting themselves before the Turks finally believed it was an accident and they weren't trying to do a runner and sent them back to the sandpit.

The ribbing they got...