Its architectural style includes the cultural stock of the city of Istanbul, and it also won many international awards before its opening. It is being built on an area of 76.5 million square meters, and its capacity, upon completion of all its stages, will reach 200 million passengers annually.
Istanbul’s new airport, of which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intends to open the first phase on the anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic, which falls on October 29.
After its opening, the airport will include many features that are the first of its kind in the field of aviation and airports, whether in terms of size, infrastructure, security and safety systems, down to the architectural aspects that combine tradition and modernity.
The airport was built by the “Istanbul Grand Airport” company, which was formed on October 7, 2013, and consists of a group of joint ventures of Limak, Kolin, Cengiz, Mapa and Kalyon companies.
The aforementioned consortium won the tender to build, operate and transfer ownership of the airport at a cost of 26 billion and 140 million euros with value added tax, and the company has been continuing construction work for 5 years.
The investments of the first phase of the airport amounted to 6 billion euros, and it is expected to provide services to 90 million passengers annually.
The airport will be opened gradually in 4 phases; The first is at the end of this month, with the participation of the Turkish President, and it is expected that the construction of all its stages will be completed in 2023.
Dozens of industrial facilities have been established at the airport construction site, containing nearly 3,000 heavy machines, and more than 10,000 workers working in exceptional circumstances 24 hours a day, without interruption, to complete the construction of the airport on schedule.
The build-operate-transfer-of-ownership method was adopted in the construction of the airport, which is expected to include, upon completion of the construction of all its stages, 6 independent runways, a capacity to accommodate 500 aircraft at the same time, and an open and closed garage for cars with a capacity of 70 thousand cars, in addition to 200 million passengers annually, thus winning the title of the largest airport around the world.
The design teams at the airport include more than 250 local and foreign architects specialized in various fields, and more than 500 engineers.
After the airport enters service, it is expected that the company operating it will pay 1.05 billion euros annually, that is, a total of 26 billion euros annually, including value-added tax, within 25 years, and thus the state treasury will collect about 176 billion Turkish liras, including value-added tax, without One pound comes out of it.
On the first day of the opening of the first phase of the airport, whose ceremonies will be attended by prominent local and international personalities, it is expected that 5 flights will take off and land similarly.
Turkish Airlines announced that the destination of domestic flights will be to the states of Ankara, Izmir and Antalya, while the destination of international flights will be towards Azerbaijan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
The authorities in charge of the airport intend to complete transportation work from Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul by the end of this year, after which 2,000 planes will be able to take off and land on a daily basis.
The planes of 250 airlines will head from Istanbul’s new airport to more than 350 destinations around the world.
What distinguishes Istanbul’s new airport is that it won many international awards before its opening.
The most prominent and first awards won by the airport were those won by the control tower designed by “Pininfarina” and “Aecom”, as it won the “European Center for Architecture and Design” award in 2015.
The project also won a design award in the category of future projects and infrastructure for the passenger terminal at the airport in 2016, by the management of the International Architecture Festival.
The control tower is distinguished by its inspiration from Islamic and Turkish culture, and the shape of the tulip flower that Istanbul is famous for, and it will be one of the city’s prominent landmarks that air travelers can see.
The project’s systems, including electrical, and the design of the airport terminal, won the European Center for Architecture and Design award in 2015.
The airport’s main building area is 1.3 million square meters, making it the largest airport building around the world.
The roof designers of the building were inspired by the famous Ottoman architect, Sinan.
The new Istanbul airport will pave the way for the Turkish economy to make a qualitative boom after its opening, and the airport’s share of the Turkish GDP is expected to reach 4.9% by 2025.
The airport will be linked to the city center of Istanbul, with a modern and developed subway network, and work is currently continuing on the construction of this subway network.
It is also intended to make Istanbul’s third airport one of the most important airports that provide the best services to its passengers around the world. In this context, several new international standards have been set for the taxi company contracted for the airport.
With regard to the information technology system, a joint stock company specialized in infrastructure and electronic programming services was formed at the airport, employing about 780 Turkish engineers specialized in this field.
The aforementioned Turkish company will adopt local and national programming systems and technology in all the work that it will carry out within the airport. The airport will also feature the latest security and protection systems, and ground radars will be used for the first time.
There is hardly a point or corner in the airport that is devoid of surveillance cameras that have been installed according to the latest international systems, as the total number of cameras in each of the airport building and parking garage is 9 thousand smart surveillance cameras.
Two different centers have been allocated for the presence of the security forces in order to ensure that they can easily move to the event site if required.
The airport will play an important role in Turkey achieving its economic goals of entering the list of the 10 largest economies in the world by 2023, which represents the first centenary of the founding of the Turkish Republic.
Istanbul currently has two airports, one is Ataturk International Airport and the other is Sabiha Gokcen Airport in the Asian side.