It's almost done. After three postponements of its total opening traffic, New Istanbul Airport will finally be taking over all operations at Istanbul Atatürk International Airport. The airport authorities, like the management of Turkish Airlines, have confirmed that the transfer will take place on Friday 5 Aprilat 3am.
The transfer of all flight operations to the new hub will last 45 hours to end on Saturday 6 April at 23:59. However, passengers should expect to encounter some difficulties during this period. The authorities have indicated that in order to keep this gigantic move under control as much as possible, the two airports of Atatürk and Istanbul New Airport will be closed to passenger traffic for twelve hours on 6 April, between 2am and 2pm. An estimated 47,000 tonnes of equipment will be transferred from one platform to another.
the biggest transfer in aviation history
The last Turkish Airlines flight at Atatürk will be the Istanbul - Atatürk route.Singapore on the evening of 5 April. The first flight from Istanbul New Airport will take off for Ankara at 2pm. Some 5,000 trucks will be involved in the move. This will represent, according to İlker Ayci, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Turkish Airlines, " the largest transfer in aviation history, with the equipment moved covering the equivalent of 33 football pitches. " More than 1,800 people will be taking part in the transfer.
The transfer to New Istanbul Airport finally gives Turkish Airlines the means to achieve its ambitions. Last year, Turkey's national airline carried more than 75 million passengers passengers on its 332 aircraft, compared with 69 million passengers and 329 aircraft in 2017, an absolute record. The load factor rose by 2.8 points last year to 81.9%, compared with 79.1% in 2017.
The Istanbul platform, which handles 90 million passengers in its first phase, has over the years become a powerful hub between East and West, particularly for the national airline. Turkish Airlines thus offers a network of 306 destinations at the end of 2018, including 114 cities in Europe, 34 cities in the Near and Middle East (excluding domestic destinations), and 37 cities in Asia/Pacific. In 2018, the number of transfer passengers reached 23.4 million, up 7.8%, with transfers from one international destination to another international hub accounting for 56% of all transit passengers in Istanbul.
According to the Turkish Airlines growth plans unveiled at the beginning of March, the airline will launch flights on Nantes to France (its seventh destination in France), add a third daily frequency to Asia on Bangkok and inaugurate a service to Denpasar in Indonesia and launch a service to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
Change of airport codes
The new Istanbul airport appeared in the IATA timetable code under the abbreviation ISL last October. With the definitive transfer to New Istanbul AirportThe IATA codes will change. From 3.00 am on 6 April, Atatürk airport's IST code will be given to the new airport, while the old Atatürk airport, which will now handle cargo and VIP passenger flights, will be given the ISL code.
