Tomorrow on October 29, 2018, Istanbul’s new airport will open in a grand opening ceremony. Just in time for the 95th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey.
The construction began in May 2015 and stage 1 of the construction process is scheduled to be finished 42 months later in 2018. With a total of 4 construction stages, the airport will be the worlds biggest with a capacity of 150 million passengers at the time of planning.
Stage 1 includes: (Wikipedia)
- The main terminal with a total passenger capacity of 90 million, with an area of 1,300,000 m2 (14,000,000 sq ft)
- Second terminal building with an area of 170,000 m2 (1,800,000 sq ft)
- 88 aircraft jet bridges
- Indoor car-park with 12,000 vehicles capacity
- 2 independent runways
- 8 parallel taxiways
- Approximately 4,000,000 m2 (43,000,000 sq ft) of apron space
- 3 technical blocks
- 1 air traffic control tower
- VIP Lounge
- Cargo and general aviation terminals
- Other services including hospitals, prayer rooms, convention centers, hotels etc.
Turkish Airlines, Turkey’s flag carrier, will operate the first passenger flight on October 31, 2018, to the capital city Ankara where the republic was founded.
It is amazing to see what got accomplished in about 3.5 years. Unfortunately, Germany is still trying to bring the new airport near the capital city of Berlin (BER) online. After 15 years of planning, construction began in 2006. Berlin’s new airport was scheduled to open in October 2011 but after numerous (poor construction planning, execution, management) the airport is now scheduled to open in fall 2020 and could even be further delayed into 2021. If they uphold the 2020 opening date, it has been a 14-year construction project.
Berlin’s new airport was projected with 34 million passengers. This is only a third of Istanbul’s Airport Stage 1, which is projected with 90 million passengers. Maybe “Made in Germany” has lost its value?
[Header Image: http://www.igairport.com]
Peter has a passion for Traveling, Photography, and Geocaching. These are the best ingredients for amazing adventures all over the globe. “Traveling is fun, no matter if you stay in a luxury hotel or travel like a backpacker.” Peter shares his experiences on his Blog www.gatetoadventures.com
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