Istanbul New Airport: Enabling a new global aviation connectivity era for Turkey

ISTANBUL'S NEW AIRPORT - one of the world's largest - opens on 29-Oct-2018, involving what is claimed to be the world's biggest airport transfer of services and appropriate infrastructure from the existing Atatürk Airport. Not only in terms of passenger numbers, but also in geography - the two airports are more than 45km apart.

The opening of the airport and its completion, in double-quick time, opens the door to much greater competition throughout the West Asia, Eastern Europe and Middle East regions, where the so-called 'Middle East Big Three' (ME3) airlines and the airports that support them have held the upper hand. At the same time, Istanbul's Atatürk has been capacity-constrained, necessitating the sharing of international traffic with Sabiha Gökçen Airport in the eastern part of the city.

This report looks at the potential role of the new airport in Turkey's global aviation aspirations, as well as the implications for all the big airport players in that part of the world, for the existing Atatürk and Sabiha Gökçen and for Turkish Airlines and Pegasus Airlines - the two main Turkish carriers.