D-Day for Istanbul Airport's record-breaking move

After months of waiting the move of operations from the old Atartürk airport to the new Istanbul airport will start tonight.

Turkish Airlines will begin transferring operations tonight in what is one of the largest, if not the largest, moves in airline history. It will last 45 hours and no flights will leave or arrive at either airport between 2am and 2pm tomorrow, Saturday.

43700 tons of material will be moved by 500 trucks, which will mobilize 1800 people.

According to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Turkish Airlines: ” The largest transfer in aviation history is about to take place. The total amount of equipment we will transfer would cover 33 soccer fields. After this great transfer, observed by the whole world, new days will open to us. The sun will shine on Turkish aviation with flights operated from Istanbul airport. I hope that this transfer will be a great opportunity both for our country and for Turkish Airlines ».

An opportunity for the airline but also a real relief for the passengers. We were in Ataturk just last weekend and the saturation of the airport opened in 1953 made it more and more painful with interminable queues and many aircraft parked remotely, imposing transfers by bus. We still wonder how it could accommodate 67.9 million passengers with such limited infrastructure.

The new airport will start with a capacity of 90 million passengers, which will be increased over time to 200 million! In comparison, the largest airport in the world in terms of passengers is currently Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International with 104 million passengers. With its future terminal 4 Roissy will have a capacity of 135 million passengers and will not be able to expand any further.

In any case, Turkish Airlines, certainly the best European airline, will finally benefit from a tool commensurate with its size and ambition, as it is the airline that serves the most destinations in the world.