Transfer from Atatürk to Istanbul Airport to begin on April 5

ISTANBUL

Aerial view of Istanbul Atatürk Airport.

Operations from Atatürk Airport to the newly built Istanbul Airport will start being transferred on April 5.

It was previously announced that the new airport would become fully operational on Dec. 31, 2018. The date to move the operations, however, was further delayed to March 3.

The transfer will begin at 3:00 a.m. local time on April 5 and will last 45 hours until 12 a.m. on April 7.

During the transfer period Istanbul Airport and Atatürk Airport will only be available for base carriers’ flights and both airports will be operating with a common reduced capacity with 35 arrivals and 35 departures per hour.

After the transfer, Atatürk Airport will be closed to scheduled and unscheduled domestic and international commercial passenger flights and will only be available for cargo, maintenance, general aviation, air taxi, business flights, state aircraft and other flights permitted by the airports authority DHMİ.

Istanbul Airport, whose first phase was opened on Oct. 29 last year, has the potential to welcome 90 million passengers annually, and following the second phase of construction, expected to be completed in 2023, the number will rise to around 200 million.

It will host flights departing to 350 destinations worldwide including Africa once completed.

The airport has 2.5 million tons of annual cargo capacity and will reach 5.5 million tons when all phases are completed.