TAV keeps Atatürk airport extension plans

ISTANBUL - Reuters

'We are working on an extension project at the Atatürk airport,' TAV CEO Sani Şener said.

Turkish TAV Airports, the operator of Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport, is keeping the option of extending the airport to meet the demand of Turkey’s most-congested airport, considering the risks of delay with the third airport project, the company’s CEO has said.

“We are working on an extension project at the Atatürk airport, in the face of the possibility of delay foreseen in the completion of the third airport,” TAV CEO Sani Şener said Feb. 11, answering questions from reporters during the opening ceremony of Turkish Airlines’ VIP Lounge.

The company has plans to add four more plane docking bellows and working on these, Şener said, adding the company had presented these plans to the General Directorate of the State Airports Authority (DHMİ).

High occupancy in Atatürk Airport was one the main reasons for the rush in the new airport’s construction, but the setbacks the project is now facing have forced TAV to consider backup plans. 

The third airport’s passenger capacity is planned to gradually reach 150 million passengers, and its first phase is hoped to be completed by 2016.

Istanbul Atatürk Airport, which is located on the European side of the city, kept its top place as the busiest airport with 17.2 million domestic and 34 million international flight passengers last year, marking 12 and 14 percent increases, respectively.