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New Istanbul Airport hosts maiden flight with Turkish Airlines
New Istanbul Airport hosts maiden flight with Turkish Airlines
The first flight from the new Istanbul Airport by Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines departed for the capital Ankara on Oct. 31. Click through for the story in photos...
Some 340 passengers on the Boeing 777-300, which is the largest airliner owned by Turkish Airlines, traveled from Istanbul to Ankara on flight TK 2124.
The second flight from the new airport was also scheduled for Oct. 31 from Istanbul to Ercan Airport in northern Cyprus.
Turkish Airlines will fly from the new Istanbul Airport to Antalya, İzmir and Baku, beside Ankara and Ercan, as part of the first stage of migration from Atatürk Airport.
The opening ceremony of the first phase of one of the largest airports in the world took place on Oct. 29. The new facility has been named as the Istanbul Airport, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said after making the first landing and buying the first ticket, adding that the Atatürk Airport will remain. The older airport, which is closer to the city center, will be downsized with some parts of it becoming Turkey's largest fairground and a national park. More than 50 foreign dignitaries from at least 18 countries attended the inauguration of the Istanbul Airport.
The ceremony kicked off at 4:30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) on the 95th anniversary of the Turkish Republic.
Over 50 foreign dignitaries from at least 18 countries including the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Macedonia, Moldova, Pakistan, Serbia, Sudan, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Slovenia, Georgia, Iran, Moldova's Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia and the U.K. attended the ceremony.
"We see Istanbul Airport as investment not only in our country but also in our region and the world. The airport will be model to the world with its architecture, construction, operation, and financing," Erdoğan said.
Built by a consortium of five contractors -- Limak, Kolin, Cengiz, Mapa and Kalyon, the project has been carried out through a build-operate-transfer model. It will provide over 26 billion euros ($30.65 billion) of revenue to the government.
Spread over an area of over 76 million square meters (818 square feet) in Istanbul's northwestern district of Arnavutköy, the first phase of the airport will serve 90 million passengers.
With the remaining phases to be completed by 2023, the airport is to sport six separate runways with a capacity of 500 aircraft, an annual 200 million passengers and open and closed carparks for 70,000 cars.
It will be home to the world’s largest duty-free shopping complex. The 53,000 square meter shopping complex will consist of six sections, including luxury stores and bazaar concepts.
The airport’s maiden voyage will be to Turkey’s capital Ankara on Oct. 31, with the first international flight to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus the following day. The first flight to Azerbaijan's capital Baku will be on Nov. 8.
There will also be flights to the southern city of Antalya as of Nov. 1 and western city of Izmir as of Nov. 2.
It is expected that a daily 2,000 planes will go through the airport by the end of the year to over 350 destinations by over 250 carriers.
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