Turkish Airlines has revealed in a statement that they are ready for the biggest move in aviation history. Turkish Airlines will complete the move to Istanbul New Airport on Saturday, April 6, 2019, in an unprecedented logistical operation.
The new airport was opened in October 2018. Since that date, Turkish Airlines has been running a dual operation out of the new venue and its historic home base of Atatürk Airport.
Starting at 3 am on Friday, April 5, the airline will make its final transfer.
The moving operation will take 45 hours and involves:
- Complete closure of both airports from 2am to 2 pm on April 6.
- 1800 personnel.
- Change of airport codes as Istanbul Airport will take Atatürk Airport’s IST code and Atatürk Airport, which will be hosting cargo and VIP passenger flights, will use the ISL code.
Istanbul New Airport, designed to become the biggest in the world, ultimately will handle 200 million passengers a year via six runways, four terminals and 233 aircraft parking positions.
It will deliver a significant upgrade in passenger comfort, convenience, security and connectivity with:
- A smart wayfinding system.
- New generation GSM infrastructure.
- Face and voice recognition to speed processing.
- The biggest duty-free zone in the world.
- Next level business and first-class lounges.
- A 42km long baggage system capable of processing 30,000 items per hour.