Background

Atatürk Airport was one of the busiest airports in Europe. Since 2013, it had ranked among the five busiest airports in Europe by passenger traffic. In 2017, Atatürk Airport and Sabiha Gökçen, Istanbul's other international airport, handled more than 100 million passengers combined. By comparison, in 2025, the six London-area airports serve more than 175 million passengers a year, while the three Paris-area airports serve more than 110 million passengers a year.

As Atatürk Airport was hemmed in by the city on three sides and the sea of Marmara on another, it was unable to expand to meet the growing demands placed on it. Sabiha Gökçen was also at capacity. The decision was taken to build a new airport, well away from the city to ensure ample space.

Location

It was decided to construct the new airport at the intersection of roads to Arnavutköy, Göktürk, and Çatalca, north of central Istanbul and between the Black Sea coast towns of Yeniköy, Tayakadın and Akpınar. The area is a 7,600-hectare (19,000-acre) region near Lake Terkos. Some 6,172 hectares (15,250 acres) of this area was state-owned forest. The distance between Istanbul Airport and Atatürk Airport is approximately 35 km (22 mi). The area encompassed old open-pit coal mines, which were later filled with soil.

According to the Environmental Impact Assessment (ÇED) report published in April 2013, there were a total of 2,513,341 trees in the area and 657,950 of them would need to be cut indispensably, while 1,855,391 trees would be moved to new places. However, the Ministry of Forest and Water Management claimed the exact number of trees cut and moved would only be revealed after construction was complete.

Construction

Construction of the airport was divided over four phases. When all stages are completed, the airport will have the capacity to serve 200 million yearly passengers, which would at that time have made it the world's largest airport in terms of capacity. The cost of the project was estimated at €22 billion, making it the second most expensive airport ever built.

The project was achieved by an international design team working across different phases, but all focused on the collective vision.

The architects behind the concept design were Grimshaw Architects, Nordic Office of Architecture and Haptic Architects.

The lead delivery architect was Scott Brownrigg, also in charge of the interior concept design with IGA Design. Local delivery architects were Fonksiyon Mimarlik, Turgut Alton Mimarlik and Kiklop Design & Engineering.

A tender was made for the construction as well as for operating the airport. Bidding for these tenders took place on 3 May 2013. Of the eligible companies, four Turkish and two foreign contenders took part in the bidding process. The Turkish joint venture consortium of Cengiz-Kolin-Limak-Mapa-Kalyon won the tender and were obliged to pay the government €26.142 billion including value-added tax for a 25-year lease starting from 2018. The completion date of the construction's first stage was officially set for 2018 – 42 months after the finalization of the tender's approval.

The groundbreaking ceremony took place on 7 June 2014, though construction only started in May 2015 after the land was officially handed over.

The inauguration of the airport took place on the planned date of 29 October 2018. It was reported that the first test landing at the airport would take place on 26 February 2018; however, the first landing took place on 20 June 2018. Testing of navigational and electronic systems with DHMİ aircraft had begun on 15 May 2018.

The control tower is in the shape of the Turkish national flower, the tulip.

Project stages

The construction of the airport is taking place in several stages, expanding the airport and its facilities over time.

The first stage consists of the main terminal, with an annual passenger capacity of 90 million and an area of 1,440,000 m2 (15,500,000 sq ft) — making it the world's third-largest airport terminal building. There will also be two pairs of parallel runways connected to eight parallel taxiways to the west of the main terminal, approximately 4,000,000 m2 (43,000,000 sq ft) of apron space, and an indoor car-park with a capacity of 12,000 vehicles. In addition, the airport will feature three technical blocks for repairs, maintenance, and fueling, as well as an air traffic control tower, eight ramp control towers, and hangars for cargo and general aviation aircraft. Several other services are also to be in operation, including hospitals, frequent-flyer and VIP lounges, prayer rooms, convention centers, and hotels; some of these are expected to form part of the Istanbul Airport City project.

The second stage will add a third independent runway to the east of the main terminal, as well as a fourth remote runway with an east–west heading and additional taxiways and apron areas.