The transfer of flights to the new Istanbul airport has been postponed again for more than two months. Now the transfer of flights from the current main airport Ataturk is expected in March instead of December 31, Travel.ru's own correspondent reports.
The reason was the unpreparedness of some services of the new airport to handle the entire volume of flights of Ataturk Airport at once. Let us recall that currently five flights a day are operated from the new airport, and the launch of several more (to Trabzon and Adana) is planned for the near future. In addition, the shopping and restaurant areas at the airport are not fully ready.
Meanwhile, the airport hotel Yotel, which will operate right inside the terminal, has begun accepting reservations. It will also be possible to stay there from March. The hotel is located on the left side of the terminal and has 451 ultra-compact rooms, a hundred of which will be located behind the passport control line and are intended mainly for transit passengers.
The exact date of the transfer of flights has not yet been announced: it could equally well be March 1 or March 31 — the day when the winter schedule changes to the summer one. It cannot even be ruled out that this second transfer (the airport's full launch was initially planned for October 29) will not be the last, although the airport's overall level of readiness is high.
Let us recall that the airport is conceived as the largest in the world, with the possibility of servicing up to 200 million passengers per year in a few years (the current world record holders among airports have half as many). At the moment, the first terminal is ready (two in total are planned, plus a separate concourse).
Terminal device. The terminal, which looks like a giant letter Ж from above, has five huge boarding piers - A, B, D, F, G (plus several jet bridges in the main building itself - sectors C and E). Domestic lines are assigned the pier closest to the right (exits G), as well as exits F1 and F3 on the far right pier. In total, this gives about two dozen jet bridges plus 13 bus exits for boarding.
Unfortunately, the navigation in terms of boarding gates is extremely confusing. Instead of logical digital numbering, the airport has opted for a very complex letter numbering. For example, all 13 bus gates of domestic lines are concentrated in the G1 and G3 indexes: each of them has an additional letter designation - for example, G1A, G1B, G1C, G3F, and so on. Jetways are also double, since most jetways have two exits - for example, G6A and G6B are located together. As a result, almost every gate has a designation that is difficult to perceive and remember, and confusion with other exits with a similar combination of letters and numbers is possible - for example, A10B and B10A, and so on. In short, passengers will have to solve quests.
Sectors A, B, C, D, E and F exits are international (except F1 and F3). 16 of them are bus exits (they occupy part of Sector A), and more than a hundred more are jetways. In total, almost four hundred aircraft stands are planned at the airport, 257 of which are remote.
The terminal's design is based on local architecture - the ceiling consists of 313 domes, which are supposed to resemble mosques and palaces. The 800-meter gallery of Duty Free shops is promised to resemble an Istanbul street.
The airport is expected to have over 500 check-in desks on 13 "islands". Eight of them (D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L) will be occupied by Turkish Airlines. 228 passport control booths and over 20 thousand seats for waiting passengers have been installed. Self-service baggage drop-off desks, automatic turnstiles at the boarding gates and other innovations are also promised. As in other Turkish airports, each passenger departing from Istanbul will face two security checks: one at the entrance to the terminal, the other at the entrance to the clean zone.
Turkish Airlines plans to open five business lounges at the new airport: one for domestic passengers (3,500 square meters), one for business class passengers arriving on international flights (1,000 square meters). Three more will operate in the international departures area near the shopping gallery. They will be divided into different categories of elite passengers: for business class passengers and members of elite loyalty programs, the lounges will be different (4,600 square meters each). Three global airline alliances, Star Alliance, Skyteam and oneworld, will have separate lounges, plus private lounges of some other airlines and airport lounges for passengers of other carriers. In addition, as at Ataturk Airport, Turkish Airlines business class passengers will have a separate entrance, No. 5.
Like most other major airports in the world, the new Istanbul airport will be “quiet”: there will be no announcements about check-in or boarding, except for sudden changes and other unusual cases. For passengers arriving from the EU and some other countries, there will be no security check when changing flights – they will exit the plane directly into the clear departure area.
Transport. The airport parking will be designed for 18 thousand indoor and 22 thousand outdoor spaces. Due to the small number of flights, 5 bus routes are currently operating instead of the expected 16. In addition, they have a discount of 50% from standard rates - that is, you can get to the airport for an average of 10 Turkish lira (about one and a half euros).
These first 5 routes depart from the old Ataturk Airport, from Taksim and Beşiktaş districts, from Yenikapı, Bakırköy, Yenibosna districts, from Kozyatağı metro station and from Bahçeşehir district. The travel time is promised to be between 100 and 115 minutes.
It will be much faster to get there after the airport is fully launched, which is currently planned for December 31, but even then you will have to allow at least an hour from the European part of Istanbul and an hour and a half from the Asian part. The intervals of express buses on various routes will be from 10 to 50 minutes, and the price will vary from 12 to 30 lira (1.8 - 4.5 euros). In particular, from the old city the price will be 18 lira (2.6 euros), and the interval is expected to be 11 minutes. Buses should be equipped with individual video screens, wireless Internet and ports for charging mobile electronics.
The metro line from the central Gayrettepe district, which will allow you to get to the airport in half an hour, will be launched, according to the latest information, only in 2020. A taxi ride from the same district on an unloaded highway takes about 40 minutes, but from other central districts the time may be longer. In addition, after all flights are transferred, the load on the roads will increase significantly and travel time may increase. However, construction of several new highways towards the airport is currently underway.
After the trip to the airport, passengers will have to cover quite a distance inside the giant building. From the entrance to the terminal even to the nearest boarding gate is half a kilometer in a straight line, and to the most distant one - almost one and a half. Part of this distance can be covered on moving walkways.
Available flights and transfer process. Turkish Airlines, the key carrier at the new airport, currently operates one flight a day from there to Ankara, Antalya, Izmir, as well as to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Ercan) and Azerbaijan (Baku). These are not flights transferred from the old Ataturk airport, but additional flights. The price for them is lower than for regular flights from the old airport, and therefore the demand is very high and most flights are sold out in advance.
You can find them in the schedule by the code of the new airport - ISL. After the complete transfer of flights, the new airport will receive the code of the Ataturk airport - IST (and that, in turn, will get ISL).
Thus, at least until March, Turkish Airlines will be the only airline flying from the new airport. The transfer of all other passenger flights of all airlines from Ataturk to the new airport should happen almost simultaneously on one of the nights in March.
Aerodrome. In terms of aprons and runways, the giant new airport will be launched in stages. Initially, there will be two runways in operation (but each of them will have a backup runway next to it, usually used as a taxiway, but ready to replace the main runway in case of any problems), in the future their number will increase to six (plus at least two backups).
Project summary. The new airport will significantly increase the number of flights to Istanbul, including from Russia. It will also radically improve conditions for passengers compared to the long-overcrowded existing Ataturk airport. In addition, the number of flights serviced at remote parking areas without jet bridges will be sharply reduced - it is expected that there will be no more than 20%. Turkish Airlines expects to use the new airport to sharply increase the number of flights and destinations and significantly push out competing Asian airlines. In five years, it expects to increase its passenger flow by more than one and a half times - to 120 million passengers per year.
However, other carriers will also be able to operate more flights to Istanbul after the transition. At the same time, the Old Ataturk Airport will not be completely closed, although it will soon lose all regular passenger flights. Firstly, cargo flights will remain there for at least another year (then they will also be transferred to the new airport). Secondly, general aviation and business aviation will remain there. Finally, air shows are planned to be held there. At least part of the terminals are supposed to be converted into an aviation university, and another part of the territory may become a park.
A detailed photo report from the new airport is available on the Travel.ru Facebook page.
Source: travel.ru
