SamYeager2016 wrote:

I can see that tower getting serious stick and no doubt a rude nickname.

The "Turkey Neck"?

peterinlisbon wrote:

SamYeager2016 wrote:

I can see that tower getting serious stick and no doubt a rude nickname.

The "Turkey Neck"?

Now why has it taken this long for someone to come up with that name!

Well done it's perfect:-)

42 km-long baggage handling system of İstanbul New Airport has been completed in 24 months, for a record time! The system, which can parse baggage with its smart devices will process 30.000 luggage per hour and make passengers wait for less!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG_EpfBsrzI

That is one spectacularly awesome terminal it's looks absolutely amazing

Although I have been to Turkey I've yet to visit Istanbul one of the few great cities of the world I yet to go to but I am definitely going to put it off now until this fantastic new airport for Istanbul officially opens.

Well, two points from my side:
1 - around 03:50 in the video one can see an UA tail - eventhough UA is currently not operating to Turkey. Hopefully they will with the new airport...
2 - overall, extremely TK-minded video. No wonder and unsurprising; however, KK and 8Q also have their hubs at IST with a total fleet size of around 50 aircraft. Of course, this is only 1/6 of TK fleetsize, but the point is to "honor" them as well. Both airlines are equally important for the location and the Turkish aviation industry in overall. At the end of the day both transport quite some amounts of passengers to, from and via IST generating revenues for the airport operator.

stylo777 wrote:

around 03:50 in the video one can see an UA tail - eventhough UA is currently not operating to Turkey. Hopefully they will with the new airport...

ha ha ha... stylo, a perfect anutter
I actually see 2 x UA tails, farther one might be a 772. What do you think??

TK787 wrote:

stylo777 wrote:

around 03:50 in the video one can see an UA tail - eventhough UA is currently not operating to Turkey. Hopefully they will with the new airport...

ha ha ha... stylo, a perfect anutter
I actually see 2 x UA tails, farther one might be a 772. What do you think??

I've also seen an AtlasGlobal and Air France
They were at remote stand while TK bird lands and taxies to the gate

The airport looks stunning in the renderings. It could easily become the worlds busiest airport.

Tkfan wrote:

TK787 wrote:

stylo777 wrote:

around 03:50 in the video one can see an UA tail - eventhough UA is currently not operating to Turkey. Hopefully they will with the new airport...

ha ha ha... stylo, a perfect anutter
I actually see 2 x UA tails, farther one might be a 772. What do you think??

I've also seen an AtlasGlobal and Air France
They were at remote stand while TK bird lands and taxies to the gate

Ooh I must have missed those ; well, AF will also leave soon (or lets say switch to Joon subsidiary). Again, hopefully all airlines which once served IST hopefully will find their way back to the new airport. With the price structure and overall higher prices/charges I certainly doubt it for the near future, but my hopes are always lasting forever. And I’m talking about the ones like UA, AC, LX, OS, IB, SK, TG, NH, etc...
The New Airport needs competition as much as TK! In the last 6-12 months quality dropped in my opinion. No wonder, TK has monopolies on many routes domestically as well as internationally. Only a healthy competitive environment will keep TK on the same high standard as they once have been.


BTW. - Anyone tested already the new TK mobile app? Do you like it?

BTW2 - It’s still surprising to me to receive only 260 miles for a trip to Switzerland whereas on domestic flights one usually get 300-600 miles. I know, promo ticket, etc etc etc, but still... a bit strange for my own feeling

Really sorry for my last two comments as I believed to be in the Turkish Aviation thread

360 degree virtual tour:

http://www.igairport.com/360/

WOW that is one awesome video and clearly shows the extent of how huge the new airport for Istanbul actually is and the music and sounds of the aircraft definitely in that video made it even more enjoyable to watch

Will the airport have 2 or 3 runways in 2018? I've heard both answers.

The opening (which, BTW, will likely be only a ribbon cutting ceremony and the New Airport is unlikely to be fully operational the next day) on 29th Oct. 2018 will see only two runways operational/certified. The westward one is 36L, 3.750 mt. kong, a 60 mt. wide main runway, a 45 mt emergency runway and a 45 mt. taxiway. The second will be 36C, opposite to 36L will be 4.100 mt. long and having a further second taxiway. They will be 1.700 mt. apart allowing for simultaneous parallel operations. In between these two runways, the 90m+ ATC tower is already under construction. Rest of he huge area will be filled up with MRO and Support facilities as well as a huge Cargo City complex. The third runway 36R will be on the further eastern side and will again be 3.750 mt. Distance between 36C & 36R will be approx. 2.500 mt. The ground leveling works for this one has started, but it's going to be built on a rather hilly terrain. Expected to be operational by mid to the end of 2019. 36L/C/R runways will allow for parallel ops.

Two more north/south runways (3.750 mt.) will also be built eventually, and a further east/west (3.000 mt.) one. The later two will be 35L & 35R, not exactly parallel to the first three.

The most recent, yet unofficial news, is about the Terminal(s). The currently constructed 1st Terminal with its 90 million nominal capacity is indeed the largest terminal ever built under a single roof (the 5 piers are considered as part of the same building). The second (smaller) terminal was planned to the east of this gigantic one, with a third Satellite Terminal on the opposite (north) of the first. Those plans now seem to have changed. The revised plans call for a 2nd Terminal being the twin of the first one under construction, at its eastern side. If and when, all will be operational they will boast a capacity of 200 million pax/year. The ground leveling works have just slowly started for this second terminal, for some yet unknown reasons, at an early date.

If all goes well, the revised master plan will look like that one in the link given below (the orange marked structures, mainly on the west part of the allocated land are part of Phase 1A & 1B):

See: http://wowturkey.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 31#6267831

tor wrote:

360 degree virtual tour:

http://www.igairport.com/360/

I have to say those remind me of KUL (just whiter)...

So before:



After:



Seems like a downsize in extension to me...

AirlineCritic wrote:

Wow! So many taxiways... Air Canada wouldn't know where to land!

There, I fixed that for you

@ Jayafe :

It's not really any downsizing; it's more a "calculated combination". The old plans envisaged for 6 rwy, 3 terminal project with 150 million pax capacity. The non-official (yet) one yet envisages fora 6 rwy, 2 big terminal project capable of handling 200 million pax. The land for the now cancelled Satellite Terminal (on the north side of T1) will be allocated to Turkish Airlines so that they can build a real huge MRO facility.

It will be a mistake to see and evaluate this project as an " huge airport-only" project. It is an integration of huge airport facility and commercial complex housing many different business fields, maybe not even related only to aviation. The contractors and BOTS contenders are not relying only on the income they will make from directly aviation related activities; far more they are not considering the pax handling incomes as any sort of guarantee. And don't forget that they will be paying the State an "annual rent" of more than 1 Billion €'s or the next 25 years of operations.

I’m hoping TK uses this airport to expand to new places: Peshawar, Multan, Bangalore, Detroit and maybe Newark?

United787 wrote:

The progress they have made to date is amazing! I think IST could blow the Gulf and their airlines out of the water: IST is better located geographically; a more diversified economy; an enormous city; in a large country; and is far and away a much more attractive tourist destination (food, people, culture, history...). My 2009 trip to Turkey was one of my favorite (and this coming from a Greek-American). But, I think this administration's slide into authoritarian rule including the erosion of the rule of law and the moving away from western ideals will significantly hamper the potential of IST, TK and the whole country. I hope I am wrong because the people of Turkey deserve better.

That's the issue. Turkey will need to get out of the way of TK. Otherwise istanbul is a wonderful place and the potential of travel + stopover is huge (as with Dubai... DOH and AUH, not so much, IMO)

Gorgeous airport.

Supremely embarrassing for Berlin that Turkey can build a much larger airport in a fraction of the time it takes the Germans. Germany is really going to the dogs.

The pace of the construction is mind blowing. Turkey has certainly shown how it’s done.
The ME3 better watch out because this will be a threat to their geographic location benefit. Serving Australia direct is the only challenge.

EK413

Metro link won't be ready by October 29 unfortunately

slickvik wrote:

Metro link won't be ready by October 29 unfortunately

The first metro line (M11) may not even start carrying passenger traffic until mid to end 2020. Mid 2020 is the very optimistic date...

I saw nice photo of runways complete



Apparently, EASA calibration flights have been completed and runways are usable.

http://www.kokpit.aero//image/data/3.%2 ... ndir-2.jpg

Interesting that there are five N-S runways, yet only one E-W, presumably for use when crosswinds are above maxima for the N-S runways ... that sole runway is going to be extremely busy when that happens!

Great to see the airport progressing so well. When was it first announced - 3 or 4 years ago ... and how far has the UK got with the third LHR runway in that time!!?

kaitak wrote:

Interesting that there are five N-S runways, yet only one E-W, presumably for use when crosswinds are above maxima for the N-S runways ... that sole runway is going to be extremely busy when that happens!

Great to see the airport progressing so well. When was it first announced - 3 or 4 years ago ... and how far has the UK got with the third LHR runway in that time!!?

How many propeller planes are you expecting and business jets? Modern large turbine aircraft are certified to extreme cross wind conditions. Since the runways we're aligned with prevailing winds... I see no lack of capacity.

How many days a year are you predicting A320 operations would be impacted?

Lightsaber

I am wondering--the runways at IGA are more aligned with the 17/35 pair at IST. But, IST generally uses 5/23 for landing. So is it actually the case that winds around Istanbul are more aligned with 17/35, and it's only lack of parallel operating capability that makes them shift landings to 5/23?

mercure1 wrote:

I saw nice photo of runways complete

It must be an optical illusion because it doesn't look like there is enough separation between the runways.

kaitak wrote:

Interesting that there are five N-S runways, yet only one E-W, presumably for use when crosswinds are above maxima for the N-S runways ... that sole runway is going to be extremely busy when that happens!

Great to see the airport progressing so well. When was it first announced - 3 or 4 years ago ... and how far has the UK got with the third LHR runway in that time!!?

DWC was also supposed to be something on this scale. What happene to that? That seems no closer to this than Brandenburg Airport or LHRs third runway! When i first visited dubai over 12 years ago it was all going on then.

airbazar wrote:

mercure1 wrote:

I saw nice photo of runways complete

It must be an optical illusion because it doesn't look like there is enough separation between the runways.

The left one is the actual runway, the right one is the taxiway dubbling as an extra runway during the construction of the other remaining runways.

Any status of the terminal?
My understanding is:
Roads connected.
1 permanent runway complete.
1 temporary runway (taxiway as runway, in my estimate allows 1.5 runway worth of opperations.


No passenger rail for about the first 2 years.

Begues wrote:

airbazar wrote:

mercure1 wrote:

I saw nice photo of runways complete

It must be an optical illusion because it doesn't look like there is enough separation between the runways.

The left one is the actual runway, the right one is the taxiway dubbling as an extra runway during the construction of the other remaining runways.

Thank you. Do you know the schedule for runways?

Lightsaber

From what I know,
-2 runways are almost completed. 2nd runway needs some work and painting.
-Terminal and 2 runways will be ready by the opening date.
-No rail. No problem. From what I know, only a few foreigners will use the rail to the airport when it is open. Most Turks will drive, most employees will drive/take the shuttle busses. I see no problems there. I fly over 60,000 miles with TK every year, not even once used the rail system to IST.

TK787 wrote:

From what I know,
-2 runways are almost completed. 2nd runway needs some work and painting.
-Terminal and 2 runways will be ready by the opening date.
-No rail. No problem. From what I know, only a few foreigners will use the rail to the airport when it is open. Most Turks will drive, most employees will drive/take the shuttle busses. I see no problems there. I fly over 60,000 miles with TK every year, not even once used the rail system to IST.

IST has three runways, so this will be a net reduction in the short term. Do you know how the transfer of flights to IGA will work?
Will TK move all at once, or will it split for awhile? Or will the other airlines that aren’t TK stay at IST?

Either way this can’t come soon enough. I like Atatürk, but every time i go through there I think it can’t hold anymore people and then I go through a year later and see even more.

blink182 wrote:

TK787 wrote:

From what I know,
-2 runways are almost completed. 2nd runway needs some work and painting.
-Terminal and 2 runways will be ready by the opening date.
-No rail. No problem. From what I know, only a few foreigners will use the rail to the airport when it is open. Most Turks will drive, most employees will drive/take the shuttle busses. I see no problems there. I fly over 60,000 miles with TK every year, not even once used the rail system to IST.

IST has three runways, so this will be a net reduction in the short term. Do you know how the transfer of flights to IGA will work?
Will TK move all at once, or will it split for awhile? Or will the other airlines that aren’t TK stay at IST?

Either way this can’t come soon enough. I like Atatürk, but every time i go through there I think it can’t hold anymore people and then I go through a year later and see even more.

TK will move all operations to the new airport when it opens.

TK787 wrote:

From what I know,
-2 runways are almost completed. 2nd runway needs some work and painting.
-Terminal and 2 runways will be ready by the opening date.
-No rail. No problem. From what I know, only a few foreigners will use the rail to the airport when it is open. Most Turks will drive, most employees will drive/take the shuttle busses. I see no problems there. I fly over 60,000 miles with TK every year, not even once used the rail system to IST.

Then who are 380 million people a year who use the rail?

blink182 wrote:

TK787 wrote:

From what I know,
-2 runways are almost completed. 2nd runway needs some work and painting.
-Terminal and 2 runways will be ready by the opening date.
-No rail. No problem. From what I know, only a few foreigners will use the rail to the airport when it is open. Most Turks will drive, most employees will drive/take the shuttle busses. I see no problems there. I fly over 60,000 miles with TK every year, not even once used the rail system to IST.

IST has three runways, so this will be a net reduction in the short term. Do you know how the transfer of flights to IGA will work?
Will TK move all at once, or will it split for awhile? Or will the other airlines that aren’t TK stay at IST?

Either way this can’t come soon enough. I like Atatürk, but every time i go through there I think it can’t hold anymore people and then I go through a year later and see even more.

I am sure a.net member "mafaky" can give better info, but let me try:
-IST has 2 runways in fact, 35R and 35L are too close to each other for simultaneous ops. INA will have 2 runways and 2 backup taxiways to start with, but many improvements will make this work more efficiently than IST. ( like tunnels for all service vehicles). 3rd runway at INA will be 2 years down to road and E/W direction.
-All foreign airlines will stop flying to IST and INA for 2 days and start ops on Nov1 from INA. Turkish carriers besides TK have one day to move. And TK, IIRC, will move all ops to INA in 18 hrs. Cargo planes will still use IST for sometime till INA facilities will be completed.
I tried to explain as simple as possible, like I said "mafaky" will have all the details.

Aliqiout wrote:

Then who are 380 million people a year who use the rail?

Not sure what that number is. Probably not in Turkey, not people taking light rail to IST.
I like subway where it works, but not in Istanbul.
Couple days ago I landed at JFK at 5:13pm and it took me 2:30 hrs to get to Manhattan by airtrain+subway.
Back to INA;
INA from the start will have 35% or so INT to INT transfer pax. And on top some INT to DOM transfer pax.
I visit Istanbul very frequently and I don't know of any Turkish friends/family using the light rail to IST. Turks prefer cars, cabs, public bus, private buses like HAVAS to airports. Most airport employees use shuttles provided by their companies. That is why the traffic is crazy in Istanbul.
From what I can see, there will be a subway line from Gayrettepe to INA, which is few years away. Also a rail line, again years away.
Still most of Turks will not use them. Bags, kids, stairs, no convenient connections.
I can only see some pax using the subway to SAW in the coming year when a connecting line will be operational. Kadikoy-Pendik to SAW, 20 some stops. This, I will use also.

That was the metro ridership in Istanbul, but this: https://www.google.com/amp/s/railturkey ... anbul/amp/
Says it is I've 600 million, but that includes the tram.

Aliqiout wrote:

That was the metro ridership in Istanbul, but this: https://www.google.com/amp/s/railturkey ... anbul/amp/
Says it is I've 600 million, but that includes the tram.

As you can see from the pie chart at the bottom of that article, rail is only 16% of the whole system. And even though the busiest line ends at IST, not a whole lot of people take this line to the airport, only the tourists that are used to taking rail systems in their own country to/from the airport.

The metro station at IST opened in 2002 and has long under performed. The initial line boarding estimates were not achieved. For example they estimated monthly air traveler ridership of 92,000 (about 3,100/day) while reality by 2013 (sorry I can't find any newer statistics) was only 36,000/monthly (~1,200/day) air travelers which is not even half of the forecast.

As mentioned local preference to reach the airport has remained vehicles - private, taxi, bus, etc.

Its interesting to note the station was partially funded by the airport ($170mil USD), so its existence was not driven purely by public need, but by the interest of the airport operator.

Attaturk is close to great neighborhoods with hundreds of hotels and restaurants. They are within 10-15 taxi drive.
The beauty of staying overnight (or longer) is important.
Would you enlighten me about the location and the infrastructure in the location?

pylon101 wrote:

Attaturk is close to great neighborhoods with hundreds of hotels and restaurants. They are within 10-15 taxi drive.
The beauty of staying overnight (or longer) is important.
Would you enlighten me about the location and the infrastructure in the location?

IGA is quite some distance away from Istanbul proper--out on the Black Sea coast. While there isn't much around it now, hotels/restaurants should come up with time once the airport gets operationalized.

First non-test aircraft planned to land at the airport will be on Thursday when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is scheduled to make visit to new airport.

https://www.dailysabah.com/business/201 ... t-tomorrow

Will he be in his A330?

While work never takes to me Turkey, this airport looks quite nice.



http://www.airporthaber.com/wk-uploads/news/iga1_60.jpg



http://www.airporthaber.com/wk-uploads/news/iga8_5.jpg



http://www.airporthaber.com/wk-uploads/news/iga6_6.jpg

How old are the latest photos? Concrete pumping trucks do not inspire confidence that we are less than 5 months from opening. I'm impressed by the airport, it will be a game changer. I'm questioning when it opens.

Lightsaber

It'd look SO nice full of A388s....

The 318 CJ (TC-ANK) landed about an hour ago carrying RTE.

https://twitter.com/TRTWorldNow/status/ ... 0988114945

Well, 3 days to go for the general elections. Noone ever said no to nice publicity

First non test landing at the airport.

Pair of VIP aircraft carrying President Erdogan












https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgO8SVJVMAAobmI.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgO8SVNUEAA0CCE.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgO6jrMWsAEAEbf.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgO8jY7XUAECnpw.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgO_lGsX4AI5i0M.jpg

They must be working 24/7 to meet the October deadline. That terminal will be amazing when finished.