ISTANBUL: Thelast commercial passenger flight took off from Istanbul's Ataturk airportyesterday and convoys of trucks ferried thousands of tons of equipment acrossthe city to a giant new airport which Turkey plans to make the biggest in theworld. The mammoth transfer between the two hubs, described by Turkishauthorities as unprecedented in scale and speed, was already largely complete alittle more than 24 hours after it began before dawn on Friday. The newIstanbul Airport, costing some $8 billion and one of several mega-projectschampioned by President Tayyip Erdogan, will initially be able to handle 90million passengers a year, close to the world's largest existing airportcapacity.
Authorities planto expand that capacity to expand to 200 million. Overnight hundreds of truckscarried equipment such as aircraft-towing vehicles and security sensors fromAtaturk, on the shores of the Sea of Marmara, 20 miles (30 km) north to the newairport by the Black Sea. By early yesterday more than 90 percent of the movewas complete, Turkish Airlines executive Yahya Ustun said. Overnight the finalcommercial passenger flight from Ataturk took off for Singapore, a departurewhich Transport Minister Mehmet Turhan described as historic.
"I am gladto send you off as the last commercial passengers of Ataturk Airport," hesaid moments before the plane took off at 2.44 am (2344 GMT). "Upon yourreturn, you will land in Istanbul Airport, a monument of victory, the world'sbiggest airport." The new airport, which was formally opened nearly sixmonths ago but which has been handling less than 20 flights a day, inauguratedits new chapter yesterday afternoon with a domestic flight taking off for thecapital Ankara.
After three falsestarts and a labor protest over harsh working conditions, Turkey will fullyopen a newairport in Istanbul this week that will give its fast-growingflagship airline a platform to challenge Gulf rivals for regional dominance.Authorities plan to shift flights from the city's Ataturk Airport, on the edgeof the Sea of Marmara, to the new airport 30 km (20 miles) north on the BlackSea shores, in a mammoth 45-hour transfer operation starting on Friday.
The $8 billionairport is one of several infrastructure mega-projects championed by PresidentTayyip Erdogan and will initially be able to handle 90 million passengers ayear, a number which Turkey hopes to more than double by 2027.
That would makeit the biggest in the world, measured against current airport operationsglobally. "Istanbul Airport will rise to second place in terms ofpassenger numbers it serves in around five years," Transport MinisterCahit Turhan told reporters in the gleaming departure hall. "When allphases are complete, Istanbul Airport will sit in the leader's chair."
The airport issupposed to be fully operational today after authorities transport 10,000pieces of equipment, from massive aircraft-towing vehicles to sensitivesecurity sensors, across the city in a complex two-day operation, after whichAtaturk Airport will close for passenger flights. The move should supportTurkey's ambition to make Istanbul a global aviation hub and will offer TurkishAirlines a chance to grow beyond the restrictions of Ataturk airport's limitedsize.
After 15 years ofrapid growth, the airline flies to more countries than any competitor, helpedby its Istanbul base which is close to European, African and Middle Easterndestinations. That location means many cities are within a 4-5 hour flightradius which can be flown by fuel-efficient, narrow-bodied planes. Therelatively low costs helped deliver profit last year of 4.05 billion lira ($716million). With more slots available, the airline plans to increase its totalfleet from 338 aircraft to 476 over the next four years, and analysts say itwill challenge the three big regional competitors: Emirates, Qatar Airways andEtihad.
"It putsthem on a level playing field with the Gulf carriers," aviation expertJohn Strickland said. However there are potential risks ahead. The airport isopening just as years of strong economic growth are grinding to a halt inTurkey, and any weakness in the domestic market could prove a drag on TurkishAirlines' business.
'Huge threat'
Istanbul's openingcomes a decade ahead of the expansion of Dubai's Al-Maktoum InternationalAirport to handle 130 million passengers a year, which has been pushed back to2030. Dubai-based Emirates will one day shift to the airport, which ultimatelyaims to be able to handle 260 million passengers a year. For now, Dubai plansto focus on Emirates' current hub Dubai International, which handled nearly 90million passengers in 2018. The Gulf airlines already face testing times. QatarAirways said last month it would report a second consecutive annual loss thisyear, after losing access to 18 Middle East destinations over a dispute withGulf neighbors.
Emirates warnedin November of tough times after first-half profit fell to its lowest in adecade, and Abu Dhabi has abandoned its goal of becoming a major air travel hubakin to Dubai. Turkey's aviation sector has become a "huge threat" toGulf airlines, a senior executive at one Middle Eastern airport said, and alsoto rivals in Asia and Europe. That includes Frankfurt Airport, one analystsaid. It is the hub of Lufthansa, one of Europe's largest airlines, and handled69.5 million passengers last year. It is a roughly three-hour flight fromIstanbul, slightly closer than the Gulf.
Turkish Airlinesis not the only emerging rival. Ethiopia overtook Dubai last year as a conduitfor long-haul passengers to Africa, highlighting the success of the stateairline's drive to win back market share on routes to and from Africa which hadbeen dominated by Turkish Airlines and Emirates. Turkish Airlines has targetedfast-growing Asian economies, signing a code share agreement with India'slargest domestic carrier Indigo on December, and setting up a joint venturewith China's ZTO to extend its cargo operations. "The upside of the newairport ... is its potential to tap Chinese, Indian and other emerging Asianmarkets," said Erdem Kayli, senior analyst at TEB Investment/BNP Paribas.
Political risks
The project hasbeen plagued by delays and a protest last year over conditions for workers,after the government said 27 workers had died since construction started in2015. Full operations at the new airport have already been held up three times.Formally opened by Erdogan in October, it has handled fewer than 20 dailyflights as the full opening was pushed back first to January, then March andnow April. The opening comes at a time when Turkey's ties with the UnitedStates and Europe have frequently been strained. This presents anotherpotential risk for Turkish Airlines - as Qatar's dispute with other Arab stateshas shown, politics can damage a country's carrier.
"There isuncertainty about Turkey's relationships with other parts of the world, notleast the United States," Strickland said. "That givesuncertainty." The airport is one of the showcase projects of a 16-yearconstruction boom under Erdogan, who has overseen the building of bridges,ports and railways that have transformed the country. Some of the biggestschemes, including a planned 40-km shipping canal parallel to the Bosphorus,have been criticised as ill-conceived and wasteful. Some analysts questionwhether the airport's ultimate target of 200 million passengers a year isfeasible, given the presence of a second international airport, Sabiha Gokcen,on Istanbul's Asian side.
"It seemsunrealistic to expect to reach such passenger numbers, because of airspaceconstraints," said an aviation analyst at an international brokeragecompany who asked not to be named. "The city has another airport, andthere's a question mark whether total passenger numbers of the two airports canexceed 150 million." - Reuters