Atatürk International Airport

Atatürk International Airport (IATA: IST, ICAO: LTBA) (Turkish: Atatürk Uluslararası Havalimanı) is the major international airport in Istanbul, Turkey. Opened in 1924 and located in Yeşilköy, on the European side of the city, it is 24 km (15 mi) west^[1] of the city centre. In 1980, the airport was renamed to Atatürk International Airport in honor of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and the first president of the Republic of Turkey. With total passenger traffic of 32 million for the year 2010, it is among the top 40 airports in the world in terms of total passenger traffic and the 16th busiest in the world in terms of international passenger traffic. It was Europe's 8th busiest airport in 2010.

Runways

There is a plan to build another runway parallel to runway 05/23, so when the original runway undergoes repairs, this runway will be able to handle aircraft movements without any interruption to service. But in order to work on this project, the land required to build the new runway on belongs to the military, and this is being negotiated between the military and the airport authorities. Also, there are plans to expand the length of runway 05/23, this will allow the runway to be able to handle larger aircraft, as most airlines which serve Istanbul have already begun to use larger aircraft.[2].

Terminals, airlines and destinations

Atatürk airport has four terminals:

• Terminal 1, for domestic flights
• Terminal 2, for international flights
• Terminal 3, for cargo flights
• General Aviation Terminal

Inaugurated in 2000, the new international terminal is an efficient and modern terminal. After the new terminal opened, domestic flights were moved to the old international terminal. Despite its 1960s design, this new domestic terminal can handle more passengers than the more modern but smaller previous domestic terminal.

The airport terminals have been operated by TAV (Tepe-Akfen-Ventures) since January 2000. TAV has invested US$600 million since 1998. In 2005 TAV won the concession agreement to operate Atatürk for 15.5 years at a record breaking amount of $4 billion, which also represents the highest figure for such a privatization project in Turkey, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Commonwealth of Independent States and North Africa.

TAV (Tepe-Akfen-Ventures) started its construction at the airport for new boarding gates at international terminal as well as building a new air traffic control tower. Unused facility buildings are demolished and 3 new boarding bridges are being built. When the new tower is completed, the old one will be demolished. When the international terminal is expanded, some of the jet ways will be left to the domestics terminal which are on the west of the international terminal, connected to it.

Passenger

Cargo airlines

Traffic and statistics

Other facilities

Turkish Airlines has its headquarters in the Turkish Airlines General Management Building, located on the airport property.^[8][9]

Traffic

Atatürk Airport still faces capacity issues; it ranks somewhere between 30th and 40th in the world by both cargo and passenger traffic, handling over 947,000 tonnes of load (cargo, freight and mail) and over 32.1 million passengers in the year 2010. The total number of passengers has doubled in the past five years, and domestic traffic has almost quadrupled (see statistics section below). Its rated capacity of 14 million international passengers per year and 10 million domestic passengers per year was barely sufficient for the demand in 2007 and 2008. The Istanbul greater metropolitan area is expected/projected to have a demand of 35 million international passengers and 25 million domestic passengers annually by the year 2015. However, introduction of high speed trains between Ankara and Istanbul in 2012, and completion of the construction of the intercity highways linking Istanbul to other cities (to Bursa, İzmir, Antalya and the Black Sea Speedway) may help decrease this demand.

Atatürk shares traffic with Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, which is on the Anatolian (Asian) side of Istanbul, which had annual passenger traffic of just 11.1 million in 2010. The two airports both provide domestic and international service to the Istanbul area.

A third big airport is being planned in Silivri suburb 40 km west of Istanbul, in order to meet Istanbul's growing domestic and international air traffic demand as a source, destination and transit point.^[10]

IST ranked 19th in ACI statistics at the end of 2010 in terms of international traffic with over 20 Million international passengers. If the current passenger growth maintains itself, IST is expected to become one of the 30 busiest airports in the world in terms of total passenger traffic and top 15 in terms of international traffic by the end of year 2012.^[11][12]

Below is the passenger data for Istanbul for the years 2002–2011:^[13]

Statistics

The 'total' column below exclude the number of transit passengers. [3][4]

(*) Preliminary data (**) Estimate based on total transit volume of Turkish airports. (***) Link:[5] Source: DHMI.gov.tr^[14]

Access

There are several ways to travel between Atatürk International Airport and the city center.

• Light Rail Service : Light rail service exists between Aksaray and Atatürk International Airport. The line goes through some major parts of the European side of the city; including the intercity bus terminal. The LRT takes the passengers to Aksaray in 30–35 minutes.^[15] The approximate cost is 0.75 euros one-way.
• Airport Shuttle Service : The shuttle services are operated by Havaş, which is one of the major ground handling companies within Turkey. The busses run half-hourly to Bakırköy, Yenikapı, Aksaray, Taksim Square, hourly to Kozyatağı (on the Anatolian side), two-hourly to Etiler–Akmerkez. Also, there is a fast ferry terminal in Bakırköy which connects the terminal to Bostancı and Kadıköy. Havaş buses run between the airport and the fast ferry terminal according to the departures and arrivals of the ferries.^[16]
• Municipality Bus : Municipality buses also run to Taksim, Etiler and Kozyatağı. This is a slower but much cheaper alternative than Havaş.^[17]
• Car : The airport is accessible through the coastal road, D-100 international road and TEM (Trans-European Motorway).

Incidents and accidents

At the airport

• 2006 fire: At about 3:30 p.m. (local summer time, GMT+3) on 24 May 2006, a fire broke out in the cargo terminal (Terminal C) building, about 1 km away from the international and domestic terminal buildings, billowing clouds of black smoke and forcing the suspension of some air traffic. Local officials have reportedly attributed the fire to sparks from a soldering iron. Three people were treated for smoke inhalation. The fire was under control after 90 minutes of work by firemen accompanying two Bombardier CL-215 fire-fighting planes which were hired two days previously by the Metropolitan Municipality.^[18]
• On 23 March 2007 an Ariana Afghan Airlines Airbus A300B4 (YA-BAD) after a flight from Kabul via Ankara, landed at Atatürk International Airport, overran the runway and came to a halt resting on its right wing. The weather at the time was poor with rain and gusting winds. As of 2007 the aircraft was being dismantled.^[19]

• On 11 October 2007 a charter flight by Egypt's AMC Airlines, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (SU-BOY), made an emergency belly landing at the Atatürk International Airport while on route from Hurghada International Airport to Warsaw Frédéric Chopin Airport, overshooting the runway. There were no fatalities; there was one injury, and the plane was badly damaged.^[20]
• On 12 August 2010, Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 75, operated by Airbus A319-111 4K-AZ04 suffered a collapse of the undercarriage when the aircraft departed the runway on landing. The aircraft was substantially damaged but all 127 passengers and crew escaped unharmed.^[21]

Involving aircraft arriving to and departing from the airport

• 3 March 1974 - Turkish Airlines Flight 981, which crashed in France due to explosive decompression, killing all 346 people aboard. The main cause was a design fault on the cargo doors of DC-10 aircraft, registered TC-JAV and named Ankara. Prior to the Tenerife airport disaster, it was the deadliest aircraft disaster in the world.
• On 10 September 1976, a Trident 3B on British Airways Flight 476, flying from London Heathrow to Istanbul collided in mid-air with an Inex Adria DC9-32 near Zagreb, Croatia, resulting in the 1976 Zagreb mid-air collision. All 54 passengers and 9 crew members on the BA aircraft died.
• On 16 January 1983, Turkish Airlines Flight 158, a Boeing 727-2F2 (registration TC-JBR, named Afyon) landed about 50 m (160 ft) short of the runway at Ankara Esenboğa Airport (ESB/LTAC) in driving snow, broke up and caught fire. 47 passengers died, all of the seven crew and 13 passengers survived the accident with injuries.^[22]
• On 8 January 2003 - Turkish Airlines Flight 634, an Avro RJ-100 (registration: TC-THG, named Konya) crashed while on a VOR/DME approach to runway 34 at Diyarbakir Airport (DIY/LTCC), Turkey. 75 of the 80 passengers and crew died.^[23]
• 25 February 2009 - Turkish Airlines Flight 1951, a Boeing 737-800 from Istanbul, crashed on approach to Amsterdam Airport. The plane carried 128 passengers and 7 crew on board. Nine people died, 86 passengers were injured, of whom six in critical condition.

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

External links

• Atatürk International Airport Official Homepage
• Short Video on Ataturk International Airport
• Current weather for LTBA at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for IST at Aviation Safety Network