STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF TRANSPORT
Last Flight from Atatürk Airport on April 6, Subway to İstanbul Airport in 2020
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Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Cahit Turhan has made a statement regarding the 3rd İstanbul airport, whose name was previously announced as İstanbul Airport. Turhan has announced that the last flight will take off from İstanbul Atatürk Airport at 2 a.m. on April 6, 2019.
No flights at two airports for 12 hours
Minister Cahit Turhan has also stated that during the transfer of İstanbul Atatürk Airport to the new İstanbul Airport, no flights will be made at two airports for 12 hours: "There will be a period of 12 hours when the flights will be suspended at two airports. As of 2 p.m. on April 6, the flights at the İstanbul (Third) Airport will gradually increase."
Equipment to be transported in 45 hours
As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), the transfer between the two İstanbul airports will be completed in 45 hours. The transfer is expected to start on April 5 and to end at 23.59 p.m. on April 6.
During this process, 47 thousand 300 tons of equipment will be transported from İstanbul Atatürk Airport to the new İstanbul Airport.
Code of the new airport: IST
After the first stage of the Istanbul Airport was opened on October 29, 2018, the flag carrier has started to make scheduled additional flights from the airport. In this period, the "ISL" code was used for the İstanbul Airport.
With the transfer from İstanbul Atatürk Airport to the İstanbul Airport, the "IATA" code of the airport will be changed at 3 a.m. on April 6. From then on, the code of the İstanbul Airport will be "IST". As for the "ISL" code, it will be allocated to the İstanbul Atatürk Airport, which will be used for cargo and VIP flights after the new airport comes into operation.
'Subway in early 2020'
Making a statement regarding the Gayrettepe-İstanbul Airport subway line project, which has been developed to solve the problems of transportation to the new airport, Turhan has made the following remarks: "Works are continuing apace. Our aim is to bring this line into operation in early 2020."
Transfer postponed for three times before
In a statement made on January 21, 2019, it was announced that between the dates of March 1 and 3, İstanbul Atatürk Airport would be completely transferred to the new airport.
It was initially planned that the transfer between the two airports would be made on December 30-31, 2018 and İstanbul Atatürk Airport would be closed to scheduled flights as of January 1, 2019.
However, this date was postponed on December 18, 2018.
The last statement regarding the issue was made on February 25, 2019 and it was announced that the transfer would be completed on April 5 and 6.
About the 3rd AirportThe construction of the 3rd İstanbul Airport officially started on May 4, 2015 and is scheduled to finish in 2023. Its first stage out of six was opened on October 29, 2018. The tender was won by the İstanbul Grand Airport (İGA), which was established by the Limak/Kolin/Mapa/Kalyon Joint Venture Group. The tender price, which includes construction, operation and transfer, was 26 billion 140 million Euro, including the Value-Added-Tax (VAT). The İstanbul Grand Airport (İGA) will pay a rent of 26 billion Euro in total in 25 years. It amounts to a yearly rent of 1.1 billion Euro, including the VAT. CLICK - Features of the 3rd Airport The first stage of the airport has a 90-million passenger capacity. When the construction of all stages has been completed, the airport has been planned to have a capacity of 200 million passengers in a year. The total area of the airport is 76.5 million square-meters. According to the Presidency Communications Center, between 2013 and 2018, 52 deadly occupational accidents have occured in the construction of the airport, which means that at least 52 workers have lost their lives in the construction over the last five years. The data shared by the Laborers' Health and Occupational Safety (İSİG) Assembly show that 38 workers lost their lives in occupational homicides in the construction of the airport. |
(HK/SD)
