Date of Transfer to 3rd İstanbul Airport Postponed Once Again

* Photograph: AA / Archive

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The date when the 3rd İstanbul Airport will enter into service with full capacity has been postponed again.

It has been announced that the transfer from the İstanbul Atatürk Airport to the new İstanbul Airport will take place on April 5-6, 2019.

İstanbul Atatürk Airport will be closed as of April 7.

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.

About the 3rd Airport

The 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.

(EKN/SD)