Istanbul Airport (IATA: IST, ICAO: LTFM) (Turkish: İstanbul Havalimanı) is the main international airport serving Istanbul, Turkey. It is located in the Arnavutköy district on the European side of the city.
All scheduled commercial passenger flights were transferred from Istanbul Atatürk Airport to Istanbul Airport on April 6, 2019, following the closure of Istanbul Atatürk Airport for scheduled passenger flights. The IATA airport code IST was also transferred to the new airport. Once all phases are completed in 2025, the airport will be able to accommodate 200 million passengers a year.
Due to a lack of space to construct an additional runway at Istanbul Atatürk Airport, airport growth being restricted due to the growth of the city, the Turkish Airport Authority not allowing additional cargo or charter flights to the airport, and worsening air traffic congestion, it was decided to construct a new airport to serve Istanbul. Furthermore, due to a lack of slot capacity and parking spaces, some of Turkish Airlines' aircraft were based in Sabiha Gökçen Airport which itself is already at maximum terminal capacity of 25 million passengers, and handled 28 million passengers in 2015 after posting traffic growth rates averaging over 20% a year since 2013.
Atatürk Airport was one of the busiest airports in Europe. Since 2013, it has ranked among the five busiest airports in Europe by passenger traffic. In 2017, the two Istanbul airports handled over 100 million passengers. In terms of area airports, the six London-area airports serve more than 150 million passengers a year, while the three Paris-area airports serve around 100 million passengers a year.
More information concerning location, construction, project stages, controversies, operations, facilities and airline operators can be found in the link below: