Enormous new Istanbul airport is facing a bumpy roll-out in rush for fast launch
In a few months or even a couple of years, Istanbul’s new 1.47 million square metre airport, billed as the world’s largest, will be coping with the travel needs of 200,000 or more passengers each day.
They will browse the sprawling duty-free shops as they wait for flights, or head home or to hotels in the city on a sleek new 37-kilometre rail line built to exclusively service the airport’s passengers and staff.
But until that day arrives, the new airport is causing head- aches for the Turkish govern- ment, which is facing a severe economic crisis, as well as for labourers, businesses and airlines forced to adapt to a project that is as much a major infrastructure upgrade as a symbol of the leadership and accomplishments of the country’s long-serving leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
“This airport is meant to show what the Republic of Turkey has achieved during the era of Erdogan, and represents the boldness and grandiosity of that vision,” said Heghnar Watenpaugh, a University of California scholar who researches the interplay of architecture and political power.
“But everything we’re hearing about the economic downturn, the labour issues, shows how these grand projects are vulnerable to geopolitical issues.”
The new airport, estimated to cost $12 billion (Dh44bn), will be enormous. The first phase will have a capacity of 90 million passengers a year, with further stages expanding the site even further. It is planned to eventually accommodate 200 million passengers a year – nearly double Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, currently the world leader – with 143 boarding bridges, a 42km baggage-handling system and parking for 25,000 vehicles.
The airport is also replete with symbolism. It will replace the Turkish commercial and cultural capital’s main airport, which is named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey. The transit hall is shaped like the Bosphorus Strait, and the control tower, like a tulip, a symbol of Islam and Istanbul. The ribbon-cutting is scheduled for October 29, the 95th anniversary of the Turkish Republic.
The airport has not yet been named, but a front-runner is Abdul Hamid II, the Ottoman-era sultan revered as a forefather by Turkish Islamists.
From a business perspective, the airport is aimed at helping Turkey to edge out the UAE and Qatar as Eurasian transit hubs, promote the flagship Turkish Airlines as a global aviation leader and help spread Turkish brands and services throughout the world.
“If you look at what the UAE is trying to do or what Qatar is trying to do, their major competitor is Turkey,” said James Dorsey, a Middle East specialist and senior fellow at the SRajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
“If you subtract cash in hand from the equation, Turkey would win hands down.”
But several clouds have darkened Turkey’s grand vision. Mounting labour troubles at the site erupted last month, shining a spotlight on the treatment of tens of thousands of workers rushing to finish the airport. Protests broke out over a lack of shuttle buses meant to transport workers in a torrential downpour but quickly escalated to include general working conditions and the quality of food served at the dormitories, as subcontractors complain about delayed wages.
Dozens of employees have died at the site.
The labour action was crushed, with hundreds of workers arrested and dozens still in jail, but public sympathy was with the workers.
Labour-rights leaders say the airport perfectly encapsulates what they call the convoluted development trajectory of Turkey under the AKP – more high-rises, bridges, malls, stadiums and mosques, fewer and fewer rights and advancement for those building them.
Ataturk and Istanbul’s second airport, Sabiha Gokcen, are at capacity. Transport officials say many international carriers have lobbied to fly to Istanbul, but there was no capacity to accommodate them.
But that may have been when Turkey’s economy was on the upswing. Many of the presumptions about the country’s shortterm and medium-term future have been thrown into doubt by the recent financial crisis, with the Turkish lira dropping more than 40 per cent against the dollar this year. Many businesspeople are bracing for a slowdown, and that could affect the success of the airport.
Turks say the airport will be able to make up for domestic shortcomings by serving as a transit hub, and change the rules of the aviation business across the Eurasian land mass.
The Centre for Aviation said in a recent report that “the opening of the airport and its completion, in double-quick time, opens the door to much greater competition throughout the West Asia, Eastern Europe and Middle East regions”.
But it will face stiff competition from European hubs such as Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris, as well as Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Still, Turkey has advantages that could help it get over some of the hurdles. Western European hubs are constrained by environmental regulations that hamper their growth, while few countries in the Middle East have the robust domestic air travel habits of Turkey.
“For the Middle East, there are problems with stagnant passenger numbers, excessive competition, military use of airspace and other issues,” said David Bentley, an airline industry analyst at the Centre for Aviation.
One cause of the many stresses the airport is creating is the breakneck speed at which Turkey is trying to complete the project. The rush to open before the end of the month – before the rail and transport links are completed – has been criticised as unrealistic. Moving some aircraft and infrastructure piecemeal across roads from Ataturk to the new airport is a gargantuan feat in itself.
Already there are reports that Ataturk will continue to operate, perhaps into the new year, as the new airport is tested and fine-tuned for service.
“The airport is a good idea, and it will eventually work out,” said one western diplomat in Turkey. “Why the mad pace and deadline? That’s what’s causing all the problems.”
If you look at what the UAE is doing or what Qatar is trying to do, their competitor is Turkey JAMES DORSEY Mid East expert Singapore University