The new Istanbul airport in Turkey, a monstrosity which could become one of the busiest airports in the world, has already missed several opening dates. Now, according to one article and their sources, it appears that the airport’s official opening could be delayed yet again.
New, Mega Istanbul Airport Opening Delayed Again?
After it missed its last opening date of December 31, the date of March 3 was set for the grand opening (they have been flying several commercial flights to some destinations over the past few months). However, it appears that there may be some issues that could push the official opening off until April of this year.
Security Concerns + Politics
According to this article, this may have to do with the combination of security concerns regarding three airports operating in the same city and elections on March 31. In the same article, it mentions that there are other issues with contractors ditching the project.
On this website, they say that the new date of the opening would be either April 2 or April 7. It is unclear who the request actually came from for yet another delay in the opening.
Oh well, good thing I did not book any flights for this next opening date! 🙂
Featured image courtesy of IG Airports
My in-laws are flying Lufthansa out of IST on March 1st and returning March 25th. They called TK the other day to confirm which airports they’d actually be using, and they were told that they’d be using Ataturk for both outbound and inbound.
Thanks for that data point! Good thing they checked! I heard about some people getting taken to the wrong airport because many taxi drivers in Istanbul still don’t know the new airport is accepting some flights!