Turkish Forum

Tag: third Istanbul airport

  • New $6.5 billion Istanbul airport to be put out to tender

    New $6.5 billion Istanbul airport to be put out to tender

    Istanbul’s new $6.5 billion airport is expected to be put out to tender before the end of this year.

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    The tender was announced earlier this week by the head of the infrastructure department of Turkey’s Ministry of Transport and Communication.

    The project was officially launched last August and domestic and international interest has been building since then, the Construction Index website reported today.

    Metin Tahan, general manager of the ministry’s general directorate of infrastructure investments, said: “We have been receiving information requests from interested parties from all over the world.”

    Turkish firms such as Sabanci, Limak, IC Holding and TAV, alongside other foreign companies, are reportedly interested in the project.

    The first section of the airport – consisting of three runways and three taxiways with a 100 million passenger capacity terminal – is planned to be operational by 2016.

    The new airport, which will be located in the North Western part of Istanbul, is expected to accommodate 150 million passengers a year.

  • The Turkish model

    The Turkish model

    Due to major airport work in Istanbul, Turkey is attracting the attention of the region’s construction industry

    enr09032012nws ataturkOne of Turkey’s largest and most prestigious construction projects to date is the hotly-anticipated tender for Istanbul’s third airport, estimated to cost $5.6bn (see Intel on p4 for more details of this tender).

    The cream of the crop of Turkey’s construction companies are vying for this lucrative deal, including TAV Havalimanlari Holding, Alarko Holding and construction groups Varyap and Limak.

    Major foreign investors, including those from Japan, France, China and Germany, have already shown interest in the airport, which will be constructed in three phases, reports the Anatolia News Agency.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has revealed that the airport will be built on a plot in the north of the European side of Istanbul, without elaborating on further details.

    The project will follow the build-operate-transfer model, also known as the “Turkish model,” according to Erdogan. This model has attracted $2bn in investment for airport construction across the country. The capacity produced by these private-sector projects has amounted to 90.5 million passengers a year, with government investment lagging.

    Regional airports, meaning facilities that serve more than one province, are crucial for civil aviation, Erdogan said. Ordu Giresun Airport in the north, Çukurova Airport in the south and Zafer Airport in the inner-Aegean region are three such projects.

    Zafer will be the first to be completed on 29 October, which is about 1.5 years earlier than the original deadline, due to the sterling efforts of the main contractor. The date marks the anniversary of the modern Turkish republic.

    A third airport in Istanbul, the largest city in the country, has long been on the agenda, as Ataturk Airport on the European side and Sabiha Gokcen on the Asian side are struggling to meet the rising demand with mainly Turkish Airlines, the national flag carrier, boosting its flights and the city attracting more visitors.

    The airport will have an initial capacity to handle 90 million passengers a year, extending eventually to 150 million, and three runways for simultaneous use. Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said earlier this month the aim was for the first stage of the airport to open in 2016.

    Yildirim announced the tender competition for the Istanbul airport last month, with a view to completing the bidding by the end of 2012 after spending 18 months choosing the site.

    Yildirim revealed that Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport was working 50% more than it was supposed to, thanks to recent renovations and capacity rehabilitations at the airport.

    “We will direct some flights to some other airports, and we will provide more opportunities to scheduled flights,” Yildirim told reporters in Istanbul. He added that all these were short- or medium-term measures that would relieve traffic at the airport.

    Ataturk accommodated 20.3 million international passengers, with international commercial flight traffic of around 178,817 in 2010. These figures were 11.8 million and 94,887 respectively for domestic traffic.

    Alarko Group general coordinator Ayhan Yavrucu has said Alarko might be interested in joining a consortium and entering the bidding for the tender for Istanbul’s third airport.

    “We are probably the company that has built the most airports in Turkey. We are interested in the third airport tender,” asserted Yavrucu. Alarko has already applied for the preliminary qualification for the privatisation of the Bosphorus bridges and highways project. He added that the company had not yet devised a concrete financing plan for the privatisation.

    TAV Group CEO Sani Sener said: “The company that wins the tender should have access to powerful financing and know-how. Istanbul is very important to our portfolio. The number of incoming tourists is rising; the economy is developing.

    If we think of Istanbul as a financial hub, its importance is even more key. Our partnership with French Aeroports de Paris also adds to the TAV brand value,” added Sener.

    According to Sener, the third airport can be completed in three years, and TAV is keen to win this major tender. He stressed that the airport construction should be awarded to a company that “knows the business.”

    Sener said: “This is not a terminal operation, it is an airport operation. We are talking about a $10bn project. Strong financing is necessary. One needs to be picky.”

    Sener said five to six firms with which it competes regularly would place bids in the upcoming third airport tender. He explained that the airport would be constructed on a plot of land containing coal mines, and would therefore be difficult to construct.

    TAV had a contract for Ataturk until 2021, and that the Transportation Ministry had assured TAV that its rights would be protected and that Ataturk was not likely to become a boutique airport. “If it is going to be a project that competes with Ataturk Airport, then it would not be a $10bn project,” he noted.

    via The Turkish model | ConstructionWeekOnline.com.

  • Alarko to bid to build third Istanbul airport

    Alarko to bid to build third Istanbul airport

    (Reuters) – Turkey’s Alarko Holding , a conglomerate with interests in construction, energy and tourism, wants to bid in a consortium for a tender to build a third airport in Istanbul, Chief Executive Ayhan Yavrucu told Reuters on Thursday.

    Speaking at the Airex aviation exhibition in Istanbul, Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said they were aiming for the first stage of the airport to open in 2016.

    Yildirim announced the tender competition for the Istanbul airport last month with a view to completing the bidding by the end of 2012 after spending 18 months choosing the site.

    The airport is to have an initial capacity for 90 million passengers a year, extending eventually to 150 million passengers, and three runways. Yildirim said last month 80 percent of the site would be public land and the rest bought by the state from private owners. (Reporting by Ceyda Caglayan and Evrim Ergin, writing by Seda Sezer, editing by William Hardy)

    via Alarko to bid to build third Istanbul airport | Reuters.

  • Turkish Airlines eager for new Istanbul airport by 2016

    Turkish Airlines eager for new Istanbul airport by 2016

    By Kurt Hofmann

    Turkish Airlines A340-300 at Istanbul. By Rob Finlayson
    Turkish Airlines A340-300 at Istanbul. By Rob Finlayson

    Turkish Airlines (TK) needs a bigger airport and hopes the new Istanbul airport will be built by 2016.

    CEO Temel Kotil told ATW in Istanbul that TK’s hub at Istanbul Ataturk, which handles about 32.9 million passengers per year, is too small and has hindered the carrier’s growth strategy.

    Kotil said TK already occupies “75% of the airport capacity” but it also wants to other carriers to be there.

    “Experts say in five years from now the new airport will be ready,” said Kotil, who noted the final location will be selected soon and construction is likely to begin by year end.

    The new airport should handle up to 120 million passengers and have five runways. It will be 6,000 hectares (14,826 acres), six times bigger than the current Ataturk airport, Kotil said.

    The growth of the new airport will be “more important for Turkey’s future than for the growth of the airline, but it will push us to develop faster,” Kotil said.

    Istanbul’s second airport, Sabiha Gokcen, served 11.6 million passengers in 2010, according to the Arthur D. Little World Airport Report.

    Kotil said TK’s hub is perfectly positioned globally and is a “goldmine” for the carrier. He said TK generates “$6 billion from international passenger business, but “we can grow this up to $40 billion.” International transfer passengers at IST should increase to 20 million, up from 5.6 million, by 2016, Kotil said, noting that TK’s international passengers should reach 50 million.

    TK operates 175 aircraft and transports 29.1 million passengers.

    via Turkish Airlines eager for new Istanbul airport by 2016 | ATWOnline.

  • Turkish minister says Istanbul needs new airport

    Turkish minister says Istanbul needs new airport

    Turkey’s transportation minister said on Friday that a new airport in the commercial hub of Istanbul was inevitable.

    Friday, 17 December 2010 15:20

    binaliTurkey’s transportation minister said on Friday that a new airport in the commercial hub of Istanbul was inevitable.

    Binali Yildirim said that there will be around 150 million passenger traffic in Istanbul by 2023, and only two airports, including Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen international airports, could not meet this traffic.

    “Therefore, a new airport is inevitable in Istanbul,” Yildirim said during a meeting in Istanbul on increasing importance of Sabiha Gokcen International Airport in air transportation.

    Sabiha Gokcen Airport suffered financial loss between 2001 and 2004. The total passenger traffic at the airport was 130,217 in 2002 but it reached to 10.2 million by November 2010.

    Istanbul’s second airport Sabiha Gokcen hosted 6.27 million passengers in the first seven months of 2010, up 94 percent from the same period a year earlier.

    The airport almost caught last year’s passenger number of 6.6 million in the first seven months of 2010. 4.2 million of total passengers used domestic flights. The number of domestic passengers rose 92 percent.

    International passengers also increased 98 percent to 1.99 million. In July only, Sabiha Gokcen hosted 1.27 million passengers.

    Sabiha Gokcen International Airport, situated on the Asian side of Istanbul, opened in 2001. In 2007, ISG, a consortium of Malaysia Airports Holdings, India’s GMR Infrastructure and Turkey’s Limak clinched the rights to manage Istanbul’s second airport with a 1.9 billion-euro bid.

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  • Istanbul third passenger airport is not without its critics

    Istanbul third passenger airport is not without its critics

    Sometimes the oldest cliches ring truest. Billed for centuries as “the bridge between east and west,” Istanbul has over the past two years been the beneficiary of work by the Turkish authorities to prove that it is just that. With plans already afoot for a tender to construct a third bridge over the Bosphorus straits and a final investment decision on the already tendered project for a second tunnel under the Bosphorus expected early next year, officials have announced that the city will get a new main airport.

    According to an announcement made by Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas at the end of November, his municipality is working with Turkey’s ministry of transportation on plans for a third passenger airport to be located at Silivri, a coastal town 65 kilometres to the west of Istanbul. The planned new airport is slated to have a capacity several times that of Istanbul’s existing main airport, Ataturk Airport, located only 10 km from the city centre.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is backing the plan, argues that Istanbul’s two existing airports are simply unable to cope with the growing levels of traffic. And he certainly has a point. Thanks to Istanbul’s growing importance as a major regional business hub and its bourgeoning popularity as a city-break tourist destination, throughput at the existing Ataturk Airport and its counterpart on Istanbul’s Asian side, Sabiha Gokcen Airport, has rocketed from 8.7m passengers in 2002 to 41m passengers last year

    And with passenger traffic expected to grow at 10% a year for the next decade at least, it is little wonder Turkey’s national carrier Turkish Airlines has its eyes on the planned new airport. “Our assumption is that we will use the new airport as our main hub,” Temil Kotil, CEO of Turkish Airlines, told bne recently.

    Spare capacity

    However, this planned third passenger airport is not without its critics. They point out that the two existing airports are still not close to full capacity and that Istanbul already has a third airport at Corlu, 20 km to the east of Silivri. Why they ask, when Corlu was designed specifically to handle cargo flights, is most of the air freight traffic in Istanbul still passing through the city’s main passenger hub, Ataturk Airport, taking up capacity that could be used for increased passenger flights?

    “Corlu Airport is already there and operating at a fraction of its capacity, so why are we thinking about a fourth airport?” asks Tayfun Kahraman the secretary-general of the Istanbul branch of the Turkish Chamber of City Planners, pointing out that little attempt has been made to integrate Corlu into the regional transport infrastructure. “Turkey’s main European rail line runs nearby, but there is no connection. Let’s improve the transport links to Corlu, make full use of it and then when it begins to approach capacity, then lets think about a fourth airport.”

    Improving existing ground transport infrastructure is key to handling Istanbul’s growing traffic problems, rather than building a new airport a long way from the centre. “A new airport would only work if the necessary transport infrastructure connecting it to the city is built first,” Kahraman explains, pointing out the ongoing problems experienced by Istanbul’s second airport Sabiha Gokcen.

    Opened a decade back on the outskirts of the Asian side of Istanbul, growth of traffic at Sabiha Gokcen has been severely hampered by poor transport connections. Plans were only recently announced to link the airport to the planned Marmaray rail system, which will allow passengers easy access from both sides of the city, and are still some years away from fruition.

    The importance of good road and rail connections for Turkey’s airports is echoed by Ergin Buyukbayram, head of Global Logistics Consulting Services, who recently prepared a master plan for the Turkish government on how to develop the country’s logistics sector. However, he is sceptical of the extent to which Corlu can be developed as a main freight and logistics hub. “The surrounding land is too hilly – coastal sites are much better for airports, as it allows planes to approach low over the sea,” he explains, adding that Corlu is also far from ideal in respect to connections to existing road and rail lines.

    Silivri, he says, would be a far better site for a new airport for Istanbul – albeit as a cargo airport allowing freight to be easily shipped on by road and rail, not as the main passenger hub which current plans foresee.

    Logistics aside, Kahraman also identifies another problem with developing a new airport at Silivri, which official plans have overlooked. “The area around Silivri has some of the best and most productive agricultural land in the country – we risk destroying something we can’t replace, to build something we don’t yet need,” he warns. bne.

    via Balkans.com Business News : Turkey: Istanbul third passenger airport is not without its critics.