Turkey officially opened what President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said would be the world's largest airport. The president envisions the $12 billion projects would position Istanbul as a premier hub for travelers flying across Europe, Asia and Africa.
The yet to be named airport referred to locally as the 'Istanbul New Airport,' was originally planned to open on Oct. 29 at 4 p.m. local time. Turkey is seven hours ahead of the United States.
The official opening of the airport was scheduled coinciding with the 95th anniversary of Turkey's establishment as a republic. Local media is reporting that Erdogan attended the opening ceremony and as much as 50 world leaders and top officials were invited, including Amir of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir.
As for its soft opening on Monday, only two runways went into service, including three separate airstrips. The first phase of the project amounted to $7.2 billion and was built in almost three years with the help of a public-private partnership model. At this stage, the airport is expected to serve 90 million passengers yearly, replacing the existing Ataturk Airport which currently serves 64 million travelers annually.
By the time the final phase of the airport is completed in 2023, in time for Turkey's centennial, the new airport is set to offer flights to more than 300 destinations, flying 200 million tourists per year. At that time, the airport would already be occupying 19,000 acres and would have six runways.
By then, the "Istanbul New Airport" would become the world's largest airport, taking the title from the Atlanta Airport in the United States which by 2017 has transported nearly 104 million passengers. It would have also surpassed Beijing with 95.7 million travelers yearly, Dubai with 88.3 million, Tokyo with 85.4 million, and Los Angeles with 84.5 million.
In its final stage, the "Istanbul New Airport" would also exceed London-Heathrow with 78 million passengers in 2017, Paris-Charles with 69.4 million, Amsterdam with 68.5 million, and Frankfurt with 64.5 million.
Tourism revenues of Turkey climbed by 30.1 percent year-on-year to $7.44 billion in the second quarter of 2018; 84.7 percent of this came from international travelers and 15.3 percent came from citizens resident abroad according to numbers released by Trading Economics.
The number of visitors increased by 29.4 percent compared to 11.067 million in 2017.
On average, foreigners spent $636 per capita. From 1990 to 2018, Turkey has earned from $1253 million to an all-time high of $4947 million in August 2014. The lowest the country earned was $79 million back in 1990.
