Foreign Property News | Posted by Hnin Ei Khin
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the world’s largest airport on Monday, amid pleas from human rights groups to release dozens of labour leaders and activists who were arrested last month for protesting against rough working conditions.
Described by Erdogan as a “monument to victory” and gift to the world, the 76.5 million square-metre ‘Istanbul New Airport’ is expected to serve 90 million passengers a year during its first phase, and 200 million upon the airport’s completion in ten years.
To begin with, the airport will run flights to local destinations Ankara, Antalya and Izmir, as well as Baku and Ercan in northern Cyprus. But at the end of the year, when it will replace Istanbul’s main, soon-to-be-closed Ataturk International Airport, it will connect passengers to 350 destinations via 250 carriers.
“With this airport we aim to bring the world closer together with a major hub at the intersection of Asia, Europe and the Middle East,” the airport’s CEO Huseyin Kadri Samsunlu told reporters on Thursday. “Our challenge is to be the biggest and the best.”
The airport, which boasts a 53,000 square-metre duty free complex, 22,000-camera surveillance system and 42 kilometre baggage handling system, was designed by Grimshaw Global.
“The design draws on the architectural character of Istanbul – a city rich with colour, pattern and history since its Byzantine origins – and includes vaulted ceilings pierced with skylights that draw in diffuse daylight and create an open, lofty volume with clear lines of sight,” the company’s online project description reads.
The transit hall was shaped like the Bosphorus Strait, and the control tower, like Turkey’s national flower, the tulip – a design that won the 2016 International Architecture Award.
Ref: Property Report
