Istanbul Airport CEO: How It Become the ‘World’s Best’

In October, Istanbul Airport was named the world’s best in a CN Traveler survey — but getting there wasn’t easy.

It opened six years ago to replace Istanbul’s old airport, Atatürk Airport, which first opened in the 1950s, and was operating well above its planned capacity.

“It handled like 60 million passengers, but it was originally designed for 40 million passengers. So, there were increased queues, delays, so on and so forth, plus very limited options for expansion,” Istanbul Airport CEO Selahattin Bilgen told Business Insider in an interview at London’s Savoy Hotel.

After deciding to build a new airport from scratch, a huge logistical challenge remained: transferring operations without too much disruption.

Within 33 hours, they managed to shut down Atatürk and welcome the first passengers into Istanbul Airport.

“We really spent extensive time and effort for the planning,” Bilgen said. “One day, we closed the airport. The next day, we continued to the new airport.”

He added that while the plan initially faced lots of criticism and divided opinions, one survey suggests gra91% of Istanbulites now approve of the new airport.

It is Europe’s second-busiest airport, behind London Heathrow, handling 80 million passengers last year.

While debates have raged for years in the UK over building a third runway at Heathrow, Istanbul Airport is already working on expansions that could make it the largest in Europe.

Bilgen said phase two investments are underway, which would bring the airport’s capacity from 90 million to 120 million. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest, saw 108 million passengers last year.

Growing demand at Istanbul Airport is fueled by a major fleet expansion from Turkey’s flag carrier, Turkish Airlines. The city’s geography, on the border between Europe and Asia, makes it ideal for a hub connecting travelers from across the world — a similar model to Middle Eastern carriers like Emirates, which uses Dubai as its hub.

“But on top of it, we also have our own attraction. So, Istanbul is not only an ideal place for transfers, but also it’s a good place as a destination as well,” Bilgen said.

He added that 40% of the airport’s traffic is international transfers. Turkey also ranks fourth globally for the number of international tourists, behind France, Spain, and the US.

So, how has the airport managed to top CN Traveler’s list for the second year running?

“Designing and building a brand new airport from scratch has its own challenges and risks, but we believe we have been working very hard and very prepared for the things to come,” Bilgen said. “And in that sense, that becomes an advantage when you design everything from scratch.”

At 15 million square feet, Istanbul has the world’s largest terminal. For comparison, New York JFK’s New Terminal One, set to be the airport’s largest, is 2.4 million square feet.

Istanbul’s enormous terminal provides ample space for shopping and amenities. That includes private sleeping pods for hire, playgrounds, and therapy dogs wandering around.

“We also started thinking about how we can make life easy in such a large terminal building for people with disabilities, for people with children, people with pets, or with people who are older than 65 years,” Bilgen told Business Insider. “So, that brought us to a point where we designed special experience programs for special passenger segments.”

He also said that “cutting-edge technology,” including the use of AI, has helped the airport rank first in Europe for key metrics like the number of flights departing on time and baggage loss rate.

However, there is still room for improvement if the airport wants to certify its position among the world’s very best. It fell four spots to 14th in Skytrax’s rankings, where first and second place went to Singapore Changi and Qatar’s Hamad International — its closest rivals on CN Traveler’s survey.