Istanbul Airport was conceived to replace the landlocked Ataturk Airport, which had run out of room despite being one of Europe's busiest gateways.
Built at staggering speed between 2015 and 2018 on former mining land near the Black Sea coast, the airport was ceremonially opened on October 29, 2018, the 95th anniversary of the Turkish Republic. Full operations began in April 2019 with the 'Great Move,' a meticulously planned logistics operation in which thousands of truckloads of equipment were shifted across the city from Ataturk in about 45 hours, after which Ataturk closed to scheduled passenger flights.
The airport's single terminal is one of the largest buildings under one roof anywhere in the world, designed to be expanded in phases toward an eventual capacity among the highest ever planned.
As the fortress hub of Turkish Airlines, which serves more countries than any other airline, Istanbul Airport rapidly climbed the global rankings and now regularly tops European airport tables for daily flights. Its geographic position lets Turkish Airlines connect Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas with narrow-body economics, a model that has reshaped competition with the Gulf hubs to the south.