As part of its declared “year of investments”, iGA Istanbul Airport has set an investment target for 2024 of €656.5m (US$706m), including the development of its General Aviation Terminal, a 3,000,000m2 solar power plant (SPP) and the Hilton Istanbul Airport.
The airport will invest €35m (US$37m) in the General Aviation Terminal, which it plans to complete at the end of 2024 and €146.4m (US$157m) in the Eskişehir GES Project, which is also to be completed by the end of the year. A 199.32 MWe unlicensed solar power plant will be established on an area of 3,000,000m2 by iGA Havalimanı İşletmesi in Eskişehir, making iGA the first airport in the world to meet all of its electricity needs with renewable energy. It anticipates an annual energy production of 340,446,833 kWh/year through this plant.
iGA Istanbul Airport plans to complete the Hilton Istanbul Airport in the first quarter of 2025, with an investment target of €25.6m (US$27.5m) this year. The airport aims to invest a total of €656.5m (US$706m) in 2024, with a total investment of €331.2 (US$356m) planned for the construction of the East-West runway and the North-South backup runway in 2024.
iGA Istanbul Airport has also announced its cooperation with Trendyol and FedEx Express. FedEx Express has started installing in the iGA Istanbul Airport Cargo Zone a 23,000m2 facility that will integrate operations on three continents, providing strategic connectivity between Asia and Africa.
Turkish e-commerce platform Trendyol is investing €36m (US38m) in a facility that will cover 12,000m2 and have a daily output capacity of 150,000 products. It is planned to become operational in the first quarter of 2025. When it is completed, the airport’s storage areas will be increased to 150,000m2, the number of warehouses to 14, and the parcel area to 353,000m2.
Announcing that its passenger target for 2024 is 85 million, Selahattin Bilgen, CEO at iGA Istanbul Airport, stated that the airport continues to grow its passenger traffic with more passengers every day. “We plan to increase the number of flights to 532,000 in 2024,” said Bilgen, adding that the airport plans to increase the number of passengers by 12.77%.
Bilgen also announced that iGA will welcome a total of 11 new airlines by the end of 2024 and has plans to implement the first triple parallel runway operation in Europe this year. “We will break new ground among ICAO member nations with our triple independent runway operations. We are targeting operations with the highest efficiency and capacity, after the USA,” he said. “With this method, our 120 ATM/h (hourly air traffic capacity) capacity can potentially exceed 148 ATM/h. This capacity increase in air traffic will play an essential role in our airport exceeding its contract’s 150 million passenger target and reaching 200 million passengers without any additional runway investment following Phase 5.”
iGA Istanbul Airport, with its ‘Our Focus is the World, Our Goal is the Future’ mission, has committed to net-zero CO2 emissions and aims to reduce its emissions by 45% in six years compared to the base year. “We will achieve a 73% emission reduction in 2040 and reach the net-zero emission target in 2050”, Bilgen said, underlining that iGA completed the year 2023 with 14% fewer emissions than targeted, according to the net-zero roadmap prepared in line with the IPCC 1.5°C scenario.
“With our waste recycling program, we are determined to achieve our zero emission targets by 2050, taking concrete steps such as reducing waste emissions by 50% and converting 50% of our vehicle fleet to electric vehicles,” he said. iGA Istanbul Airport has already reached Level 4 in three years. This was achieved through decreasing energy consumption by nearly 11%, and decreasing the water footprint by 5%.
Bilgen also highlighted that the airport invested €160.1m (US$172m) in 2023. “Since we started flight operations in 2019, we have increased the number of flights from 329,876 to 505,968 at the end of 2023, and thereby the number of passengers from nearly 53 million to 76 million, breaking records for both daily flights and passenger numbers in the summer,” he added. “Türkiye as a destination has also seen a boost in tourism. We are so thrilled to be able to contribute to Türkiye’s national economy and to our citizens through this sector.”
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