Contract let for the world's biggest airport to enable Turkish hub to grow

 

The Turkish government confirmed yesterday that it had selected the consortium ahead of the leading Turkish operator TAV which has built and managed the country’s other major airports as well as many others in the region.

According to Reuters, the consortium of Cengiz, Kolin, Limak, Mapa and Kalyon bid 22.15 billion euros for the build-operate-transfer project, which includes a 25-year lease, outbidding other rivals including Germany's Fraport. TAV shares dropped on the news of them missing out on the mega deal.

The airport will become Istanbul’s third airport and will dwarf the current Ataturk airport, which is space constrained, and Sabiha Gökçen Airport on the Asian side which is developing as a low cost and charter hub.

The demand for a new airport has been fuelled by the rapid expansion of Turkish Airlines which has mirrored the strategy of Emirates in Dubai, and developed its home base as a hub.

“We are the bridge between east and west. Most of the world’s major routes cross over Turkey,” said Turkish Airlines CEO Dr Temil Kotil.

The new airport – close to the Black Sea on the European side of Istanbul, is planned to have a total of six runways and eventually be able to handle 150 million passengers per year – surpassing the Al Maktoum International airport at Dubai World Central.

 

"Such an airport ... will carry Turkey to a different level on the international stage," said Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Work on the project is expected to begin in 2014 and the first phase would be complete by 2018 to enable limited services to begin.

A number of international companies from UK, Holland and France were among the early bidders, but dropped out. Some analysts are suggesting the bid price became too high and that there are some engineering challenges at the proposed site.