Istanbul Airport- which starts full passenger operations on 3 March is expected to employ 16,000 people in its initial phase including thousands of ground handling service staff.
This is according to the ‘Istanbul Airport Economic Impact Analysis’ report prepared by Istanbul Economy and EDAM (Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, on the new €7.4 billion gateway.
The report said in terms of ground services – 1,178 people will be employed by Havas, 2,000 by Celebi, 2,532 in cleaning, valet and parking services, 1,300 in food court and about 1,000 in other retail areas.
And 2,700 people will be employed in airport operations, 3,522 in security and 2,000 in the duty-free and retail sales areas of Unifree Duty Free Enterprise.
In addition, Turkish Airlines has announced that it will provide further employment in accordance with the expansion strategy of the airport.
Istanbul Airport is expected to directly and indirectly employ 225,000 people by 2025, a considerable wave of employment.
Once full passenger operations are started next month, Istanbul Atatürk Airport will be closed for scheduled flights and only handle freighter services.
In the first phase, Istanbul Airport can handle 90 million passengers per annum (mppa) and 4.5 million tonnes of cargo, but it will then be developed in phases with the aim of having capacity for 200mppa. Investment will continue and rise to €10.5 billion once all phases are completed.
In phase one, the airport will be spread over 41.5 million square metres, compared to capacity-stretched Ataturk which covers only 12 million square metres and handles 64mppa, but can take no more.
Istanbul Airport has one terminal and will operate two runways initially. The plan is to add a third runway in 16 months, taking the passenger capacity to 135mppa – double the capacity of Ataturk.
