The full opening of İstanbul’s new airport (IST), originally scheduled for March 3, has been delayed. Authorities have announced a new opening date of April 7.
The airport first began operating on a limited basis with a soft opening in October 2018. After that, officials postponed the planned full opening from January to March and have now set the revised April date.
When the airport becomes fully operational, it will assume all commercial flights currently handled by the city’s crowded Atatürk Airport and will use the IATA code IST. Travelers with flights to or from İstanbul in March and April should confirm with their airlines which airport—Atatürk or the new facility—they will be using to avoid disruption.
Construction of the new airport cost approximately $12 billion. Once running at full capacity, the facility is designed to accommodate up to 200 million passengers per year, though initial traffic is expected to be closer to 90 million as operations scale up.