Will Istanbul’s beautiful new airport fail on account of clouds and fog? Some experts fear the answer is yes.
Last week, flights to Istanbul from the following cities were diverted to Çorlu, an airport 60 miles west of the new airport:
- Basel
- Berlin
- Bremen
- Göteborg
- Edremit
- Elazığ
- Marseille
- Riga
Per Ahval, an independent Turkish news agency:
This came as little surprise to the aviation experts who have been warning since the project was conceived that the location chosen for the new airport lacked cover from the northerly winds blowing in from the Black Sea, and would also make it susceptible to disruptions caused by cloud and fog.
It’s not like Istanbul’s new airport is the only airport susceptible to weather delays. The description above could easily characterize San Francisco International Airport as well…or even London Heathrow.
But one reason the airport’s opening may have been delayed was to avoid the colder winter months, where clouds and fog occur on a far more frequent basis. As far back as 2014, weather experts warned that the location selected for the new airport was susceptible to high winds from the Black Sea, encountered storms on 107 days of the year, and experienced 65 days of intense cloud cover.
The ramifications are costly for airlines and annoying for passengers. Diverting to Çorlu burns additional fuel and is quite inconvenient for connecting passengers. Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport, located on the Asian side of Istanbul, cannot handle many diversions and Ataturk International Airport, Istanbul’s old main airport (now coded ISL), will become an ironic “back-up” airport for the airport it was replaced by.
Solutions?
There are other issues with the new airport I won’t even get into – environmental impacts on the nearby forrest and a problem of water accumulation. We also know that construction was so rushed that at least 55 people died during the construction of the airport. In short, bad news. But the airport is now built. The old Ataturk International Airport has been decommissioned as a commercial hub. And the new airport is quite beautiful.
The sad thing right now is that there are no solutions…it is difficult to fight topography and meteorology. The winter months will be worse than the spring. Be prepared.
CONCLUSION
I’m holding off a visit to Istanbul until Turkish starts flying its new business class product. While potential delays will not stop me from flying to Istanbul, it is sad that so many are now saying “see I told you so” as weather systems bring delays to more flights.
image: Istanbul Airport
Dear Matthew. Thanks alot for this piece and all the informative articles you share about the aviation industry. Lately I’ve developed intense flying anxiety and have been reading up on all the latest on Turkish Airlines as I will be flying next week from Geneva to Istanbul and the return leg. The safety record seems to be mixed with Skytrax recently downgrading TA to 3 stars and now with this new airport information, I’m getting jittery again. Do you think the worst that can happen is a reroute to Attaturk airport? I don’t know what is the quality of pilot training in TA and am worried. Apologies in advance for asking the impossible from you (the future).
I honestly would not worry. I think a diversion would be unfortunate, but that is the worst that will happen. You will be safe. I don’t trust Skytrax. You’ll enjoy a nice meal onboard as well. Have a great trip!
Good day Matthew have you got a private mail adress I can send you correspondents.
Regards Ayesha
I will not put my life at stake, flyinģ to this airport of horror.
Read my lips: this badly designed project will die in its conception.
An investment of only 1.5 billion USD in Ataturk would have made it ready doe the furore till AT least 2030 .
Skytrax downgraded Turkish Airlines to a 3-star airline because TA left Skytrax. Just like Etihad’s case a few years ago. As a Turkish aviation lover, I can proudly say that the new Istanbul airport looks phenomenal from the outside and the inside. My cousin had no problems with landing and all other current controversy when he arrived to IST from JFK. Safe travels and have fun in Istanbul.
Don’t worry everything will work out great, inşallah. ;-p
When should we expect the new TK business class interiors to be in service on North American routes?
This fall.
Dear Mathew , you have pointed out a great danger that is uncontrollable since we cannot fight with nature.
However, there are other problems at this point too, as no body knows nothing despite many many volunteers, flight gates change wotho ik t announcements, English is hardly understood. Ordering a cup of coffee and asking for milk or cream is like resolving pythogorian formula….Ask me staff is actually Don t ask me at all…mostly Remy is I don’t know. All they know we are largest Airport and we are new…..my question was why do I have to suffer for that? Recent experience and very disappointing. Last time it was Ataturk Airport, didnt understand what was a need to change without proper transformation and training of the staff and volunteers…. God bless Istambul
Wind and fog that happens everywhere and all airports have that problem anywhere and everywhere
It’s not that simple.
Retired BA Pilot, Thank God I have retired and I do not have to fly to this unfortunate Airport, Big birds stop jet engines, I think I would decline flying in during the migration period
Damn, I’ve just noticed how far the new airport is from the city. It’s twice as long as the trip to the old airport!
And no Metro!
That’s the clincher for me. I’ll wait until there are decent public transport connections.
The problem in new Istanbul airport is greater than the wind the planes have to pay a fee to Bulgria during the take offs and landings cause they are getting out of theTurkish airspace this is also a problem
The Cross wind causes impossible landings and take offs cause of the Tarmac directions This airport is a Turkish mega flop project.
The pilot Training of Turkish Airlines is mostly Air Force pilots grade in Turkey the there is not really a civil aviation and the process of pilot Training is on the shoulder s of air Force mostly they are the trainees of Air Force academy and flew with fighter jets therefore in that subject there is nothing to worry about in USA there are private pilot Training companies in Turkey it’s the opposite therefore Turkish pilots are more reliable in n the name of experience
you think so? Air force pilots were 10 years ago. I admire your optimism. This new airport a huge failure.
Exactly
Wow istanbul is the citadel why go communist in a airport that does not work safely for all of us that love istanbul if the nature of winds are a potential plane crash like corononavirus why have a pilot die like chinese doctor died to tell Erdogan new airport is a natural catastrophe and will put tkr out of business.
Apparently ICAO now has decided to investigate the bird strike incidents as well as the wheaher related concerns. The suspicion is that this airport is built in an area of natural bird migration which leads to fear of frequent bird strikes. Bird strikes can bring a plane down inadvertently. This airport might be at risk of being shutdown after all. This is not good news.
Fog and wind exist at every airport. Try Chicago O Hare Airport if you do not believe me.
When was the last time an airport turned out to be a failure due to fog ? Never.
I just flew this airport 2 weeks ago. Myself and a whole lot of people had missed heir connection flights due to the lack of fast transportation from on end of the airport to the other. I felt as if I was walking for 45 minutes to get to my gate.
I also had to go through security for a connection flight ??? Why???
Staff was not helpful at all and we’re mostly on their phones playing candy crush.
Overall bad experience. I hope they learn from these issues and improve on them soon.
Average taxi time on landing is 40 mins.(cost?) A nearby port built for the delivery of fuel for aircraft silts up and has to be dredged every 7 to 1o days! (Cost?) Workers at the airport are very unhappy as they cannot afford to relocate nearer to the new airport as the project was announced to “the in crowd” who went and purchased the inexpensive hinterland before the word got out about the new airport and develooed it. Toilets constantly flood, the tiles are already broken, cracked, stained ……in a brand new “biggest and best” airport? …this morning there are water buckets all over the duty free area. It is time that the Turkish pubkic petitioned for the closure of this white elephant which was built to satisfy the “biggest is best mentality” of the current person in power. For those of you who haven’t used it yet, don’t make comments like “other airoorts have fog problems”. They were advised that it was not a suitable location and ignored this advise. Other airports would have taken such advice and had strategies. Their strategies are to forge ahead at the expense of travelers. Turkish airlines now has to reschedule its flight program because people cannot make connections as they could at Atsturk airport due to the 40 min taxi time to get to the gates . TA runs the risk of going under in the short-term due to the new expenses, passenger inconvenience, not to mention the dangerous landing/take-off conditions! Happy flying!
Retired BA Pilot, Thank God I have retired and I do not have to fly to this unfortunate Airport, Big birds stop jet engines, I think I would decline flying in during the migration period
Fake news is everywhere and this is one of them.
What is “fake” in the article? Please do clarify.
It will also be fake news, when your plane crashes due to wind and schools of birds
This is so stupid and full of lies and fake knowledge.
Such as?
Ahval, you morron. Ahval is your source? Well, that says it all.
If you don’t know whose propaganda you are peddling it is pathetic. If you know than you are evil.
You are calling the flight delays fake news? Or the susceptibility of the airport to weather? Or the deaths? I know you don’t like the source, but what is actually factually incorrect in the story?
Ahval is an anti-Turkish propaganda news site run by gulenists and funded by the United arab emirates (Turkey and UAE have terrible diplomatic relations ). Its goal is to bash Turkey as much as possible. Its not a reliable news source at all.
Regrettably this article was based on fake information from the website Ahval.
The owner of Ahval, fled turkey after the failed coup and is supported the UAE and Saudi Arabia. and is known to have manipulated data. (check Wikipedia)
I agree with SAS “When was the last time an airport turned out to be a failure due to fog ? Never.”
I checked the sources used in the Ahval article, they are fake!
“
I don’t care about who ahval news are. That’s not the point. Did people die while building the airport or not? Weren’t there too many unusual delays since it opened? Too many passengers are complaining about how they missed their flights because they had to walk 45 mins to 1hour from one end of the airport to the other. They also mentioned that the staff don’t speak English and weren’t helpful at all. Yeah but to you, those passengers must either be traitors or be working for that newspaper right? You’ve become so brainwashed and so out of touch to the point of losing your mind. I feel sorry for you. As a matter of fact, I don’t even care about you. I care about me and the safety of my loved ones, of course I’m not gonna praise something that has already caused anxiety among a lot of travelers and left them with a lot of questions unanswered.
I passed through last Saturday from Tbilisi to London and it was a very long from Zone A where we landed to Zone F where we took off
At least 20 mins, very poor signage and little in the way of help
seems very little thought given to passengers
Its an airport to avoid
I had to go through 2 lots of security even i came off an international connecting flight and never left airside
That is true.
It is the extra layer of protection that TK has been doing. Sometimes there are more than 2 checks at random even after arrival from a secure airside.
Always, an element of surprise. Welcome to TURKEY !!
Having been at IST many a times and lately in March 30th, am not surprised since the shifting of terminals was NOT an ordinary task , besides what sprung forth lately with forces of nature , in addition.
During my arrivals at IST , one of the sticking points have been the landing aircraft being parked on HARD STANDS and passengers bussed to terminals, which was very frustrating. They simply have more flights than they ( TK) can manage.
And, the airport terminals are way too CONGESTED .
I have used the airport 6 times since it was opened, but have not encountered the bad weather concerns you have mentioned. The staff has always known enough English to help, am not looking for native speaker enunciation or sophisticated sentence construction. As for being going through security checks if on transfer, well that happens too when you connect via Frankfurt, Jedda, Dubai, Johannesburg
the list is endless The toilet flooding you mentioned must have happened on days l did mot use the airport. The toilets are clean and there are staff members on stand-by whenever l go through.
I do agree that it takes very long from landing to actually parking the plane.
Hang on a minute, or should I say vun minut…
Ahval!? For crying out loud bro. It’s run by a UAE funded traitor. What on earth did you think they’d say about Erdogan’s big new airport.
Move along people. The airport is fine.
I fly to Istanbul every 3 months and my experience of the new airport is as follows :-
Beautiful design but toilets were out of order
from landing from UK to terminal it took 35 minutes
The airport is in the middle of nowhere
Had to get a taxi to Sultanhamet where I work took 1hour 20 mins
Two days later I flew from Istanbul to Edremit again 30 mins taxiying to take off then 40 minute wait as air condition was too warm ????? it was cold outside ????
Flying back from Edremit to Istanbul – same again
two days later 1 hour 30 mins from Sultanhamet to airport, long walk to gate and then 30 mins taxying on the runway and a 30 minute wait due to weather thermal !
I love Istanbul and I love the Turkish people, my concern is that the concerns were raised about the location and the bird sanctuary many years ago and I feel so sad that the money that has been spent would have been more productive and safer to expand Ataturk airport.
I am considering flying to Sabiha Gokcen airport from now on which means I have to fly from London.
Except your source is Ahval ‘news’ (in quotes) which is anti Turkish propaganda website funded principally funded by the United Arab Emirates. Here’s some reading for you 🙂
https://www.timeturk.com/bae-nin-finanse-ettigi-turkiye-karsiti-site-kuruldu-basrolde-feto-var/haber-794279
https://www.aydinlik.com.tr/feto-haber-sitesine-korfez-den-sponsor-bulundu-dunya-aralik-2017
https://www.sabah.com.tr/gundem/2017/12/04/firari-hainlerin-finans-kaynagi-o-ulke
95% of TA pilots are retired Air Force pilots,
95% of TA pilots are retired Air Force pilots,
Have you ever been to this airport Tolga I presume not, I am a retired British Airways pilot living in a wonderful Turkey, Unfortunately this airport is a total failure as Angela has reported. An indecent is on the books in the near future