Turkey: Istanbul’s Atatürk and New airports closed Dec. 30-31

Event

Istanbul-New Airport and Istanbul-Atatürk Airport will be closed on December 30 and December 31; no flights are scheduled on these days. Istanbul's third airport, Sabiha Gökçen (SAW), will remain operational. Some flights initially scheduled to operate out of New and Atatürk may be rescheduled to operate out of SAW; others will likely be canceled.

Context

Istanbul New Airport was inaugurated on October 29 and is set to replace Atatürk Airport and assume the IATA airport code IST. Full flight operations at the new airport were initially set to begin in October 2018; however, due to delays, a "phased transition" was put in place, and is expected to be completed by January 1, 2019.

nce fully operational, the new airport is expected to handle about 90 million passengers per year.

Advice

Travelers are advised to contact their airline for further information.