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TAV The İstanbul Atatürk Airport The İstanbul Atatürk Airport is Turkey's main gate to the world and a source of pride thanks to the international prizes that it keep receiving.
The Atatürk International Airport was built by Tepe-Akfen-Vie (TAV) on a built-run-transfer model and was in service at the beginning of 2000. The terminal which was built thanks to the effort of 3500 workers is a success for Turkish engineering and conveys a good image of modernity, comfort and safety. Sani Şener, the airport director and a member of the board of directors at TAV, seemed proud when answering our questions. TAV is one of the 5 or 6 firms in the world which has carried out an airport's project from its financing and construction to its management. Also, TAV is running the Teheran Airport for which it is building new facilities and has proved successful with tenders in Yemen and Egypt. It is currently building the hangars of the A380 airplanes- which have a capacity of 555 passengers and wings of 100 m wide- to be launched in 2005. In the near future, TAV will also provide Turkey's capital, Ankara, the airport it deserves. The İstanbul Atatürk Airport is a very popular venue for European seminars or expositions on aviation and counts 180 airlines serving 300 destinations. THE MOST MODERN FACILITIES When giving general information about the İstanbul Atatürk Airport, Sani Şener explained the following: "In terms of number of passengers, we are in the top ten. In terms of modernity, the Munich, İstanbul and Athens Airports are in the top three. In terms of size, the İstanbul Atatürk Airport is Europe's largest airport with its 280,000 square meters. Besides, it has a multilevel car park of 180,000 square meters, a five stars hotel and its duty free was chosen as the nicest and cheapest duty free after Dubai. The fact that İstanbul - a city that unites Europe and Asia - has an airport of this dimension has contributed to an increase in the demands for transfer flights."
"Anyway, İstanbul is one of Europe's most popular routes. If you extend Istanbul's time zone by three hours, it will encompass 55 countries. The city has an ideal location. Despite the crisis, there were significant increases in the number of passengers because we have created an environment which reassures the passengers and companies. The transfer passengers, especially, prefer our airport when travelling to Russia, Asia and the Middle East. The number of companies that are using our airport is increasing gradually and the existing airlines are increasing their flights significantly. We have experienced serious crisis: regionally, because of the Iraq war and globally, because of September 11th. We have learned crisis management well! If there is not a new crisis, we believe that the number of passengers, tourists and business trip passengers will increase in Turkey.” SECURITY With regard to security, the Inter-national Civil Aviation Organization and the International Control Institu-tions have given the İstanbul Atatürk Airport a full grade in its report "the safest airport in the Middle East and the Balkans" based on surprise checks that they have carried out. The management is very sensitive about security:
"We have increased the security measures and criteria significantly, due to Istanbul's critical location. For instance, in Europe, no airport has "x -ray" controls when entering the terminal. Here, the passengers start to be searched even at the entrance. Then, there is another search at the gates. There are two kinds of security services: one is the special security force that we provide and the other is the Police. The Police Administration has about 1000 men and women whereas our own security staff is around 690 people. The special security forces take care of the area from the terminal entrance to the passport control. Over that line, the police are in charge." One should not underestimate the level of coordination needed to deal with everyone; the airlines, shops, security services, police, gendarmerie, customs, airport board and air traffic control… "Every day we have 30 thousand passengers on average. There are 16 thousand workers who work shifts. If there are 4 to 5 thousand of accompanying people, so it means that nearly 50 thousand people come in the airport. About 35 thousand of them are different people…" A consulting firm in Frankfurt named "Deutsche Aeroconsult", has conducted an extensive research on the nine most modern airports which will contribute to the planning, construction and running of new airports in Europe. Following this research based on specific criteria - comfort in the terminal, flow of operations and check-in counters per person - the Atatürk Airport was named "Europe's most comfortable airport", leaving behind the world's best airports like Athens, Munich, Oslo, Zurich, Köln, Madrid, Palma de Majorca, Paris -Charles de Gaulle. THE ANKARA AIRPORT The İstanbul Airport has a perfect image but one cannot say the same about the capital, Ankara. TAV, which has proved itself with its global projects and success, has been chosen to build the Ankara Airport: "The Ankara Airport project is also a source of pride" says Şener and adds:
"In İstanbul, we have finished a construction of half a million square meters in 22 months. This is a big record, everyone was proud. Ankara is the capital of Turkey and has an old airport built in the 1950s which it does not deserve. We have started the construction of the new airport in August and are planning to finish it in 20 months. We will build an airport that the capital of a candidate country to the EU deserves. We will build there a big airport of 160 thousand square meters with both internal and international terminals and with the same quality as the Ataturk Airport i.e. very luxurious and modern."