Atatürk International Airport (formerly Yeşilköy International Airport) (IATA: IST, ICAO: LTBA) (Turkish: Atatürk Uluslararası Havalimanı) is the major international airport in Istanbul, Turkey. Located in Yeşilköy, on the European side of the city, it is 24 km (15 mi) west[1] of the city centre. The airport is named in honor of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and the first president of the Republic of Turkey. With passenger traffic of 28.5 million for the year 2008, it is projected to be among the top 40 airports in the world in terms of total passenger traffic and top-35 in terms of international passenger traffic. It is Europe's 10th busiest airport.
Terminals
There are three terminals, one international (Terminal A), one domestic (Terminal B) and one cargo terminal (Terminal C). Inaugurated in 2001, the international terminal is an efficient and modern terminal. After the new terminal opened, domestic flights have been moved to the old international terminal. Despite its 70's design, this new domestic terminal can handle more passengers than the more modern but smaller previous domestic terminal.
The airport terminals have been operated by TAV (Tepe-Akfen-Ventures) since January 2000. TAV has invested US$600 million since 1998. In 2005 TAV won the concession agreement to operate Atatürk for 15.5 years at a record breaking amount of $3 billion, which also represents the highest figure for such a privatization project in Turkey, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Commonwealth of Independent States and North Africa.
There is also a project to expand the international terminal by demolishing the unuseful facility buildings on the east of the international terminal. When the international terminal is expanded, some of the jet ways will be left to the domestics terminal which are on the west of the international terminal, connected to domestics terminal. Also there is a plan to build another runway parallel to runway 06/24, so when the original runway 06/24 is under repair, this runway will be able to handle the traffic without any problem. But to work on this project, the military land is a fact of negotiation between the authorities as the space for new runway belongs to military. Also there are plans to expand the length of the runway 06/24 as well, by this way, runway will be able to handle larger aircraft as most airlines started to fly to Istanbul with larger aircraft.
Free Wireless LAN is available at the international arrival area (after customs control) and in the international departure area (after passport control). There is an airport hotel, connected to the terminal. Also, in 5 miles radius of the hotel, there is Radisson SAS, Marriott Renaissance, Holiday Inn Airport North, Four Points and Sheraton.
In the airport, there are two Starbucks outlets (one in arrivals and the other in the departure lounge after the passport control, near gate 218) and Gloria Jean's coffee shops among others, both in arrival and departure. At the departure, coffee shops are beyond passport control. There are three Burger King outlets. There is a unisex barber shop, on the mezzanine level of the departure concourse, before passport control. Pharmacy and Post office are located on the arrival level. There is a storage area at the arrivals level. All major car rental agencies are present at the arrivals. Hertz offers Gold Service. There are book shops and newspaper stands at the departure before and after passport control. International newspapers are available at those before and after passport control; English books are found at those after passport control. Istanbul's famous Gulluoglu baklava is available at several outlets on the departures concourse after passport control.
Atatürk Airport still faces capacity issues; it ranks somewhere between 30th and 40th in the world by both cargo and passenger traffic, handling over 766,000 tonnes of load (cargo, freight and mail) and over 28.5 million passengers in the year 2008. The total number of passengers has doubled in the past five years, and domestic traffic has almost quadrupled (see statistics section below). Its rated capacity of 14 million international passengers per year and 10 million domestic passengers per year was barely sufficient for the demand in 2007 and 2008. The Istanbul greater metropolitan area is expected/projected to have a demand of 25 million international passengers and 25 million domestic passengers annually by the year 2015.[citation needed] However, introduction of high speed trains between Ankara and Istanbul in 2010, and completion of the construction of the intercity highways linking Istanbul to other cities (to Bursa, İzmir, Antalya and the Black Sea Speedway) may help decrease this demand.[citation needed]
Atatürk shares traffic with Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, which is on the Anatolian (Asian) side of Istanbul, which had annual passenger traffic of just 4.3 million in 2008. The two airports both provide domestic and international service to the Istanbul area.
http://www.ataturkairport.com
Tel : +90 212 4653000