Istanbul Airport won the award for the second time in a row.
Istanbul's new airport was the busiest in Europe during 2021. The airport has now claimed the Airport of the Year award at the 2022 Air Transport Awards. This is the second year that the airport has won the award, after first receiving it last year.
Officially opened in October 2018, all commercial flights moved from Istanbul Atatürk Airport to this new facility on April 6th, 2019. While many airports have struggled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this isn't the case at Istanbul Airport. The facility knocked London Heathrow from the top spot as Europe's busiest airport in 2020. It retained this title last year.
Istanbul Airport has retained its crown as the Airport of the Year in the 2022 Air Transport Awards. Each year, the awards are organized by several companies, including Hermes – Air Transport Organization. Those on the selection committee include representatives from Airports Council International (ACI), the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
The award winners were recently announced in Greece, with the airport's CEO, Kadri Samsunlu, collecting the award. Commenting on his airport's status, Samsunlu remarked,
"Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we have managed to continue our operations at the same speed as before without any problems… Being chosen for this valuable award for the second time in a row, coming ahead of many airports across the world, is the biggest proof that we are succeeding with our Istanbul Airport project."
Istanbul Airport was Europe's busiest airport over the past couple of years, seemingly not feeling the impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry. The airport handled 23,409,132 passengers in 2020 (more than London Heathrow in 2021). The passenger number increased by 59% year on year, with Istanbul Airport taking 37,176,509 million passengers last year.
The airport is on course for another record year, at least if flight schedules are believed. According to schedule data from aviation experts Cirium, the airport had 95,290 flights equating to 18,362,266 seats scheduled on departures in 2020. Last year this increased to 130,994 flights and 26,008,916 seats.
While we can't rely on forward-looking data as it is subject to change, as things stand, the number of seats offered by the airport is set to almost double. 207,024 departing flights are scheduled for the 2022 calendar year. This will equate to 40,733,357 seats offered. Turkish Airlines is behind the majority of flights scheduled from the airport (175,487 across the year). The second most prominent airline is Russian low-cost carrier Pobeda, with 1,514 rotations scheduled. Only 31 more airlines have more than one flight a day scheduled, including Emirates with 885 services planned. Emirates only launched flights to Istanbul late last year.
Have you flown to or from Istanbul's new airport since it opened? How did you find it? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!
Content Manager – Degree educated in Aerospace Technology, this certified pilot is a passionate specialist in European aviation. Working closely with British Airways, Lufthansa and others, Tom provides commentary on topical issues for outlets including the BBC. Based in Frankfurt, Germany.