Istanbul Airport serves over 400 million passengers in seven years
ISTANBUL
Istanbul Airport, regarded as one of the most critical milestones in Turkish aviation, has welcomed more than 400 million passengers since its inauguration seven years ago.
Built on an area of 76.5 million square meters, the airport’s first phase was officially opened on Oct. 29, 2018, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and over 50 high-level international guests in attendance.
With an annual capacity of 90 million passengers, the airport serves travelers under a single roof in its 1.4 million-square-meter main terminal building. Once fully completed, Istanbul Airport is expected to handle 200 million passengers annually and connect to more than 350 destinations worldwide.
The airport features 53,700 square meters of duty-free space, 181 retail outlets and 114 restaurants and cafés.
As of this year, the number of airlines operating flights to Istanbul Airport has risen to 115, serving more than 330 destinations across 120 countries. From its opening up to Oct. 19, 2025, a total of 2,682,731 flights carried over 400.27 million passengers.
Istanbul Airport has been named Europe’s busiest international airport for three consecutive years — 2022, 2023 and 2024. In April 2025, it also launched a major operational milestone: The “simultaneous triple independent runway operation,” allowing three aircraft to take off or land on separate runways at the same time.
According to the “2025 Airport Industry Connectivity Report” published by ACI EUROPE, Istanbul Airport has overtaken Frankfurt Airport to claim the top spot in the global connectivity ranking. The report highlighted that the airport, which had already led Europe in the “Direct Connectivity” category in 2024, maintained its leadership again in 2025, cementing its position as the world’s leading hub.
