The civil flights at Teyyare Area in Yeşilköy were launched in 1938. Named Atatürk Airport in 1985, the gate of Istanbul opening to the world will bid farewell on 29th October 2018. The Atatürk Airport, hosting 650 million passengers since the year 2000, has a past full of successes and awards. As of 30th October in the morning, the airport will give room for ‘the national garden’.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

once said, “If the Earth were a single state, Constantinople (Istanbul) would be its capital”. Istanbul, Turkey’s and the world’s favorite mega city, is getting prepared to witness a historic day on 29 October 2018. On this date, Atatürk Airport is going to bid farewell to its passengers and airplanes and move on as ‘people’s park‘. On this occasion, we wanted to host in our pages Atatürk Airport which welcomed and bid farewell to millions of people and awarded dozens of rewards on its service time with nostalgic photos. Now let’s go to the past and visit the Airplane Landing Field in Yeşilköy, the first airport in Istanbul that came into service on 1912 for military purposes.

The first step in Turkish civil aviation was the foundation of Turkish Aircraft Association again in Yeşilköy in 1925. ‘Yeşilköy Airport‘ was opened for civil aviation with the first flight from Istanbul to Ankara on February 1933.

NAMED ATATÜRK AIRPORT ON 1985

Later on, to improve civil aviation in Turkey, the specialists were brought from abroad. After signing the Convention of International Civil Aviation in Chicago on 1944, it was decided to build an international airport in Yeşilköy, Istanbul. With this purpose, a contract was signed with Westinghouse Electric International Company and The IG White Engineering Corporation in 1947. The construction began in 1949 and completed in 1953. On 1 August 1953, “Yeşilköy Airport” was opened for international flights.

Due to the fast increase in flight traffic and the number of passengers, a master plan was prepared for Yeşilköy Terminal in 1971. The plan consisted of 4 terminal buildings, each with the capacity of 5 million passengers per year. The international terminal building which still serves as the domestic terminal building, was opened on 29 October 1983. With the new modern look it gained, Yeşilköy Airport was named Atatürk Airport in 1985.

A NEW ERA IN 2000

As the years passed by , Terminals of Atatürk Airport became insufficient to fulfill the increasing flight and passenger traffic, thus a new terminal building with a 20 million/year passenger capacity including a parking space with 7076 car capacity and additional facilities was planned and a tinder was initiated to build it in 1997. Construction of new terminal was realized by Tepe-Akfen-Vienna Airport (TAV) joint venture, which costed 360 M dollars and built within 22 months which set a record for the time.

Terminal was inaugurated by the President of the time Süleyman Demirel in 2000. Atatürk Airport International Terminal was transferred to TAV on 9 January 2000 and on 10 January 2000, a sum of 9,473 passengers passed by and 52 flights were operated. In 2005, a new tender was initiated for the operation of Atatürk Airport. In this huge tender, TAV placed the highest bid again with 2.9 billion dollars. Competing with Malaysians, TAV won the tender placing a bid of 789 Million dollars higher than Malaysians. Hamdi Akın, who was the CEO of that time stated that; “It would not be right to lose a place like Atatürk Airport to Malaysians, this is our flagship.” Indeed, Atatürk Airport was the flagship of the group for many years as Akın said, even as a trade reference on many tenders all around the world.

WELCOMED 64 MILLION PASSENGERS IN 2017

Atatürk Airport achieved growth parallel to Turkey and the tourism sector. In 2006, domestic terminal was modernized with new technological systems and a renewal process took place including the exterior look. In 2006, TAV Airports realized a new expansion project in both domestic and international terminals and car parks in order to improve the quality of service and comfort offered to passengers. In 2017, Atatürk Airport hosted more than 64 million passengers and served almost 449 thousand flights.

According to ACI statistics, Atatürk Airport could not rank first 50 with 14.7 million passengers in 2000’s. First time in 2004, Atatürk Airport ranked 47 according to ACI statistics and ranked higher as the years passed. In 2015 it ranked 11, in 2016 it ranked 14 and in 2017, it ranked 15.

8.5% OF WORLD POPULATION

This precious gate of Turkey opening to the world welcomed a sum of 596.8 million passengers consisting of 393 million international and 230.8 million domestic passengers from 2000 to the end of 2017. Furthermore, this number will be over than 650 million until 29 October 2018 with a pessimistic estimate because it already welcomed 27 million passengers in January- May term.

It is better to give examples to comprehend the amount of numbers. Atatürk Airport, the gate of Turkey opening to the world, served 650 million passengers which means twice the population of USA. Considering that the population of Turkey is 80 million, it means that it hosted 8 times all Turkey. Considering the world population is 7.6 billion, Atatürk Airport hosted 8.5% of world population.

Where did those 10 days come from?

The tender for Atatürk Airport International Terminal has been a milestone for Akfen and Tepe, which constituted TAV joint venture. Among 13 bidding companies, TAV Airports won the tender with a difference of 10 days. Akfen CEO Hamdi Akın, TEPE founder Ali Kantur and TAV Airports Holding CEO Sani Şener, who joined the Project at the very beginning of construction, talked about those days.

TURKEY’S GATE TO THE WORLD,

Istanbul Atatürk Airport, has been a milestone for the companies which were involved in the project. We can say that the rise of Akfen started with the winning of the tender of the Istanbul Atatürk Airport International Terminal as build-operate and transfer model. Akfen Holding Chairman Hamdi Akın’s efforts dating back to 90’s paid off and TAV Airports, which is one of Turkey’s prestigious brands today, were founded by the joint venture of TEPE and Akfen Groups which won the tender. There is a business genius behind TAV Construction which became the world’s biggest construction company in 20 years. Thus, it created tremendous impression when the French airport operator Aeroports de Paris (ADP) bought 38% of the shares of TAV Airports in 2012.

Akfen Holding sold its remaining 8.1% share in TAV Airports Holding which was founded on the occasion of winning the tender of Istanbul Atatürk Airport International Terminal on the basis of build-operate and transfer model to ADP in 2017. Now it’s time to go back to past and to hear from the lead actors in their own words about how this gigantic partnership was forged to bid for the Istanbul Atatürk A irport International Terminal and what they have lived since…

HAMDİ AKIN: IT WAS A TURNING POINT FOR ME

Hamdi Akın, who laid the foundations of Akfen as a young mechanical engineer in a small boiler workshop in Ankara in 1976, tells the story of the tender day: “I brought together a staff team to sit face to face with TEPE. Ali Kantur, to whom I am grateful, didn’t make me ask a second time and said ‘we can bid this tender together’. Although two companies had a big difference by means of size, he agreed to bid the tender through a company which would be founded with 50-50 shares of Akfen and TEPE because by that time, we had 7-8 years of experience in the airport operation. With a big enthusiasm and ambition, we worked with TEPE for many days and nights to lower the price and at last we came up with an interesting price. 13 companies bid the tender which began afternoon and went on until 3 am. First, the outer envelopes were opened and if they were complete then the inner envelopes which contain the bids were opened.

The first envelope to be opened was Alarko’s as far as I remember and their bid was 3 years and 10 months. That moment I said ‘we worked so hard and found 3 years 8 months and 20 days but in the very first envelope to be opened it is 3 years and 10 months. I fear that we won’t win this, everyone has found similar numbers.’ After that, Havaş’s bid was disclosed; 3 years and 11 months. I said ‘oh no!’ but next bids were 6 years and 9 years. This relieved me a bit. I guess it was 9th envelope to be opened, which belonged to Tekfen. There was a company official of Tekfen sitting next to me and I asked him ‘what’s going to come out?’ he replied ‘you’ll see in a moment’. The envelope was opened: 3 years 9 months. I was hovering between life and death! Next envelope to be opened was ours. This time he asked me ‘what’s going to come out?’ and I replied him ‘you’ll see’. An immediate ‘wow’ exclamation was shouted by everyone as soon as 3 years 8 months and 20 days was read.

Atilla (he used to work at Akfen now he was working with Ali Haydar Veziroğlu) threw his pen and yelled: ‘where did these 10 days come from’. I replied him ‘your envelope is not yet opened, I guess yours is 3 years and 9 months too’. Actually I was correct. If we hadn’t differ these 10 days, there were 3 same bids and a photo-finish was going to be needed to determine the winner. In that manner, it was a very interesting tender and a very interesting line. For me it was a turning point and a milestone. I believe that our stars were at their highest levels when we made this decision. “

ALİ KANTUR: HOW ABOUT CUTTING TO DAYS?

TEPE founder Ali Kantur talks about those days when they worked for the tender and 10 days sealing the fate of the tender: “What brought us together is the Istanbul Airport. Thus we founded TAV. But to win the tender, the most exciting part was to determine the construction time. We made calculations and we found a time period of 3 years and 9 months. Of course, it is a very short time. We were about to bid this date and all of us were concentrated on months.

Then, I thought about cutting to days from months and I suggested ‘how about cutting to days and bidding 3 years 8 months and 25 days instead of 3 years and 9 months’. Hamdi replied ‘they kill us if we win the tender by a difference of 5 days.’ I can never forget that. When I asked what to do, he told me ‘let’s make it 3 years 8 months and 20 days’. I said ‘you’re right’ and there were 3 companies bidding 3 years 9 months. We won the tender by a difference of 10 days .”

SANİ ŞENER: I HOPE I COULD HAVE GIVEN A BOUQUET OF ROSES

It’s obvious that Sani Şener has a very important role at TAV Airports. TAV Airports CEO Sani Şener explains that he joined the business during the construction course which took 22 months; he tell the following: “There was a lot of work to do on the construction site and I was working hard to manage everything. TEPE is a corporate company as Akfen is. Their employees come and go. I visited Hamdi and told him that there was a huge turmoil. In my opinion, this is one of very first joint ventures in Turkey. There are a lot of joint ventures before but there is a lack of sense of partnership. He told me ‘Sani, I have nothing to say, you do this job as constructor Sani and keep on running. As you run, some of them will be stranded on the way.’ I just did as he said, started to run on the field and we completed the Atatürk Airport with a huge success. At the times when Hamdi backed me up, I used to tell him ‘Hamdi, you gave me a rose, I hope god will give me the chance to give you a bouquet of roses back one day.’ I lived here 22 months and run the construction directly. When the Atatürk Airport Terminal building was finished, I ordered all lights to be turned on while I gave Hamdi a tour around and I turned him and said, ‘I hope I could have given a bouquet of roses.”

YEARS PASSING WITH AWARDS

Air Transport News, 2016: “The Airport With The Newest Long-haul Routes in Europe”

• Airports Council International - Airport Service Quality (ASQ), 2015: “The Airport That Improved Its Service Quality At The Highest Level in Europe”

• Istanbul Atatürk Airport became the first institution audited and certified by Global GROUP for USTAD 2011:2015 Environment and Construction Standard which is established by the Technical Committee of the World Disability Union with its “obstacle-free airport” project. The project was also presented as a “good example” during the 8th Forum meetings of United Nations International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities held in New York in June 2015.

• Anna.aero Euro Annies, 2015: “The Airport With The Most New Long-haul Routes in Europe”

• ACI World, 2014: Istanbul Atatürk Airport “The Fourth Busiest Airport in Europe”

• ACI Europe, 2014: Istanbul Atatürk Airport “The Fastest Growing Airport in Europe” in the category of airports serving more than 25 million passengers per year

• Skytrax, 2014: Istanbul Atatürk Airport “The 10th Best Airport in the World” in the category of airports serving more than 50 million passengers per year

• ACI Europe, 2013: “The Fastest Growing Airport” in the category of airports serving more than 25 million passengers per year

•ATN News, 2013: “The Airport of the Year”

• Anna.aero Euro Annies, 2013: “Fastest Growing Airport in Europe”

• 16th World Route Development Forum, Routes, 2010: “Highly Commended”

• Monocle Magazine, “50 Best Travel Centers,” 2009–2010: “Center of attraction for transit flights”

• Skytrax, 2010: “The Best Airport in Southern Europe”

• 13th World Route Development Forum, Routes, 2007: “Highly Commended”

• www.travelquality.com, 2003: “Second Best Airport”

• Deutsche Aeroconsult, 2002: “Europe’s Most Comfortable International Terminal”

• ACEC-American Council of Engineering Companies, 2002: Engineering Academy Award (TAV was the first Turkish company to receive this award.)

• USA Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 2001: “The Safest Airport in the Middle East and Balkans”

• Herald Tribune Newspaper, 2000: “The Best Airports in the World” list

• Wall Street Journal Newspaper, 2000: “The Most Fascinating Airports in the World” list