Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened a $12bn Istanbul mega-airport with ambitions of becoming the world’s largest on October 29.

The populist president hailed the completion of the flagship airport’s first phase of construction as demonstrating Turkey’s strength and resilience amid forces he said were trying to sabotage the country’s economy. Unfortunately for Erdogan, his boastful rhetoric comes just six weeks after Turkey announced it was freezing new government investment projects in a fiscal squeeze seen as a response to the country’s economic turmoil.

Infrastructure mega-projects to build bridges, ports, tunnels and railways—the likes of which have been symbolic of the outspoken Erdogan’s attempt to transform Turkey in the past 15 years, but which have been highly debt-fuelled—could be suspended under the move, with the president himself stating that only those which were more than 70% complete would be finished. The currency crisis, which Turkey is battling to stop turning into a debt crisis, is expected to be followed by a deep recession and Turkey’s dreams of becoming a trillion-dollar economy—output currently stands at around $850mn—are for now in tatters.

The new airport is located 20 miles outside of Istanbul on the coast of the Black Sea. Its first three runways are designed to serve 100mn passengers annually by 2021, while there is a target of 200mn using six runways by 2029—almost double the capacity of the world’s busiest airport in 2017, Atlanta.

The president announced that the airport would simply be called Istanbul Airport, with Turkey’s current main international airport, Ataturk, to continue with limited operations while officials work on a plan previously outlined by Erdogan which would see most of it turned into public gardens. Istanbul has another airport on its Asian coast, called Sabiha Gokcen.

“We’ve succeeded… despite countless provocations”
“We’ve succeeded in this despite countless provocations, traps and attacks in the past five years," said Erdogan giving a speech at the front of the new airport. “We’re creating the infrastructure and targets for our 2053 and 2071 visions," he added, referring to the 600th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul, and the 1,000th anniversary of the battle of Manzikert between the Ottomans and Greeks. “Turkey’s devoted to becoming a symbol of prosperity and one of the world’s top 10 economies."

Financing challenges, labour disputes, claims of corruption, strikes prompted by allegations of horrendous construction site working conditions—which campaigners claim caused dozens of preventable deaths—and environmentalists’ objections have all hindered the realisation of Istanbul Airport.

The project to build it was awarded to a consortium of five local construction companies, known as IGA. It bid €22.2bn for the rights to construct and operate the facility for 25 years. The consortium members are Cengiz Insaat Sanayi & Ticaret, Mapa Insaat & Ticaret, Limak Holding, Kolin Insaat Turizm Sanayi & Ticaret and Kalyon Insaat Sanayi & Ticaret.

In April, Turkey’s transportation minister caused consternation by indicating that the airport builders required protection from insolvency. The consortium subsequently went into talks for another one billion euros in loans which it reportedly obtained by late May. 

On October 25, Kadri Samsunlu, CEO of IGA, said revisions were made on the annual €1bn-euro fee agreement with the government, but he did not disclose further details. According to Bloomberg, he also said that IGA would consider any loan refinancing offers for the $5bn loan it took out from local lenders to build the first phase of the airport.

World’s largest terminal space
The airport includes the world’s largest terminal space. Spread out over more than 1.3mn square meters, it is the result of a project headed by London-based Grimshaw Global. The terminal will have 228 passport control counters, with 10,000 sqm devoted to retail, 32,000 sqm to food and drink and 55,000 sqm to duty free.

Ataturk was Europe’s fifth largest airport by traffic in 2017, following London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. It processed 63.7mn passengers in the year, compared with London Heathrow’s 78mn.

Only a handful of flights will be operating daily from the new airport until the end of the year.

Turkey is enjoying a tourism recovery following a slump caused by factors including a series of terrorist attacks and the state of emergency introduced after the failed July 2016 coup. That’s good news for Istanbul Airport’s immediate prospects but it will also count on the transit business—passengers using it as a “superhub” for Asia, Africa and Europe but not stopping in Istanbul—to provide substantial business volume, helped by the fact that flag carrier Turkish Airlines flies to more global destinations than any other airline.