Towards our new home: The Great Migration
More than 10,000 pieces of equipment weighing a total of 47,300 tons: though this is an easy number to say, impeccable organization was required to transport so much equipment safely and in full.
With the opening of İstanbul Airport at full capacity 2019, an era ended at Atatürk Airport. While the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI) allocated 45 hours for the mega relocation from Atatürk Airport to İstanbul Airport, our logistics solutions enabled us to complete this relocation in 29 hours – 16 hours ahead of schedule and in considerably less time than expected. This mammoth undertaking, which broke new ground in the history of world civil aviation, is now commemorated in a film. You can watch all the details of our relocation process in “The Great Migration” documentary.
The trailer of the documentary, to be broadcast in Türkiye on Sunday, January 16, is here!
The most and more: Mega move
Race against time: The preparation and moving process
Relocating from Atatürk Airport to İstanbul Airport required meticulous planning and consideration of even the minutest details. It was not easy – we were carrying out the largest ever Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer (ORAT) program in civil aviation history. As Turkish Airlines, we carefully worked through every step of the transition to the new airport. On the day of the move, our exhaustive planning with all our stakeholders and employees, including analyzing any potential risks, resulted in a tightly organized and smooth operation.
The preparation for the move began with the application of standard procedures, continued with personnel training and operational trials, and concluded with a successful transfer. Let’s examine the process for moving to İstanbul Airport as Turkish Airlines!
Step by step for a perfect mega relocation project
In-depth stages were developed for the preparations, with each stage a comprehensive project in itself…
1. Operational preparation phase
In the operational preparation phase, much of the official correspondence conducted during the ORAT program consisted of informative presentations, arranging requests, drawing up emergency crisis plans, planning internal and external communications, and following these business processes.
In addition, terminal introductory trainings were provided to approximately 33,000 personnel in the Turkish Airlines family, who would work in concurrence with the construction of İstanbul Airport. Two large integrated trial operations were conducted to identify any existing or potential problems before the major relocation.
2. Integrated trial operations
- 4,000 mock passengers
- 8,400 pieces of passenger baggage
- 130 ground handling equipment
- 900 operational team members
- 5 aircraft
This is right! Prior to the actual relocation, a number of simulated moves were conducted with passengers, baggage, equipment, and operational crew. These simulations continued, with ever-increasing numbers of passengers, baggage, equipment and crew until April 5 and 6, 2019. We successfully transported 450,000 passengers during these trial relocations.
3. Studies on the logistics process
After the first flight took place at İstanbul Airport on October 29, 2018, we started working with our logistics supplier on transportation – a key component of the moving process. ORAT transit tariff were discussed, along with an hourly relocation plan suitable for this tariff, a relocation route and communication scenarios for various potential crisis. We were approaching the Great Migration step by meticulous step.
The big move: The transfer schedule to İstanbul Airport
After nearly two years, the preparations for Turkish Airlines’ relocation to İstanbul Airport were completed and the day arrived. In a total of 1,056 trips, over 5,000 personnel and more than 10,000 professional equipment began the journey to İstanbul Airport. In addition to transportation vehicles, 620 unregistered vehicles such as pickup trucks, minibuses, buses, or cars were equipped with traffic certificates and made ready for the move beforehand.
The 45-hour Turkish Airlines relocation plan launched on April 5, 2019, at 03:00 and was scheduled to end on April 6, 2019, at 23:59. It turned out even better than we’d planned!
- All scheduled flights continued from Atatürk Airport until 02:00 on April 6 (the night connecting April 5 to April 6).
- From 02:00 on April 6 (the night connecting April 5 to April 6) to 14.00 on April 6, Turkish Airlines commercial flights from Ataturk Airport were suspended for 12 hours (closure and main relocation period).
- At 02:59 on April 6, code changes were performed; Atatürk Airport IATA code changed from IST to “ISL” and İstanbul Airport IATA code changed from ISL to IST”.
- From 14:00 to 19:00 on April 6, only Turkish Airlines flights operated from İstanbul Airport.
- Airlines that had used Atatürk Airport as their base started to serve from Istanbul Airport between April 6, from 19:00 to 23:59 along with Turkish Airlines and its affiliates.
- As of April 6, 2019 (the night that connects April 6 to April 7), 00:00, airlines that had not used Atatürk Airport as a base but had a flight to Istanbul also started to serve from İstanbul Airport.
The moving process was monitored in real time with the GPRS tracking system, to detect any crisis. The transfer process of Turkish Airlines and its subsidiaries was completed in 29 hours, as of 08:00 on the morning of April 6, 2019. Thus, the transition of all stakeholders to İstanbul Airport was completed in 33 hours – an exemplary model for the world and the fastest, smoothest and safest mega relocation in history.
According to the relocation plan, Atatürk Airport continued to serve all commercial flights until April 6, 2019, at 02:00; The last flight from Atatürk Airport was to Singapore and departed on April 6, 2019 at 02:40. After the big move, our first flight from İstanbul Airport was to Ankara on April 6 at 14:00!
Post-move: Flight operations
After transporting materials the size of 33 football fields from Atatürk Airport in 29 hours, we were at our new home! We started our flight operations at İstanbul Airport without any interruption.
We continue our flights at İstanbul Airport, with five operational runways; three parallel runways and two alternate runways, and the world’s largest terminal building – the largest infrastructure project in Türkiye. İstanbul Airport, with expanding facilities still in use by Turkish Airlines teams, continues to host us with generous, spacious, and comfortable meeting, waiting and resting areas!
