According to Director General of State Airports Authority of Turkey (DHMI) Orhan Birdal, the tender bid for the third airport was the biggest in the history of the Republic of Turkey, and it broke all the records. The winner of the bid for new Istanbul airport was Limak/Cengiz/Kolin/Ma-Pa/Kalyon Consortium, a joint venture of only local companies. Requiring an investment of USD 10 billion, the giant air terminal will underscore Istanbul's growing reputation as a global hub for air travel. The passenger handling capacity will initially be 90 million people by 2017, following the completion of the first phase. The airport will handle 150 million air travelers per year when fully complete. For the construction and 25-year lease of the third airport in Istanbul, the group offered the highest bid of 22.152 billion euros, which is the record price in the history of the country. Tender for the third airport in Istanbul took place in Ankara's Esenboga International Airport on May 3. Fifteen Turkish and two foreign companies received approval for their technical capabilities to build the third airport. The airport is expected to be the world's largest with a capacity of 150 million passengers when completed. According to some media reports the winning consortium of Istanbul's third airport for 22.152 billion euros has secure its funding resources. "We have no problem with financing the third airport in Istanbul. Our negotiations to guarantee funds started before the tender with many players and are still continuing positively," Limak Holding Chairman Nihat Özdemir told, one of the partners of the consortium that won the tender. He also denied the allegation of possible breach of competition rules as it engaged in both of Istanbul's future air-ports. "Limak Holding has about 40 percent of the Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (ISG) Inter-national Airport Company shares, which holds the operational right of ISG. We will have the 20 percent of the new airport. If we had acquired an already-built airport, we could have breached the Competition Law, but we do not," he mentioned. Earliar four companies including TAV, Makyol, IC/Fraport and Limak/Cengiz/Kolin/Ma-Pa/Kalyon offered bids for the third airport to be built in Istanbul. Turkish Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications has invested 3.3 billion dollars in the past ten years for the airports and air space. Ataturk airport handled 37.3m passengers last years. Till to date traffic has increased up 21% this year. The number of tourists arriving in Turkey has been arisen by 14 percent to much more than 117 million . Turkish tourism revenue went beyond 1.030 billion US dollars, which was a 3.9 percent increase compared to the 927 billion US dollars figure from the year prior. The construction of the Istanbul's third airport is going to be conducted in four phases. The first stage of construction is planned to be completed within 42 months after the tender contact is signed. The new airport is expected to be open in 2018. The guarantee about the number of passengers and tariff levels has been provided for a certain period of time by the state. The construction of the Istanbul's third airport which is expected to cost over 10 billion euros will consist of; A total of six runways, 16 taxiways, 88 passenger bridges, 165 aircraft passenger bridges at all terminals and a 6.5 million-square-meter apron with capacity for 500 aircraft, among other facilities, will also be build. This has been another achievement of Ms.Funda OCAK, head of tender commission, who is the guru of Turkish PPP Sector, particularly in the Airports. She has grown the sector from the scratch, and made the Turkish Airport sector an international brand. Turkish airports has been awarded "The Best Airport of Europe" awards...
Originally published April 2013
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
