Istanbul New Airport takes on Incheon and Copenhagen airports as operational consultants

İGA Havalimanı İşletmesi A.Ş., the company behind Istanbul New Airport, has passed another major milestone in the development of the much-anticipated new gateway, with the awarding of an Airport Operations Consultancy Services agreement to Incheon International Airport Corporation of the Republic of Korea in cooperation with Copenhagen Airports International of Denmark. This agreement will further İGA’s goal of making Istanbul New Airport the global aviation industry’s centre of influence.

Istanbul New Airport takes on Incheon and Copenhagen airports as operational consultants

Park Wan Su, CEO of Incheon International Airport Corporation, and Thomas Woldbye, CEO Copenhagen Airports. Under the Airport Operations Consultancy Services agreement a team of experts drawn from both Copenhagen and Incheon will work side-by-side with İGA’s own operational departments to develop the concept of operations and ensure that international best practices are incorporated into the airport design. At the same time their international airport commercial knowledge and experience will focus on İGA’s business plan objectives.

İGA will enter into an advisory service agreement with Incheon International Airport Corporation and Copenhagen Airports – two of the world’s leading airport companies, which will serve as consultants on the Istanbul New Airport Project. The consulting project will span the next five years, and includes strategy and business plan development, human resource and organisational development, operational readiness through trial operations, and consultancy on the operation of the new airport in the first three years after its opening in 2017.

The two award-winning airports in combination will contribute their experience, skills and personnel to the benefit of İGA and the success of Istanbul New Airport. In 2014, Incheon and Copenhagen airports handled a combined 71.1 million passengers – Incheon serving 45.5 million travellers and Copenhagen 25.6 million.

“We are pleased to reach an agreement with the world’s foremost airport operators at this stage of development. For us, creating scale with utmost traveller comfort is a priority. Incheon and Copenhagen provide us expertise in attaining our scale, comfort, innovation, efficiency and profitability objectives which will enhance the passenger experience. Besides these, their presence, as strong international operators, provides further proof that İGA is already up and running in the eyes of the global aviation business,” İGA Havalimanı İşletmesi A.Ş. CEO Mertol Genç said. “This cooperation is very significant for us and for the Turkish aviation industry, since we aim to build a global hub connecting all continents and make our country and Istanbul the centre in the global aviation industry.”

Istanbul New Airport takes on Incheon and Copenhagen airports as operational consultants

İGA Havalimanı İşletmesi A.Ş. CEO Mertol Genç: “We are pleased to reach an agreement with the world’s foremost airport operators at this stage of development. For us, creating scale with utmost traveller comfort is a priority. Incheon and Copenhagen provide us expertise in attaining our scale, comfort, innovation, efficiency and profitability objectives which will enhance the passenger experience. Besides these, their presence, as strong international operators, provides further proof that İGA is already up and running in the eyes of the global aviation business.”

A four-phase operation

İGA has declared that the Operations Consultancy will run in four phases, with the first phase commencing immediately.

  • The initial stage of services will address strategic operational and commercial issues dealing with the airport development process. A team of experts drawn from both Copenhagen and Incheon organisations will work side-by-side with İGA’s own operational departments to develop the concept of operations and ensure that international best practices are incorporated into the airport design. At the same time their international airport commercial knowledge and experience will focus on İGA’s business plan objectives.
  • The second phase services will address the İGA’s organisational strategy in building and training a management organisational workforce to take control of the infrastructure as it is developed, and then operating this massive airport for 25 years through to 150 million passenger capacity and beyond.
  • The third phase services will commence 15 to 18 months prior to the airport’s commissioning. Commonly referred to as Operational Readiness and Transfer (ORAT), this phase is critical to the successful opening of Istanbul New Airport. On its opening date the airport will accept the transfer of operations from Istanbul Ataturk Airport combined with additional new air services previously unavailable because of capacity issues. Operationally-ready airport facilities, properly tested and commissioned to ensure a seamless start to operations, will welcome more than 80 million passengers in its first year of operations. Incheon accomplished a similar feat in 2001 with the transfer of operations to the greenfield Incheon International Airport, and with two major expansion projects since that time. The commissioning of the original airport and the subsequent expansion has been accomplished with no major issues setting them apart from other airports where there have been significant teething problems.
  • The fourth phase covers the period of the first three years of operations where, in addition to İGA’s obligations under the Concession Agreement signed with the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI), the consultants will provide full-time senior experts on site covering the areas of airside, terminal and landside operations – as well airline marketing and hub strategy. The consultancy effort will be integrated into the İGA operational staff of more than 5,000 people, ensuring a full transfer of airport operational know-how for the full 25 years of the concession agreement.
Istanbul New Airport takes on Incheon and Copenhagen airports as operational consultants

The global aviation industry’s centre of influence: Incheon International Airport Corporation of Republic of Korea and Copenhagen Airports International of Denmark will contribute their experience, skills and personnel to the benefit of İGA and the success of Istanbul New Airport.

“Istanbul New Airport is a very important and impressive project to Incheon Airport, as well in the scale and value of the airport,” Park Wan Su, CEO of Incheon International Airport Corporation, stated. “We, Incheon Airport, are honoured to have this consultancy opportunity for the worldwide grand airport, Istanbul New Airport. As Incheon Airport we shall truly and sincerely do our best in close cooperation with Copenhagen Airport to contribute to the successful construction and operation of this hub. Incheon Airport’s experience of construction and operation for years will create another remarkable history of Istanbul New Airport in Turkey. Also, this project will be the base for the further development of overseas business of Incheon Airport.”

Thomas Woldbye, CEO Copenhagen Airports, added: “Copenhagen Airport has been voted ‘Europe’s most efficient airport’ by the international Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) nine times in the last 11 years, and we have a long history of developing international airports in Denmark, China, Mexico and Great Britain. When we team up with Incheon Airport we hope that our combined knowledge will help Istanbul in building and operating an international competitive airport.”

 

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İGA Havalimanı İşletmesi A.Ş – the company building the world’s biggest new airport 35km north of Istanbul – will host ACI Airport Exchange 2015, the event that combines an extensive airport services exhibition with five specialist conferences, and which is staged jointly by ACI EUROPE and ACI Asia Pacific.

The İGA-hosted ACI Airport Exchange 2015 will take place on 8-10 December at the prestigious new Istanbul Congress Center in the heart of downtown Istanbul. The exhibition is expected to attract well in excess of 100 exhibitors, while up to 2,500 delegates and visitors are forecast to visit. In addition to the five regular ACI Airport Exchange conferences an ‘Istanbul New Airport Development Conference’, dedicated to the €10.2 billion new airport, will be combined with the first-ever large-scale guided visits to the construction site.

» More information on the İGA-hosted ACI Airport Exchange 2015 here

 


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