Located on the northwest of the city in Arnavutkoy district, The New Istanbul Airport (ISL) is the largest airport in the world. The airport was inaugurated on 29th October 2018 after speeding up the construction process as a total of 42 months to open the first stage of 90 million passengers capacity, second and third stages to be completed by 2021 ve 2022. However, there are only available flights to a few destinations for the moment.
Once the fourth stage is completed, it will reach a capacity of 200 million passengers annually at a total area of 76 million square meters with four terminals, six runways, 16 taxiways, and 165 net bridges.
| Airport Name | Airport Code | Passengers |
| Istanbul Ataturk Airport | IST | 63,727,452 |
| Sabiha Gokcen Airport | SAW | 31,385,845 |
Distances to Districts/Hotels from Istanbul New Airport
What we all love about Istanbul Ataturk Airport is the distance. Some of our guests seeking a better deal or timing booked also Sabiha Gokcen Airport without knowing it is actually an extra 35-40 minutes driving distance, but especially after Eurasia (Avrasya) Tunnel was opened, it can be traveled a lot quicker now. While the Metro railway constructions and other means of travel are being planned for the new airport, here is a quick list for approx.. distances of the most preferred districts:
| District / Hotel | Distance | Duration +/- (usual traffic) |
| Sultanahmet | 54 km | 75 minutes |
| Sirkeci | 54 km | 75 minutes |
| Besiktas | 48 km | 45 minutes |
| Taksim | 48 km | 50 minutes |
| Nisantasi | 38 km | 60 minutes |
| Karakoy | 38 km | 60 minutes |
| Bebek | 38 km | 60 minutes |
| Galata / Beyoglu | 38 km | 60 minutes |
| Beykoz (Asian Side) | 50 km | 90 minutes |
| Cengelkoy (Asian Side) | 44 km | 90 minutes |
| Kadikoy (Asian Side) | 56 km | 90 minutes |
| Uskudar (Asian Side) | 45 km | 90 minutes |
Good to Know
If your layover is longer than 6 hours during the day, take advantage of our layover tour of Istanbul to fulfill your name. If this is your second time to Istanbul and looking for something different, we can recommend a quick read of our blog post Top 7 things to do list for Asian side of Istanbul in 48 hours and more options of day tours, please check our private guided tours around Istanbul and contact us to plan your valuable time.
These are just estimated numbers for the moment.
We are still collecting data averages considering all different time & traffic factors.
The Great Move
Turkish Airlines, Atlasjet officially announced that the great move is beginning. It will start at 03:00 on 5th April and flights will start operating from the new Istanbul Airport as of 14:00 on April 6th. The relocation operation is planned to be completed by midnight on 7th April.
