Before the grand opening on Oct. 29, three major rehearsals will be held at Istanbul New Airport, where university students will act as passengers to test the systems. A total of 5,000 students will try out the procedures in the rehearsal that will start on Sept. 15 and last for three days. The first flight from the airport, which will be opened with a grand ceremony on the 95th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, will be held from Istanbul to Ankara by Turkish Airlines (THY) on Oct. 31 at 2 p.m. The first overseas flights will be made to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Azerbaijan. Approximately 95 percent of the construction of the airport is completed.
Terminal and boarding bridges are ready for operation except for small shortcomings. Within the scope of Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer (ORAT), three major rehearsals will be carried out at the airport. In the first rehearsal, 1,000 students from various universities will be brought in as passengers. Accordingly, passengers will arrive at the terminal as if they were going to fly and reach the last checkpoints to board the plane after checking in and passing passport control. In the days following Sept. 15, the same process will be repeated with 3,000 students on the second day and 5,000 in the last rehearsal, respectively.
University students will act as passengers, while all systems for passengers will be tested, such as whether they can find the halls easily, how long they have traveled, and whether the baggage conveyors are working properly or not. In the rehearsal, the university students who are representative passengers will also pass through passport control on the arrival floor, entering the country this time, taking their luggage from the baggage carousels and exiting through customs control. While Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA) Construction is planning all the details of the rehearsal, the State Airports Authority (DHMİ) is training firefighters and apron teams.
