The first commercial flight from the new Istanbul Airport took off at 11:32 a.m. local time [0832GMT] on Wednesday carrying 340 passengers to Ankara.
The Turkish Airlines (THY) flight TK2124's Boeing 777 wide-body aircraft flew to Esenboğa International Airport in the capital, landing just before 12:30 p.m.
The Transport and Infrastructure Minister Cahit Turan and a number of journalists were among the passengers on board the morning flight to Ankara.
"I am very happy to be on the first flight from Istanbul Airport," Ismail Arat, a passenger who lives in Ankara, said.
German citizen Tino Delker told reporters he was excited to be one of the first passengers.
"The design of the airport is really nice, that caught my attention. Most things are modern and brand new," he said.
Istanbul Airport is a key investment for the future of tourism in Istanbul, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy said Wednesday before take-off.
Flights from western European, Russian-speaking, and Mideast countries to Antalya, Dalaman, Bodrum and Izmir on Turkey's Aegean and Mediterranean coasts will begin in April 2019, he added.
The first commercial flight into the Istanbul airport will take off at 2:15 p.m. from Ankara on Wednesday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan inaugurated the new aviation hub on Monday, the 95th anniversary of the Turkish Republic.
The third in the city, Istanbul Airport will replace Atatürk International Airport as the main flight hub in the country's most populated city.
The project, built by a consortium of five contractors – Limak, Kolin, Cengiz, Mapa and Kalyon – uses a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model that will provide over 26 billion euros ($30.65 billion) of revenue to the government.
Spread over an area of over 76 million square meters, the first phase of the airport will serve 90 million passengers. The total cost of the first phase is about 6 billion euros.
More than 10,000 people have been working on its construction. In addition, over 250 Turkish and foreign architects and more than 500 engineers are participating in the construction.ny.
With the remaining phases to be completed by 2023, the airport is to host six separate runways with a capacity of 500 aircraft and an annual capacity of 200 million passengers.
It will be home to the world's largest duty-free shopping complex, at 53,000-square-meters, consisting of six sections, including luxury stores and bazaar concept shopping.
By the end of the year, 2,000 planes are expected to transit through the airport every day to over 350 destinations by over 250 carriers.