The Turkish government has reportedly hugely cut and postponed fees charged to the consortium operating the new Istanbul Airport.

The consortium appears to have been under considerable financial pressure for some time but officials—perhaps wary of bad news hitting Turkey’s flagship mega infrastructure project within months of its opening, and with the controversial Istanbul revote ahead on June 23—have, according to a piece written for news website Airport Haber by columnist Ali Kidik, moved to ease the situation.

The operator, IGA, is to pay €335mn per year for the right over the first two years to run the airport, almost exactly two-thirds less than the original €1bn annual charge, Kidik said, adding that the payments would be delayed for 25 years.

Istanbul Airport, a mega airport that officials want to see become the world’s busiest flight hub in coming years, was opened by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last October, although it was a long way from being ready for a proper launch. That launch eventually took place in April after flag carrier Turkish Airlines moved its operations to the airport from Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport.

‘Breathtaking but very poorly designed’
There have been criticisms that the $12bn airport is unnecessary and that, although it is “breathtaking”, it is one of the most poorly designed airports in the world. Instead of building Istanbul Airport, Turkey could instead have simply added one runway each to Istanbul’s two exising airports, Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen, according to some critics. However, the Erdogan administration takes great pride in its mega infrastructure projects hailed as placing Turkey at the cutting edge.

Reports have previously emerged that IGA is looking to sell a stake in Istanbul Airport. US investment bank Lazard has been instructed to find buyers for shares in the asset, Bloomberg reported in late May. Aeroports de Paris and Turkish airport operator TAV are among interested parties sources told the news agency, adding that Vinci SA had also expressed an interest.

Five construction companies won the contract to build and operate Istanbul Airport under the IGA umbrella. One partner, Kolin Insaat, sold its 20% stake earlier this year.

“Faulty question”
Ibrahim Kahveci, who writes for the moderate Islamist newspaper Karar, in a column published on May 28 quoted Candan Karlitekin, a former chairman of Turkish Airlines, as saying: “In fact, analysing Istanbul Airport individually is like trying to find the answer to a faulty question. The new airport cannot be analysed properly without taking into account the new settlement along and around Kanal Istanbul [a planned $30bn shipping canal designed to bypass the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul], plans to build a new city for two to three million people in northwest Istanbul, the North Istanbul Highway, and the third bridge on the Bosphorus.” 

Explaining how Istanbul Airport is only one part of a huge plan to spread Turkey’s largest city northward, Karlitekin said it was a huge strategic mistake in political, economic, demographic, ecological and environmental terms.