First flights from new Istanbul airport expected in October

Turkish Airlines will carry out its first flights from Istanbul's new airport on October 31, following a massive transfer of planes and equipment on the same day, state-run Anadolu news agency quoted the company's CEO as saying on Saturday.

A total of 120 passenger jets and 800 trucks carrying equipment will be transferred from Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, where they are currently stationed, to their new hub in the city's north-west, CEO Bilal Ekşi said.

"Other planes will land at the new airport as they return from abroad," Ekşi said, adding that the national flag carrier will make its first flights from the new airport to Azerbaijan and Northern Cyprus on October 31.

The carrier will hire 4,600 new personnel to employ at the new massive complex, Ekşi added.

Istanbul's new airport, a massive project set to boost Turkey's aviation sector and its position as a transport hub, is expected to be officially opened on October 29, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has previously announced.

The government aims to make the airport the largest in the world.

The new airport will plan to open three runways at first, to serve some 90 million passengers, and then double the number in the following years.

October 29 is an annual public holiday in Turkey, known as Republic Day, to mark the day the modern state was declared in 1923 by founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.