Erdogan’s dream airport in dire straits amid pandemic
The company operating Istanbul’s new mega airport appears unlikely to hold on for even a few months without assistance, as the COVID-19 pandemic hits Turkey’s aviation industry.
Istanbul’s new mega airport — a pet project of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — has plunged into dire straits only a year after it became operational as the aviation industry reels from the COVID-19 crisis.
With air travel largely suspended across the world as part of measures to contain the pandemic, Turkey’s aviation sector — a rising star of the Turkish economy in the past two decades — has all but plummeted. Not only airline companies but also airport operators — many of them public-private partnerships — are bracing for huge losses.
