newstodate.aero

Feb 26, 2019 (newstodate): Despite the impressive omnipotence of Turkey's president Erdogan, the country's aviation industry showpiece - the commissioning of the new Istanbul Airport is still training behind schedule. First scheduled to replace the existing Ataturk Airport by - October 31, 2018, the transfer of traffic into the new airport was re-scheduled for March 3, 2019 - and this date has now again been changed to April 7, 2019, according to a leading Turkish news media. The new airport is actually today handling flights on a most limited basis, primarily on domestic routes including the route to Northern Cyprus.

So far, some 2,000 scheduled flights have been handled at the new airport, with passenger volumes around 240,000 - but there are still snags in infrastructure and passenger service areas.

Also until now,  only narrow-body aircraft have been operating at the new airport, and several gates have reportedly not even been tested in concrete handling situations.