Istanbul Airport
international airport serving Istanbul, Turkey
Istanbul Airport (IATA: IST, ICAO: LTFM) is the larger of two international airports serving Istanbul, Turkey. It is located in the Arnavutköy district on the European side of the city. It is the largest airport in Turkey, the largest privately-owned airport operation in the world, and one of the busiest airports in Europe.
All scheduled commercial passenger flights were transferred from Atatürk Airport to Istanbul Airport on 6 April 2019, following the closure of Atatürk Airport for scheduled passenger flights. The IATA airport code IST was also transferred to the new airport.
It served more than 84 million passengers in 2025, making it the second-busiest airport in Europe in 2025, after Heathrow Airport. It was also the eighth-busiest airport in the world of 2025 in terms of total passenger traffic and, by serving more than 66 million international passengers, the sixth-busiest airport in the world in terms of international passenger traffic according to ACI World traffic values. It has regular flights to up to 122 countries and is the hub for Turkish Airlines.
History
Background
Atatürk Airport was one of the busiest airports in Europe. Since 2013, it had ranked among the five busiest airports in Europe by passenger traffic.
“Istanbul Airport” enters the record as international airport serving Istanbul, Turkey. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Istanbul, Airport and international can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Istanbul Airport” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Istanbul, Airport and international provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3661908. VIAF identifies the subject as 3439164423001320530006. Authority coordinates are 41.261, 28.742. 1 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2019, 2025 and 2013.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Istanbul Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Istanbul Airport primary sources, Istanbul Airport archive and Istanbul research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Istanbul Airport”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Istanbul Airport” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.