London-based YOTEL has been selected to operate a 451-room hotel at Istanbul New Airport.
The first phase of the airport – a terminal and two runways – is due to open in October.
YOTEL will be the only hotel at the airport until at least early 2020 when the second phase – a third runway and an expanded terminal – will be completed.
With both airside and landside access, the hotel will be one of the biggest airport hotels in the world.
It has been designed both for airport passengers and for airline crew, airport staff and the companies expected to move to the surrounding business zone.
Istanbul’s existing Ataturk Airport is already the third largest airport in Europe and handles 64 million passengers a year.
The new airport, a 30/40-minute drive from Istanbul’s downtown and 25 minutes from its business centre, is forecast to handle more than 70 million passengers by the end of 2018 and to grow to 100 million within the next five years.
When all four phases are completed – six runways and three terminals – it will have a capacity of up to 200 million passengers.
The former airport will still handle private jets and will be transformed into a convention centre.
YOTEL’s new hotel will have 102 rooms airside and 359 landside.
Rooms will be available to rent by the hour, catering for passengers in transit, and will have larger rooms for longer stays.
YOTEL CEO Hubert Viriot said: "We’ve witnessed Turkey’s and particularly Istanbul’s remarkable economic and urban development, transformation and its noticeably increased popularity over the past few years.
"Istanbul New Airport will only further increase Istanbul’s ever-expanding popularity and economy and YOTEL is delighted to be a part of it. The prevailing ambitious vision to make -°stanbul New Airport the largest transit hub in the world made it very attractive for us to be there, and we are extremely honoured to be chosen for this exciting project."
