In August, the İGA Airport Operation appointed Hüseyin Keskin as CEO of İGA Airport Operation – a distinctly different role from Yusuf Akçayoğlu who is CEO İGA Construction, and is therefore purely tasked with delivery of the project. Here Keskin tests the two key strands of the new airport’s strategy: Is it still on time for a February 2018 opening; and does it still plan to be a “world’s biggest” hub?
An interview with Hüseyin Keskin, CEO of İGA Airport Operation.
Hüseyin Keskin is indeed very much a hands-on operations man with extensive experience of running the nuts and bolts of the new Istanbul hub. Previously, he was Head of the Ground Operations at Turkish Airlines and, most recently, the General Manager of Turkish Ground Services (TGS), Turkey’s largest ground handling company which is jointly owned by Turkish Airlines and TAV Airports.
Consequently, Keskin’s job is to see the new airport come to life in first-quarter 2018, and continue its operation and commercial success thereafter.
While this year’s “events” have produced a significant range of shocks to the Turkish air transport system, Keskin does not think these are permanent and he does not believe his mission has been deflected from steering the biggest hub in Europe by the early 2020s.
“The aviation sector reacts quickly to global and regional crises, it shows immediate reactions. But on the other hand, it renews itself fast and continues to grow as before. Although recent events have affected traffic, investments in tourism, technology and industry in Turkey show that the aviation sector will continue to grow,” says Keskin, who maintains there have not been any changes to the timelines for the Istanbul New Airport (INA) development.
“As the world’s 18th largest economy, and Europe’s 7th, Turkey is well positioned financially, well prepared technically, and committed with even greater resolve to the programme. İGA continues to work at full speed, in fact the construction of INA has even been more accelerated. We are sure that the aviation sector will get back to high growth rates, paving the way for INA to become the biggest hub in Europe by the early 2020s.”
Indeed, Keskin is bullish enough to talk specifically about top world airport rankings: “INA will overtake London Heathrow – even if Heathrow gets its third runway by 2025, because it is better located to be a major global hub” says Keskin referring to the competitive position mid-way between the traditional north European hubs and the new hubs in the Middle East.
“Istanbul has its own strategy based on unbeatable geographic advantage – there are more than 200 destinations in Europe, MENA and Central Asia, which Turkish Airlines and other airlines can serve with a narrow-body fleet.”
To this natural advantage Keskin relates how all the construction effort is aimed at adding considerable operational benefit: “There will be no capacity constraint at the new airport, and no restriction on any airline which wants to achieve maximum on-time performance. After the first phase of construction is completed in early 2018, INA will have the capacity to host 2,000 flights a day, and over 90 million passengers annually carried by 150 airlines serving more than 350 destinations. In the initial phase the airport is going to have three runways, but when all phases are completed, it will be able to handle 200 million passengers with six runways and offer the world’s largest terminal complex of 1.3 million square metres where, for the first time, all carriers will be able to board their aircraft by jet bridges.”
So how smart will the passenger journey be?
Keskin believes that in the new airport “smartphone users will be in absolute heaven” and backs up his assertion with an extensive list of features: “Istanbul New Airport will be a centre of IT innovation, offering a comprehensive set of solutions to enhance passenger experience: self-service with biometric features, A-CDM (Airport Collaborative Decision Making), facility management with BIM (Building Information Modelling) and virtual reality, augmented reality, beacon and geo-location technologies, smart kiosks, social media-enabled services, airport gaming, loyalty services, queue management, iBeacons will provide indoor directions, walking times to gates, lounge access and boarding alerts, and a seamless Internet of Things framework will communicate with smart infrastructure to deliver a more efficient and effective user experience. At INA technology will dramatically change the way we fly – and run the airport.”
“World’s best shopping environment” (and Turkish experience)
Commercial/retail spend per passenger at Istanbul Atatürk Airport was €15 in 2015, and therefore considerably outperforms the European average of €10.4. So it is unsurprising that Keskin agrees that retail has played a central role in İGA’s business strategy from the earliest days of the new airport’s planning. It also explains why the Unifree/Gebr Heinemann deal of January 2015, billed by İGA as “the world’s biggest duty free agreement” was among the very first contracts signed.
“Our aim is to provide air travellers with the best shopping environment in worldwide travel retail. Unifree/Gebr Heinemann is investing €120m to gather over 400 domestic and international luxury brands under one roof. But it’s not just about size: We have worked very closely with Unifree on detail and have created the best design among global airport hubs. It will offer a very diversified shopping concept called ‘City of Facets’, capturing all the fascinating colour that makes the city of Istanbul memorable and unique.”
Lovers of great Turkish confectionery, teas and other fine local produce will be relieved that these will not be submerged by global brands, and this is important for other reasons – as much as 50% of Turkish Airlines’ Istanbul traffic is transit; for many of these users shopping at the airport will be their only taste of Turkey. Equally Keskin promises an F&B offer with “a mix of global tastes combined with our own very rich Turkish cuisine heritage.”
A better hub than Middle East competitors?
Unsurprisingly, for an executive tasked with being “CEO of İGA Airport Operation” Keskin agrees “I am very focused on attracting new carriers to our new airport – there aren’t enough airlines flying from the current Istanbul Atatürk Airport to the Americas, China, India, Africa and Southeast Asia – except the hub carrier Turkish Airlines – we want new carriers flying from those regions.”
As Turkish Airlines will be the biggest customer and anchor tenant at the new airport, Keskin agrees “very high levels of coordination with between İGA and Turkish Airlines were settled just after the completion of the tender process.”
He again reasserts the geographic advantage Turkish Airlines has to serve over 200 feed destinations with a narrow-body fleet: “They are capable of flying to more destinations in Europe than any other airline, and having far more frequencies to popular destinations. That means far more choice and connections for passengers for transfer to wide-body long-haul operations to Eurasia, Africa, the Americas and Far East. With the world’s 4th largest flight network, Turkish Airlines currently flies to 218 international destinations in 108 countries. This country coverage is greater than any other airline in the world!”
Keskin’s list of Istanbul New Airport’s advantages as a transfer point on global routes for airline users and travellers continues: “It reduces flight time, it introduces the flexibility to use a variety of aircraft of diverse capacity, it provides considerable cost advantage, and contributes to competitive superiority. From Istanbul, it is possible to reach more destinations than any other competitive hub in four hours due to the country’s geographic location. For İGA and all of our customers this brings unbeatable competitive advantages over the Gulf airline hubs.”
