Turkey is on track to spend more than $5 billion on Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA), which -- if it fulfills its ambitions -- will have six runways and four terminals.
By the end of next year, its first phase is scheduled to open, with three runways operating out of a main terminal with two satellite terminals.
By 2028, it may have enough capacity to shift share away from de Gaulle, Heathrow, Schiphol, and Dubai by being able to process 150 million passengers a year.
Already before the new airport opens, Istanbul's existing airports have been taking share from competitors for transfer traffic between Europe and Asia. The city is one of the top-five largest feeders for Europe.
In 2013, (the year with the latest comparable data available), Istanbul's Ataturk international airport processed 51 million passengers, about the same as Amsterdam. It's on track to overtake Frankfurt in passenger volume by early next year, Bloomberg reports.
In a dozen years, Turkish Airlines has boosted its fleet numbers from 55 aircraft to nearly 300.
All of this growth is good news for airport and airline IT specialist businesses.
NB: Images courtesy the Nordic architecture firm