Farewell Atatürk, welcome ‘Smartist’
Turkish Cargo now manages all of its airfreight operations through a new facility, located at Istanbul IST airport and called ‘Smartist’. Turkish Cargo moved its freight operations on passenger flights to IST after the latter opened in 2019. It simultaneously continued its freighter operations at Istanbul Atatürk airport, which has been a home for Turkish Airlines for 89 years.
Now the air cargo operator has moved its freighter operations to the new 340,000 sqm ‘mega cargo facility’ at IST, where the infrastructure is now available in its entirety. The relocation took 72 hours.
Trucks covered a total distance of around 16,000 km during the relocation – the distance from Turkey to New Zealand – and shifted 4,125 pieces of equipment. When all of the phases of the cargo facility are completed, its annual capacity will come to 4 million t. (ah)