İGA Istanbul Airport in Turkey has signed a ‘sister airports’ agreement with Airports of Thailand (AOT) and Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV).
Sister airport agreements officially outline the process of sharing airports’ best technical, commercial and environmental practices. They cover processes such as building joint task groups to cooperate in various areas, including airport management, customer services, construction, planning, operations, information technology and sustainable development. Although this agreement has no binding clauses for the parties, the CEOs of the member airports will meet annually to exchange ideas. As a result of this agreement, benefits are expected to be offered to the economies of these countries, including boosting the tourism industry in Thailand and Vietnam. iGA Istanbul Airport has previously signed sister airport agreements with Seoul Incheon Airport (ICN) of South Korea, Capital Airports Holdings Ltd (CAH) and Shanghai Airport Authority (SAA) of China, and Copenhagen Airport (CPH) in Denmark.
Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, president of Airports of Thailand, said, “I want to thank Kadri Samsunlu, CEO of iGA Istanbul Airport and the senior management of iGA for coming to Bangkok for this fantastic event. Today’s signing ceremony will undoubtedly strengthen the relationship between AOT and İGA.”
İGA Istanbul Airport’s sister airport agreement with Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) was signed by Kadri Samsunlu, CEO of the iGA Istanbul Airport; Lai Xuan Thanh, head of Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV); and Nguyen Quoc Phuong, vice chairman of ACV.
Thanh said, “As we are witnessing the fast recovery of civil aviation and tourism after the Covid-19 pandemic, this is an excellent opportunity for us. Turkey is a crucial bridge connecting Asia and Europe, and Vietnam is strengthening its position, particularly in Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific. This cooperation will promote the discovery of new routes between the two regions and expand trade and investment opportunities.”
Samsunlu said, “The global economy’s center of gravity is shifting from the West to the East. With its young and thriving population of 4.4 billion, Asia has significant potential due to its tourism capacity and dynamic economy. We currently live in an economic system where the West consumes goods created in the East. Our new sister airports, which we are delighted to have collaborated with, operate around 30 airports in Southeast Asia including the world’s leading tourism destinations such as Bangkok, Phuket and Hanoi. I believe there are significant economic expansion opportunities between Southeast Asia and Turkey. Our airport hosts only six Asian airlines (50% of them after the inauguration of İGA Istanbul Airport) in the world’s biggest aviation continent while operating a solid flight network in accordance with our geographical location where European, Middle Eastern and African destinations cross. We expect much heavier flight traffic from Asia – which we believe has very high potential to grow – to the West in the medium term.
“Our goal here is to be the first destination that starts to receive flights in Europe. The new sister airport cooperations, which we signed today, will allow the new flights to İGA Istanbul Airport to start, and the new traffic that will arise from South Asia and indirectly Asia-Pacific regions to be linked to İGA Istanbul Airport and contribute to the country’s economy by leading thousands of tourists to visit our country through our city, Istanbul. On behalf of the İGA Istanbul Airport team, which believes in close stakeholder relationships and the power of shared wisdom, I hope our Asia-focused growth strategy – which we have put into effect with China and South Korea, and now expanded with Thailand (AOT) and Vietnam (ACV) – brings all the best to our sector and organizations.”