Turkish Cargo has announced that it will incorporate all of its air cargo transportation operations in SMARTIST, a Mega Cargo Facility. Having moved its cargo operations, carried out using passenger flights, to the Istanbul Airport following its opening in April 2019, Turkish Cargo had been using Ataturk Airport for its freighter operations. However, with the infrastructure complete at Istanbul Airport’s Mega Cargo Facility, Turkish Cargo has goodbye to Ataturk Airport.
Regarding the start of the full-capacity operation of SMARTIST, Turhan Ozen, Chief Cargo Officer of Turkish Airlines, remarked as follows; “With SMARTIST, our new home, we are ready for the future more than we have been ever before. During the last three years, we carried out a highly substantial operation in both of our hubs. While we used our freighters at the Ataturk Airport, we benefited from our passenger aircraft capacity at the Istanbul Airport. As a result, we transported more than 4 million air cargo shipments, 2.5 million tons of which were transported from/to the Ataturk Airport and 1.8 million tons of which were transported from/to the Istanbul Airport. Now, we are gathering the air cargo operations which we have been carrying out triumphantly on a “dual hub” basis without compromising our service quality, under a single roof at the Istanbul Airport. Thanks to SMARTIST, our new home with all of its processes equipped with autonomous and robotic systems, we as Turkish Cargo, the air cargo bridge of Turkey, are now ready for the future more than we have been ever before.”
New hub for the global logistics
SMARTIST, which is designed to serve as the biggest industrial building under a single roof at Istanbul Airport, will achieve an annual capacity of 4 million tons with an area of 340,000 square meters upon completing all of its phases. The facility, equipped with smart technologies such as Augmented Reality, Automatic Storage Systems, Robotic Process Automation, and Unmanned Ground Vehicles, will take the unique service quality of Turkish Cargo much further in respect of operational speed and quality. Furthermore, the mega facility will also utilize the intercontinental location of Istanbul and serve as a gate that is excellent for trade between the East and the West. Thus, it will be ensured that Istanbul becomes the logistics centre of the world by directing a major portion of worldwide air cargo traffic to the new hub at the Istanbul Airport.
Relocation of equipment
As part of the relocation operation, monitored simultaneously by the senior executives of Turkish Cargo, TGS, and the moving company at the Relocation Control Center established at the Ataturk Airport, 160 services were performed by 50 trucks. During the operation whereby the trucks covered approximately 16,000 kilometres, 4125 pieces of various types of equipment, owned by TGS and Turkish Cargo, were relocated from the Ataturk Airport to the Istanbul Airport.
A goodbye flight at Ataturk Airport
A Turkish Cargo aircraft, which departed for the last time from the Ataturk Airport, the home of the Turkish flag carrier for the last 89 years, landed at Istanbul Airport upon the completion of their international routes. Following the massive relocation, Turkish Cargo said goodbye to the Ataturk Airport using its ISL-KRT (Ataturk Airport – Khartoum, Sudan) flight, numbered TK6455, operated by Airbus 330F aircraft.
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