Mott MacDonald finishes Turkish airport scheme

Mott MacDonald's aviation team joined in the celebrations last week to mark the official opening of the new international terminal at Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport in Turkey. Mott MacDonald was technical advisor for the project working with TAV Airports Group, Turkey's leading airport development, management and operating group, and lender West LB, from prior to financial close through to completion of the airport construction.

The firm's aviation team provided technical advice as well as consultancy on operations, costs, revenue and environmental issues. The construction contract was signed in June 2005 and construction work commenced in late July 2005.

The new 108,000m² terminal will accommodate up to five million passengers per year and has 58 check-in desks, a baggage handling system including a tilt tray sorter and state-of-the-art baggage screening, nine contact stands with docking guidance and preconditioned air systems plus space for retail and food and beverage outlets. The project also included a new car park providing 2200 spaces, a 146,000m² apron and access roads. The 66m span of the steel trusses in the departures hall roof is claimed to be the longest in Turkey.

Chris Chalk, a director of Mott MacDonald's aviation team which provided advice on technical, traffic forecast, said: "Turkey is currently expanding a number of its international airports using private finance to create world class facilities and we're providing technical support on three of them. This latest project, which was completed in just over 13 months was, in our experience, realised in one of the shortest construction times ever considering its size and complexity."