Site represents London-based YOTEL’s first foray into Turkey.
İstanbul New Airport (İNA) operator İGA and YOTEL have agreed an exclusive hotel management contract at the international connection hub.
The hotel, which the partners say will be one of the biggest airport hotels in the world, with both airside and landside access, will offer 451 rooms and will be located inside the main terminal building.
İGA sees the deal as an indication of İNA growing importance to holiday makers and business travellers, point out that the airport was ranked third in terms of total departing passenger numbers in Q1 2018.
The stats back this up – İNA is Turkey’s biggest ever infrastructure project and will replace Ataturk Airport when it opens in October this year. The capacity of İNA will be expanded up to 200 million people once all four phases are completed and will have a total of six runways and three terminals, hosting nearly 100 airlines.
İNA says it will set an example for the global airport architecture with its flexible and spacious terminal design rooted in Istanbul’s unique cultural and architectural values. Besides aesthetics, it will also have a ‘simple and practical setup with touches of traditional motifs’.
For its part, YOTEL says it will will introduce its design and technology in two zones – one airside (102 rooms) and one landside (349 rooms). Both parts of the new hotel will feature public spaces including YOTEL’s Club Lounge concept with smart vending, working and relaxing areas, wellness centres and planted glazed atriums.
In addition, the landside zone will include a restaurant, bar and 24/7 gym. The new hotel will also feature meeting spaces, which YOTEL says will be suited to small, large, formal and casual meetings.
The site will be YOTEL’s largest airport hotel – it currently operates four under the YOTELAIR brand at London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol and Paris Charles de Gaulle.
Making History
“We are delighted to have chosen YOTEL as our new airport’s exclusive air and landside hotel operator”, said Kadri Samsunlu, CEO of İGA Airport Operation. “We are making history with İstanbul New Airport, already in its construction phase a multiple-world record breaking project that is likely to change the transportation and aviation dynamics of a tri-continent region covering Europe, Asia and Africa, and certain to have a lasting impact far beyond this geography.
“YOTEL will contribute to our perfect passenger experience approach with unique innovative elemental luxury and technologically decked space.”
Hubert Viriot, YOTEL’s CEO, said: “We’ve witnessed Turkey’s and particularly Istanbul’s remarkable economic and urban development, transformation and its noticeably increased popularity over the past few years. İstanbul New Airport will only further increase Istanbul’s ever-expanding popularity and economy and YOTEL is delighted to be a part of it. The prevailing ambitious vision to make İstanbul New Airport the largest transit hub in the world made it very attractive for us to be there, and we are extremely honoured to be chosen for this exciting project. This city aspires to high growth success, just like YOTEL, so we are a perfect match.”
