Istanbul Airport Starting Europe’s First Triple Independent Runway Operations

On April 17, 2025, Istanbul Airport made aviation history: three Turkish Airlines jets took off simultaneously from three separate runways.

It wasn’t just a flashy stunt (although yes, it was very cool to watch on Youtube). It marked the launch of Europe’s first-ever Triple Independent Runway Operations (TIRO). Istanbul Airport became the second airfield in the world (after the U.S.) and the first in Europe to do this.

At 10:00 a.m. Istanbul time on April 17, the airport’s control tower gave the all-clear, personally initiated by Türkiye’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister from the tower.

In perfect choreography, a Turkish Airlines Airbus A350 bound for Amsterdam, a Boeing 777 Freighter headed to Almaty, and an Airbus A321neo for a domestic hop to Kayseri surged down runways 34L, 35L, and 36L simultaneously. Within seconds, Istanbul’s morning sky was hosting a mini air show with three jets climbing out in parallel.

Here’s the thing: building new runways in Europe is an administrative headache. Heathrow infamously operates at near max capacity with just two runways, and any plan to add a third has faced decades of legal and political turbulence.

London, Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam – all the big hubs – have struggled to expand infrastructure due to space limitations or community opposition. Simply put, building new runways in Europe is really hard.

Meanwhile, Istanbul Airport was designed from day one with room to spare: six runways planned, three now in operation, and dozens of gates to scale. With triple independent operations, Istanbul Airport’s theoretical peak throughput jumped from about 120 takeoff/landing movements per hour to 148.

That’s roughly a 23% boost, practically overnight. To put it in perspective, Istanbul was already among Europe’s busiest airports. In fact, in late April, it was handling about 1,482 flights a day, more than any other European airport at the time. Now, with up to 28 more takeoffs or landings each hour possible, there's no doubt about the top contender for this position.

All this new capacity is paving the runway for Istanbul Airport’s ambitions. The airport has a stated vision of eventually handling 200 million passengers annually, making it by far the busiest airport on the planet (for reference, Atlanta, currently one of the world’s busiest, handled just over 93 million passengers in 2023).

EUROCONTROL (which manages Europe’s air traffic flow) collaborated in the project and noted that this will make traffic flow “faster, safer, and more efficient” not just in Istanbul but “across European airspace”.

There’s an environmental silver lining here, too. Istanbul’s team points out that reducing wait times on the ground and in the air will trim fuel burn and lower carbon emissions. No more excess fuel wasted while idling in long takeoff queues or circling overhead. It’s a win-win: airlines save on fuel and emissions, and travelers save on time.

Grand strategy and airport stats aside, what do these triple-runway operations mean for you, the everyday traveler flying through Istanbul?

Here’s the effect they’re going to have:

Seasoned travellers like me are always aware of which hubs tend to have delay issues. Istanbul is making a bid to be known as a high-capacity, well-oiled machine rather than a delay factory.

If they succeed, passengers may start preferring routing through Istanbul, confident that the odds of a smooth, timely journey are in their favor.

This is especially crucial for Istanbul’s aspiration to be a top transfer hub – reliability is a huge part of the passenger experience, and it looks like Istanbul is investing heavily to get that right. In the past, Istanbul has felt just a little too out of the way for most travelers to route through to get to Europe, which I’m sure is another reason the airport is hoping to be known for its efficiency.

Istanbul Airport’s debut of triple independent runway operations is a big, bold flex on the European aviation stage. Few airports on earth can manage what Istanbul just did. In one coordinated swoop, Istanbul boosted its capacity and potentially boosted Turkish Airlines higher on the aviation rankings.

With 148 movements per hour now in play and plans for even more growth, Istanbul is positioning itself as the between Europe, Asia, and Africa. While Heathrow is stuck getting approval for a third runway in the courtroom, Istanbul has already done this masterfully.