Turkey's Istanbul Airport has signed a memorandum of understanding with China's Shanghai Airport Authority, which includes Shanghai Pudong and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airports; as well as Incheon International Airport of South Korea.
In addition to these agreements, Istanbul Airport has also reached sister airport agreements with Beijing Capital International Airport and the recently inaugurated Beijing Daxing International Airport.
Under the agreements, the airports will share information, workforce rotation training and joint marketing activities, and in joint meetings it has been decided to collaborate on the advancement of customer experience services.
Kadri Samsunlu, CEO and chairman of the executive board at iGA airport operations, said: “We visited South Korea and China, and reached important agreements during beneficial meetings. As you know, Ankara is the sister city of Beijing and Seoul, and Istanbul is the sister city of Shanghai.
"The agreements signed by Istanbul Airport will further enhance these strong bonds. In a sense, through these agreements we are building an aviation bridge passing through the main destinations of the historical Silk Road. In this way, our airport, which functions as a global HUB, shall transfer the know-how that Turkish aviation has gained over the years onto the international arena. We were also very pleased to see that the agreement offers came from these airports.
"We have observed how we can better serve our passengers from China and South Korea, and we shall take the necessary measures. Our target is to take a much larger share from the passenger traffic to Europe, and to contribute to the Turkish tourism industry. We aim to welcome 1 million tourists from the People's Republic of China in our country in 5 years, and turn Istanbul Airport into a transfer point for the approximately 15 million Chinese passengers travelling to Europe each year.”