Istanbul's new airport has been voted one of the world's best by readers of the renowned magazine Condé Nast. The two-and-a-half-year-old airport was voted number two in the magazine's recently released 'World's Best Airports' list. This is the second time the airport has reached the number two spot on a top airport list.

The Istanbul aviation scene has seen significant changes over the past few years. As the Istanbul Atatürk Airport was running out of space to expand, the decision was made to build a new airport offsite. The new airport, simply known as Istanbul Airport, was officially opened on October 29th, 2018. All flights had moved over to the new facility by April 9th, 2019.

An impressive achievement

More than 800,000 Condé Nast voted for the world's best travel experiences by submitting tens of thousands of ratings and reviews to the magazine this year. One of the categories being examined was airports. Points were awarded for access, check-in, security checks, refreshment areas, shopping opportunities, and design in this category.

With a score of 89.01, Istanbul Airport (IST) came in second place, missing out on first by just 0.57 points. In contrast, the difference between second and third place was a full 4.79 points. This is the second time that the young airport has been picked as the world's second-best, also featuring on the Travel&Leisure magazine list.

The accolade is impressive given how young the airport is compared to the others on the top ten list. Istanbul Airport had officially opened just three years ago. Meanwhile, the second youngest airport that made the list was Doha Hamad International Airport, aged seven. Several airports were aged over half a century old.

An airport for the world

While serving Tukey's largest city, Istanbul Airport is also truly a global airport. Firstly, the facility is home to Turkish Airlines, the national carrier of Turkey. This means that the airport can rival the Middle East giants as a center for hub and spoke travelers. For example, somebody could fly from New York to Dubai via Istanbul with Turkish Airlines.

However, with a central location between Europe, Africa, and Asia, the airport also welcomes many carriers from other nations. Some, such as British Airways, operate a daily service to the city. Meanwhile, others like Emirates will fly to the airport up to three times a day.

The top destination from Istanbul in October is the Turkish capital city, Antalya, according to data from Cirium. 429 flight rotations are scheduled between the two cities. Meanwhile, the top international destination is Tehran in Iran, with 339 cycles planned. This equates to over ten rotations a day.

In addition to placing second on the Condé Nast world's best airports list, October has also seen the airport welcoming a couple of special aircraft. October 1st marked the first time the airport had received passengers on the Airbus A380 with the arrival of a new Emirates service. Meanwhile, the airport also welcomed the world's largest airport, the Antonov An-225, on Monday.