Istanbul Airport Opens World's Largest FBO Terminal at Cost of €60 Million

Istanbul Airport's new JETEX-iGA terminal, described as the world's largest fixed base operator terminal, opened in May 2025 after two years of construction at a cost of approximately €60 million. The facility was built through equal 50% investments by iGA Holdings, the operator of Istanbul Airport, and Jetex, a Dubai-based private aviation services company.

The terminal spans three floors and 5,000 square meters, accommodates 350 to 400 people at once, and employs around 130 staff operating 24 hours a day. In approximately four months since opening, roughly 3,600 passengers have used the terminal, of whom about 1,000 were private jet travelers. Daily traffic has peaked at 170 people, against a first-year target of 150 per day.

The terminal offers end-to-end VIP services including dedicated passport control, security screening, check-in, baggage handling, and vehicle transfers to aircraft. The standard departure service is priced at €950 per person, excluding VAT. Eight private suites are available, three with bedrooms of approximately 40 square meters equipped with a bathroom, shower, minibar and safe, with use of up to six hours priced at around €2,500. The facility also houses a restaurant, meeting rooms, a spa with two treatment rooms, and a retail area selling luxury watches, jewelry and leather goods.

Burcu Gures, head of the iGA terminal, said the suites have been used by Hollywood actors, famous athletes and members of royal families, and noted that security procedures are followed without exception but carried out "quietly and politely." Passengers come primarily from the United States, Europe, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

South Korea's Incheon International Airport is developing a business aviation complex called the Incheon-Business Aviation Center, northeast of the airport's second runway. The planned complex includes a private jet terminal, two hangars and an apron capable of parking 24 aircraft.

A public call for operators is scheduled from September to November 2025, with an operator to be selected in December. Construction is planned to begin in the first quarter of 2026, with operations targeted for the fourth quarter of 2028.

Istanbul's terminal shows how airports and private aviation service providers are pairing up to fund large, purpose-built FBO facilities rather than expanding existing general aviation ramps piecemeal. A 50-50 joint venture spreads the roughly €60 million cost between an airport operator seeking non-aeronautical revenue and a private aviation specialist bringing service standards and client relationships across regions such as the US, Europe, Russia and the Gulf.

The segment's economics rest on high per-passenger yields, evidenced by the €950 departure fee and €2,500 suite rate, applied against a relatively small but steady base of travelers; Istanbul's roughly 3,600 users in four months, with about 1,000 private jet travelers, illustrates that these terminals serve a narrow but well-paying slice of overall airport traffic rather than mass volume.

Incheon's I-BAC project shows the same model spreading to a new gateway, with a private jet terminal, two hangars and a 24-aircraft apron planned against a construction start in the first quarter of 2026 and operations targeted for the fourth quarter of 2028. Whether Incheon attracts a comparable joint-venture partner will become clearer once the operator call concludes in December 2025 and a partner is named.