iGA Istanbul Airport, Türkiye's gateway to the world and the region's most important global hub, signed a "Sister Airports Memorandum of Understanding" with Airports of Thailand (AOT) in Bangkok and with Airports Corporation of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City.
Thanks to the relevant cooperation with Türkiye, crucial benefits will be offered to the economies of these countries, in addition to the tourism potential of Thailand and Vietnam.
iGA Istanbul Airport, one of the most prestigious airports in the world, signed a memorandum of understanding with Airports of Thailand (AOT) to establish a sister airports relationship. It has been announced that the cooperation agreement signed by Kadri Samsunlu, CEO of iGA Istanbul Airport, and Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, President of Airports of Thailand in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, will add a new dimension to the relationship between the two countries.
Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, President of Airports of Thailand, highlighted that he is honoured to participate in the event where the Memorandum of Understanding was signed by AOT and iGA Istanbul Airport and added: "I want to thank Kadri Samsunlu, CEO of iGA Istanbul Airport and the senior management of iGA for coming to Bangkok for this fantastic event. Today’s signing ceremony will undoubtedly strengthen the relationship between AOT and iGA."
iGA Istanbul Airport has also signed another "Sister Airports" agreement in Vietnam. The "Sister Airport" Memorandum of Understanding which was signed with Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) in Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, was signed by the CEO of the iGA Istanbul Airport, Kadri Samsunlu, and the Head of Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), Lai Xuan Thanh, and the Vice Chairman, Nguyen Quoc Phuong.
Lai Xuan Thanh, Head of Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) stated that "As Airports Corporation of Vietnam, we are honoured to sign a Sister Airports agreement with iGA Istanbul Airport. As we are witnessing the fast recovery of civil aviation and tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic, this is an excellent opportunity for us. Türkiye is a crucial bridge connecting Asia and Europe, and Vietnam is strengthening its position particularly in Southeast Asia and Asia Pacific. This cooperation will promote the discovery of new routes between the two regions and expand trade and investment opportunities."
"We believe in the importance of close stakeholder relationships and the power of shared wisdom..."
Kadri Samsunlu, CEO of iGA Istanbul Airport, declared that he is pleased to sign the "Sister Airports Memorandum of Understanding" between Airports of Thailand (AOT), Airports Corporation of Vietnam and iGA Istanbul Airport as representatives of three countries acknowledged as critical destinations in world tourism who are coming together to develop cooperation in the aviation sector. Samsunlu said: "The global economy's centre of gravity is shifting from the West to the East. With its young and thriving population of 4.4 billion, Asia has significant potential due to its tourism capacity and dynamic economy. We currently live in an economic system where the west consumes goods created in the east. This week, our new sister airports which we are delighted to have collaborated with operate around 30 airports in Southeast Asia including the world's leading tourism destinations such as Bangkok, Phuket, and Hanoi. I believe there are significant economic expansion opportunities between Southeast Asia and Türkiye. Our airport hosts only six Asian airlines (50% of them after the inauguration of iGA Istanbul Airport) in the world's biggest aviation continent while operating a solid flight network in accordance with our geographical location where Europe, Middle East, and Africa destination cross. We expect much heavier flight traffic from Asia, which we believe has very high potential to grow, to the west in the medium term. Our goal here is to be the first destination which starts to receive flights in Europe. The new Sister Airports cooperations, which we signed today, will allow the new flights to iGA Istanbul Airport to start, and the new traffic that will arise from the South Asia, and indirectly, Asia-Pacific regions, to be linked to iGA Istanbul Airport, in addition to contributing to the country's economy by leading thousands of tourists to visit our country through our city, Istanbul. On behalf of the iGA Istanbul Airport team, which believes in close stakeholder relationships and the power of shared wisdom, I wish our Asia-focused growth strategy, which we have put into effect with China and South Korea, and now expanded with Thailand (AOT), and Vietnam (ACV), brings all the best to our sector and organisations.”
Sister Airport Agreements have the quality of officially outlining the process of sharing airports' best technical, commercial and environmental practices. Sister airport agreements cover processes such as building joint task groups to cooperate in various areas, including airport management, customer services, construction, planning, operations, information technology and sustainable development. While this agreement does not fundamentally have any binding clauses for the parties, the CEOs of the member airports meet annually to exchange ideas. iGA Istanbul Airport had previously signed sister airports agreements with Seoul Incheon Airport (ICN) of South Korea, Capital Airports Holdings Ltd. (CAH) and Shanghai Airport Authority (SAA) of China, and Copenhagen Airport (CPH) in Denmark.