Data for the first quarter of 2018 shows that bookings with a stopover in Abu Dhabi are 14% behind, whereas bookings with a stopover in Istanbul are 21% ahead of the same period last year.
ForwardKeys, which analyses 17 million flight booking transactions a day, says major airports in the Middle East are losing market share of transit passengers to Istanbul.
Data for the first quarter of 2018 shows that bookings with a stopover in Abu Dhabi are 14% behind, whereas bookings with a stopover in Istanbul are 21% ahead of the same period last year.
ForwardKeys says the decline in Abu Dhabi is reflective of Etihad reducing capacity and dropping its partnership strategy.
A new airport is due to open in Istanbul in late October, the third to be built in the Turkish city after Istanbul Atatürk Airport and Sabiha Gökçen International Airport. Atatürk Airport will be closed down for scheduled flights once the new airport is operational.
The new airport aims to be a global aviation hub, serving 90 million passengers in its first phase. Eventually, it expects to become the world’s busiest, with six runways and capacity for 200 million passengers.
ForwardKeys says Istanbul’s growth is partly due to the success of specific routes including New York and Los Angeles to Tel Aviv, San Francisco to Delhi, London to Antalya, Hamburg to Antalya and Frankfurt to Tehran.
Olivier Jager, CEO, ForwardKeys, said, “In addition to the success of various routes, Istanbul’s growth has been helped by a reduction in terrorist incidents in Turkey since 2015, when a wave of bomb attacks hit both Istanbul the city and Istanbul the airport.”