İstanbul Airport — Istanbul, Turkey

IST rose from farmland and forest north of the city near Arnavutköy, opening in stages beginning in late 2018 before absorbing the whole of Istanbul's scheduled passenger traffic from the old Atatürk field the following spring. Built on a scale meant to accommodate ambitions of becoming one of the world's highest-capacity airports once all planned phases are complete, the complex serves as the central hub for Turkish Airlines, whose extensive route network stretches deep into Africa, Asia, and the Americas from this single European base. Positioned near the Black Sea coast rather than closer to central Istanbul, the airport trades a longer commute into downtown neighborhoods for the additional land needed to eventually support several parallel runways. Sabiha Gökçen, on the city's Asian side, continues to handle a separate share of traffic, but IST now carries the great majority of Istanbul's international connections.