Be Voice to the New Worlds – İGA Istanbul Airport’s Innovation and Vision

Begin with a direct collaboration: engage igart, koçan, and kotil to launch a cross-world project that carried bold ideas into many worlds.

İGA’s Innovation and Vision emerge through the IGArt program, a platform which they curate to integrate artwork into passenger flow. The team behind it includes samsunlu and an artist panel, especially the voices of emerging local creators such as koçan and other contributors. A series of artwork pieces will be placed in lounges, gates, and corridors, guiding travelers through worlds of experience.

Concrete data guide the plan: a six-month pilot in Terminal A with eight installations; 5,000 traveler surveys; digital kiosks measure dwell time, interaction rate, and passenger sentiment. This baseline helps optimize the next phase and scale the program to other terminals.

To ensure lasting impact, adopt a lightweight production workflow: quarterly curatorial rounds, a clear budget for eight installations, and a sustainability plan to reuse materials. The program will be carried by igart, samsunlu, koçan, and kotil, with milestones aligned to terms and fleet schedules. Use artwork that is accessible to people with sensory differences; signage uses bold typography and multilingual labels. The travel world becomes a gallery that the airport will host for years to come.

Today we present concrete steps: form a collaboration charter with education partners, host quarterly public viewings, and publish a shared work plan so other hubs can learn from the model. Thank travelers for engaging with the works and sharing feedback. By engaging artists such as koçan, samsunlu, and igart, Istanbul Airport becomes a platform where culture, technology, and travel intersect, delivering a happy and important experience for every traveler.

Voice-driven traveler assistance: deploying multilingual conversational AI across terminals

Deploy a phased, multilingual voice-driven traveler assistant across terminals today, prioritizing the busiest areas to reach travelers quickly.

igart announced a collaboration with betül, koçan, Fatma, kotil, and samsunlu to craft an integrated experience that blends dialogue with artwork in public spaces. The chairman will oversee a cross-disciplinary team, and the artist Sayas will contribute to the artwork installations, ensuring the voice interface harmonizes with the airport’s architectural language. This creator-led effort will produce prompts that travelers can hear in many languages, and a winner among the prototype solutions will be selected for scale. The project, held in several zones, demonstrates how works from the arts program can support practical tools for travel today.

The system will support many languages and adapt to areas such as concourses, lounges, security lanes, and transfer corridors. It will hear user queries and reply with clear, natural responses. When a traveler asks a question–like “Where is gate 54?”–the assistant will respond in the user’s preferred language or in the contextually detected language, with simple follow-ups. This approach aligns with igart’s projects open to partners and to a wider world, including Fatma and betül’s design choices, especially in areas with diverse staff and passenger needs.

Implementation steps

The first milestone is a 12-week pilot in Terminal 1, focusing on Turkish, English, Arabic, and Russian, with a plan to add Mandarin and Spanish later. Metrics track mean response time, task success rate, and user happiness, and feedback from betül, koçan, Fatma, kotil, samsunlu, and Sayas informs iteration. The system will be deployed in the busiest areas first, and will be integrated with live flight data and signage to allow hands-free, voice-driven interactions. When a language gap occurs, the project will open new language packs in weeks, with partner teams selecting which languages to add next in which zones. The initiative will thank travelers for their patience and reward staff for early adoption, while protecting privacy and consent.

To ensure scalability, the architecture separates language understanding, speech synthesis, and dialogue management, enabling quick updates for new languages and regional nuances. The plan also includes audit­able logs, opt-in analytics, and clear failure-handling pathways so users hear helpful prompts even if an error occurs.

Metrics and outcomes

Expect reach to cover 60–75% of daily travelers within six months, with average resolution time under 20 seconds and a 15–20% lift in traveler satisfaction. The system aims to reduce desk inquiries by a quarter and to improve wayfinding by 12%. The testing will measure failure rate across languages and the ability to handle complex questions in each country, and will report progress to the chairman and the igart board. Today’s results will guide which world regions to expand next, and which projects to commit to permanently, including additional artwork-driven interfaces that blend with signage and kiosks.

Real-time crowd and queue management: analytics to optimize staffing and flow

Implement a real-time analytics dashboard that outputs hourly staffing recommendations based on live crowd metrics from entry gates, security lanes, passport controls, baggage halls, transfer corridors, and boarding gates. Link feeds from passenger counts, dwell times, queue lengths, and service rates so the system translates forecasts into concrete actions every 5–15 minutes: reallocate staff, trigger flex shifts, deploy mobile supervisors, and adjust lane assignments. In pilot tests, this reduced peak wait times by 20–35% and improved throughput across igart-enabled zones. This is today’s practical starting point to reach smoother flows across the worlds of travel.

Data governance and area-based modeling keep the flow predictable. Break the airport into six areas, monitor arrivals per 15-minute window, and apply a simple rule: if projected wait exceeds 6 minutes at security or 8 minutes at immigration, automatically raise staffing by 10–20% and open a parallel queue. Use a single view that highlights hot spots and carry the betül artist-series visuals to signal operators when a spike is detected. The artwork communicates the situation without distraction, while the creator-led approach keeps staff engaged. sayas analytics help they hear clear cues for action, and partners like samsunlu emphasize the value of these projects for many worlds of travel.

Operational actions center on staffing and routing. Cross-train agents across lanes, deploy mobile rovers for overflow, and adjust start times in 15-minute increments. Align headcount with forecasted arrivals from many sources, including charter flights, domestic traffic, and transits, so coverage remains sufficient when surprises occur. Track KPIs: service level, average wait, peak queue length, and staff utilization. A short daily brief communicates plans, and a weekly review with chairman Samsunlu keeps alignment with country goals and the broader IGART vision so artists and artwork initiatives stay coherent. thank you to the teams for their ongoing work.

Rollout cadence: run a two-week pilot in two terminals, then expand to all zones. Use the sayas interface to deliver concise prompts to operators, so they hear clear cues on what to adjust. Maintain logs with notes from the creator and, where possible, tie outcomes to betül visuals to calm crowds and improve wayfinding. From this effort, the airport will deliver more predictable flow today and create a scalable template for other country airports in the future. samsunlu

Smart baggage: IoT tracking and automated handling to cut delays

Implement RFID and IoT tagging across the first five areas of the baggage flow, then scale to all open zones. The chairman announced the plan, with Fatma leading the project and Koçan from igart driving hardware and software integration. Betül will coordinate Samsunlu country operations, bringing Sayas artwork into the user experience as a visible touchpoint. This approach will reach the world by synchronizing airside and landside movements, making bag traceability a winner for passengers and staff alike. Thank the teams for having a clear path: many partners will collaborate on this series of projects, from tagging to automation, to deliver measurable results.

Deploy a closed-loop IoT system: RFID tags on every bag, UWB anchors for precise indoor location, BLE gateways for robust coverage, and automated handling that responds to live flight data. The result is real-time visibility into bag location, ETA to belt, and immediate rerouting if a mismatch occurs. This reduces dwell time, lowers misroutings, and improves on-time performance in busy periods. The effort will open new collaboration across areas, from IT to operations, and will be felt in the country and beyond as a scalable model for world airports. Koçan and igart will pilot the integration with Betül overseeing field execution, while Fatma aligns the operations with the wider Samsunlu portfolio.

Implementation steps and expected outcomes

First, standardize bag tags and reader placements in the five areas that see the highest variability: check-in, transfer, sorting, belt corridors, and reclaim. Then, move to a phased rollout across additional areas, leveraging the learnings from each wave to improve speed and accuracy. They will establish a governance cadence with the chairman’s office, having Fatma coordinate weekly reviews and ensure the project stays on track. The initial pilots will emphasize accuracy, with a target of above 99% bag traceability and a 25-40% reduction in average delay during peak times, depending on flight mix and passenger volume.

Open data dashboards will reveal trends across many flights and seasons, supporting a continuous improvement loop. The series of projects will be reviewed quarterly by the chairman, with Sayas providing artwork-enabled visuals in igart spaces to celebrate milestones. The outcome will be a scalable model for world airports, led by Fatma, Koçan, Betül, and samsunlu country teams, and designed to hear passenger feedback and adjust the flow in real time. This strategy positions Istanbul Airport as a leading reference for smart baggage handling across the world, turning delays into history and turning every bag into a data point that informs the next improvement.

Digital twins and remote maintenance: simulating operations for resilience

Adopt a centralized digital twin hub for critical assets and connect remote maintenance teams to simulate operations and strengthen resilience. This approach will reduce on-site calls by 40-60% in the first year and improve MTTR by 25-30% across terminals, runways, and baggage systems. Gather data from sensors, PLCs, SCADA, and enterprise systems to feed a living model that mirrors real-world performance.

Chairman samsunlu announced the plan as a priority under İGA Istanbul Airport’s Innovation and Vision. The governance is led by fatma koçan, which ensures data integrity and open collaboration with partners from the country and beyond. We will measure success with clear KPIs and a practical path that reaches many areas of operation and communicates status through artwork-style dashboards to the world.

Core components for resilience

• Unified data model and digital twin across areas such as terminals, runway operations, baggage handling, and energy systems.
• Real-time connectivity from sensors, cameras, and asset management systems with secure data pipelines.
• What-if simulations to optimize maintenance windows, passenger flow, and disruption responses for various scenarios.
• Remote maintenance workflows supported by centralized command and augmented reality guidance for engineers.
• Automated anomaly detection and predictive triggers to pre-empt equipment failures before they impact service levels.
• Governance and security: role-based access, encryption, and auditable change tracking to protect critical assets.

Rollout plan and metrics

1. Phase 1 (Q1–Q2): pilot in three areas–terminals, ramp operations, and baggage handling–to achieve about 30% MTTR reduction and 20% fewer on-site visits within six months.
2. Phase 2 (Q3–Q4): extend to five additional asset groups (air conditioning, power, lighting, security, IT infrastructure) to lift overall equipment effectiveness by 10–15% and shorten issue containment time by around a quarter.
3. Phase 3 (Year 2): scale across all assets, enable interoperable data sharing with national vendors, and publish quarterly artwork dashboards for stakeholders to track progress and impact.

Collaboration hub: accelerating innovation through partnerships and startup programs at İGA

Recommendation: Launch a dedicated Collaboration Hub at İGA that unites startups, universities, and airport suppliers to prototype innovations within real operations. Implement a lightweight governance board, a shared data sandbox, and a streamlined grant process to move ideas quickly from concept to field test.

Program design

Operate a 12‑month program with 8–12 entrants per cohort. Three tracks guide effort: digital efficiency in check‑in and security, passenger services, and sustainability and energy. Each entrant develops a concrete initiative with milestones and a 6‑week prototype followed by a 4‑week live pilot inside the airport network.

Measurement and expansion

Mentor and partner network rotates a small advisory group, host monthly demos, and connect teams with internal operators and suppliers who can validate feasibility. A simple funding ladder covers seed support for rapid experiments and a second‑stage validation grant for pilots that demonstrate measurable impact. Track time savings in queues, energy reductions in facilities, throughput during peak periods, and guest satisfaction. Capture repeatable playbooks that can be adopted at additional terminals and scaled with new partners as the network grows.