IGA Istanbul Airport published its 2025 Sustainability Report on September 1, 2026, bringing together environmental, social and operational data for the year. The report covers energy, water, emissions, operational resilience, digitalization and workforce policies. IGA’s official sustainability pages and Green Library provide the company’s reporting framework, while Anadolu Agency and Aksam reported the principal findings on the same date. The central figures were therefore checked across the company’s own material and two news reports published within the last 48 hours.
According to the report, reclaimed water supplied 42 percent of Istanbul Airport’s total water consumption in 2025. The amount of reclaimed water used was 1,066,892 cubic meters. IGA also said all water required for garden irrigation at the airport came from reclaimed sources. The figures show how water management has been incorporated into daily operations at a large transport facility rather than treated only as a distant conservation target. The same values appeared in the independent reports covering IGA’s announcement.
On emissions, IGA reported a 27.8 percent reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions compared with its 2019 base year. The operator’s long-term objective is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Interim targets call for an absolute reduction of 45 percent by 2030 and 73 percent by 2040, both measured against 2019. These milestones describe the company’s planned pathway for emissions from direct operations and purchased energy. Actual progress will need to be assessed through comparable disclosures in future reports.
A major component of the energy program is a 240-megawatt solar power plant in Eskisehir, which began operating in August 2025. IGA said that during the final five months of the year the facility generated an amount of electricity equal to 54 percent of the airport’s full-year 2025 demand. Its annual generation capacity is designed to match the airport’s electricity requirement, while the company estimates that the project can avoid an average of 105,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year. Those production and avoidance figures are company-reported values.
The operational section says Istanbul Airport served 84.4 million passengers in 2025, handled 549,300 flights and processed two million tonnes of cargo. Passenger services connected the airport with 344 destinations, while cargo operations reached more than 150 points. The report places that traffic growth alongside projects involving energy efficiency, capacity management and adaptation to climate change. Independent triple-runway operations, introduced in April 2025, were also listed among the measures intended to expand and manage operational capacity.
Digital projects featured prominently in the report. An AI-supported A-FOD system is used to detect foreign objects on runways and aprons that could create risks for aircraft. Sensors track the fill level of containers holding collected material. Under the HERON project, a system called ROCAT is intended to improve traffic planning by using the time aircraft spend on runways. The KAIROS project is exploring the integration of AI-based meteorological forecasting into operations. The report describes the goals of these systems but does not present a final measured benefit for every project.
IGA also reported planting approximately 20,000 saplings during 2025 and reusing 11,700 cubic meters of silt soil from runway construction in landscaping work. Waste-management and zero-waste training was provided to 5,058 people, including airport employees, public personnel and staff of third-party companies. The workforce increased by 10.2 percent to 9,907 employees. Average training time was 30.3 hours per employee, while women represented 30.34 percent of the total workforce, according to the published figures.
The report presents Istanbul Airport’s growth indicators and environmental commitments within a single framework. Its emissions, renewable electricity and reclaimed-water results should be followed through consistent year-to-year data to determine whether the stated targets are achieved. The document remains IGA’s official account of its 2025 performance, while the news reports corroborate the disclosed headline figures. This Mefico News article uses only information stated in those sources and treats all future reductions as company targets rather than completed outcomes.
