Selahattin Bilgen, CEO of Europe’s busiest airport: “The last 10 years of my life can be described as 90 percent work”
Beginning his day at 7:30 am, it doesn’t finish until 1 or 2 am. But he says he sleeps well because he gets everything he has to do done.
The sprawling terminal at Istanbul’s airport, which opened in 2018, covers 15 million square feet, more than six times the size of the new Terminal One at JFK airport in New York City. It has a capacity to handle 90 million travelers per year and is currently just over 10% shy of that number.
According to the European Air Traffic Safety Organization (EUROCONTROL), it has been the busiest airport in Europe for the past four years. Once its planned expansion to increase its capacity to 120 million is complete, it could surpass Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which saw 108 million passengers last year, as the world’s busiest.
The Istanbul Airport operates like a small city explained its CEO, Selahattin Bilgen to Newsweek. “We have our baggage system, a recycling facility, our operation center, a firefighting department, the electrics department, a solar power plant, with tens of thousands of panels,” he said. In all there are around 11,000 people that keep things humming smoothly at the airport.
Kulttuurinavigaattori: CC BY-SA 4.0
What it takes to run the busiest airport in Europe
The job is demanding and Bilgen is committed to the project telling the news outlet that “the last 10 years of my life can be described as 90 percent work.” His days begin at 7:30 in the morning, checking messages and emails, and he doesn’t finish until 1 or 2 am, after he’s finished everything for the day.
However, part of the reason for those long hours is also so that Bilgen can make time for his family, “because family is very important for me,” he said. Getting up early allows him to have breakfast with his son and daughter and see them off to school. He also tries to be home before 10 pm so that they can have dinner together and tuck them into bed.
Bilgen’s day at the airport typically starts around 9:30, “usually for discussions, meetings, and conference calls,” he explained. The reason for spending roughly 12 hours at the airport is that he can provide “an open-door policy to the maximum extent possible,” the CEO said. “I believe in the importance of direct communication,” he added, saying that he talks and meets with colleagues face-to-face “as much as possible.”
Not all daily tasks revolve around airport operations
The Istanbul Airport CEO’s approach to running the facility also involves being available to the public. “I also enjoy walking around the airport, especially on weekends…just make sure everything’s running,” he shared.
Bilgen says that the most out-of-the-ordinary moments come when he gets a phone call from a VIP passenger. Typically, they are running “only 10 minutes” late and are looking for “help” in delaying the departure of their flight.
However, things happen that you would never expect. One of his strangest moments was when a bag full of ashes was discovered in the terminal. They were the remains of someone’s father. The airport has been holding onto them in the hopes that the person that lost them, who hasn’t been found yet, will come reclaim them.
Seeking to build a better work-life balance
Despite having gone full bore going on ten years now, he doesn’t regret any of it. In fact he says he’s do it all over again were he reborn. “Work is not separate from my life—that’s how I perceive it. I really take it as my own…my job is my life, but at the end of the day, it really fits my expectations and interests as well,” he told Newsweek.
“I love social interaction, I love learning new things and building up new structures, and this position has enabled me to achieve all those things. I’m quite satisfied and happy with what I achieved at work,” he added.
Even so, Bilgen says that he hopes things can begin to stabilize. “For the last 10 years, our team has been running very fast,” he acknowledged. “To continue our high performance, we have to be more ‘private life friendly’… I think we are on the right track.”
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