As Atatürk Airport was hemmed in by the city on three sides and the sea of Marmara on another, it was unable to expand to meet the growing demands placed on it.

It was decided to construct the new airport at the intersection of roads to Arnavutköy, Göktürk, and Çatalca, north of central Istanbul and between the Black Sea coast towns of Yeniköy [tr], Tayakadın and Akpınar.

However, the Ministry of Forest and Water Management claimed the exact number of trees cut and moved would only be revealed after construction was complete.

The project was achieved by an international design team working across different phases, but all focused on the collective vision.

The Turkish joint venture consortium of Cengiz-Kolin-Limak-Mapa-Kalyon won the tender and were obliged to pay the government €26.142 billion including value-added tax for a 25-year lease starting from 2018.

The completion date of the construction's first stage was officially set for 2018 – 42 months after the finalization of the tender's approval.

[23] Several other services are also to be in operation, including hospitals, frequent-flyer and VIP lounges, prayer rooms, convention centers, and hotels; some of these are expected to form part of the Istanbul Airport City project.

The fourth and final stage of expansion will, along with adding another runway, allow for the construction of satellite terminals with a combined capacity of 50 million passengers and an area of up to 800,000 m2 (8,600,000 sq ft) if needed.

[22][25] If fully expanded to a capacity of 200 million, the airport will exhibit four terminal buildings with interconnecting rail access that combine for a total indoor area of 3,200,000 m2 (34,000,000 sq ft).

[28] This prompted opposition MP Veli Ağbaba to submit a written questionnaire to the Turkish parliament on 13 February 2018.

In response, the Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security claimed that there were only 27 fatalities during the construction of the airport.

[29] In October 2019, UK publications Construction News and Architects' Journal published a joint investigation into fatalities at the airport, nicknamed by workers "the cemetery" as so many have died.

By this point, the official death toll had risen to 55, but unofficial estimates suggested that the figure could be "higher than 400".

Complaints by workers included poor living conditions in "vermin-infested dormitories", issues in transportation that had left them stranded under the rain or on-site during holidays, and long delays in payments, among others.

[30] The opening ceremony took place on 29 October 2018, scheduled so as to coincide with the 95th anniversary of the proclamation of the Turkish Republic.

[32] On 1 November 2018, five daily flights began to arrive and depart from the airport: from Ankara, Antalya, Baku, North Nicosia, and İzmir,[33] followed by Adana and Trabzon starting in December.

Hundreds of trucks carried more than 10,000 pieces of equipment, each weighing about 44 tons were moved to the new airport over 41 hours.

[39] The airport currently has one terminal in service for domestic and international flights and five runways (three main and two backups) that are currently in operation.

The airport is estimated by Climate Trace to have emitted 9.5 million tonnes of CO2 in 2023, making it the country's second largest greenhouse gas emitter.

[245] There are plans for mainline railway to connect the airport to Çatalca and Halkalı, and via outer city bypass running over the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge across the Bosporus and connecting with the Anatolian rail network at Gebze but construction has been continuously delayed.