TAV Airport Holding

TAV, the leading airport operator in Turkey, was established in 1997 as a joint venture between Tepe and Akfen Groups following their successful bid for the Istanbul Atatürk Airport International Terminal contract. This airport is one of the first examples of airport operating projects in the world with the ‘build – operate – transfer’ model. TAV took very important steps over the past 10 years to become one of the renowned international brands in Turkey, both in airport construction projects, and in the brand new sector of airport operations.

Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport

Izmir Adnan Menderes International Airport (ADB) is an airport serving Izmir and is named after the first democratically elected Turkish political leader, the former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes. Izmir’s main airport is 18 km south of the city on the way to Selçuk, Ephesus and Pamukkale. The new international terminal opened in September 2006. In 2007, ADB served over 5,230,000 passengers, of which 70% travelled domestically and 30% internationally. Among Turkish airports in 2007, ADB ranked 2nd in terms of domestic passengers, 5th internationally and 3rd for total passengers.

Pre-existing situation & UTCFS’s role

When the new international airport terminal of ADB was built, it had to comply with European life safety regulations. The main requirement for the fire safety system was that it had to be fully integrated with other security and non-security applications. UTCFS won this project based on a recommendation of one of the leading fire consultants in Turkey, who understood the knowledge and strengths of UTCFS.

UTCFS’s solution

UTCFS started by assessing the project, designing the plans for the fire detection system and finally decided that the EST product range was best suited for the job. Overall, more than 2,000 intelligent addressable fire detectors are installed. Being addressable, these detectors allow security staff to determine exactly from where an alarm is coming. Whilst being ‘intelligent’ implies that every detector can ‘think’ independently, determining when and where there is a fire. The fire detectors are connected to 12 EST3 control panels, the gathering point for groups of detectors. To help determine the exact location of every alarm, UTCFS provided a custom-made smoke management mimic panel. This panel shows a full layout of the site with all detectors indicated on the panel as LED lights. With UTCFS’s solution installed, ADB easily complies with the European safety requirements and can have full confidence in their fire detection system.