Case Study: Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport achieves seamless Wi‑Fi and a smart, scalable passenger experience with HPE Aruba Networking

Digitising the passenger experience and building a smart airport of the future

Sabiha Gökçen International Airport in Istanbul is rapidly expanding—from 35.5 million passengers in 2019 to an expected 65 million once a second runway opens—and set out to become a smart, digitally enabled airport. The airport needed a scalable, secure network to connect all operational platforms (ticketing, CCTV, baggage handling), simplify management across a complex site, and support a seamless passenger experience across terminals, parking, hotels and transport links.

Using an Aruba architecture—including 500+ Wi‑Fi 6 AP‑500 access points, Mobility Controllers and Conductor, ClearPass, AirWave, FlexFabric switching and IMC—the airport now delivers high‑speed, government‑required Wi‑Fi and unified network visibility. The platform provides headroom for future growth, supports AI/IoT, facial recognition and robotics, enables real‑time service interactions and data analytics, and lets the airport securely extend services to tenants while simplifying operations and monitoring.

Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen

İsmihan Baysal Anderson

IT & Automation Director