Atatürk airport has four terminals:
Terminal 1, for domestic flights
Terminal 2, for international flights
Terminal 3, for cargo flights
General Aviation Terminal
Atatürk Airport still faces capacity issues; it ranks somewhere between 30th and 40th in the world by both cargo and passenger traffic, handling over 825,000 tonnes of load (cargo, freight and mail) and over 30 million passengers in the year 2009. The total number of passengers has doubled in the past five years, and domestic traffic has almost quadrupled (see statistics section below). Its rated capacity of 14 million international passengers per year and 10 million domestic passengers per year was barely sufficient for the demand in 2007 and 2008. The Istanbul greater metropolitan area is expected/projected to have a demand of 25 million international passengers and 25 million domestic passengers annually by the year 2015.[citation needed] However, introduction of high speed trains between Ankara and Istanbul in 2010, and completion of the construction of the intercity highways linking Istanbul to other cities (to Bursa, İzmir, Antalya and theBlack Sea Speedway) may help decrease this demand.[citation needed]
Atatürk shares traffic with Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, which is on the Anatolian (Asian) side of Istanbul, which had annual passenger traffic of just 6.3 million in 2009. The two airports both provide domestic and international service to the Istanbul area.
A third big airport is being planned in Silivri suburb of Istanbul 40 km west of Istanbul, in order to meet Istanbul's growing domestic and international air traffic demand as a source, destination and transit point.
If the current passenger growth maintains itself, IST is expected to become one of the 30 busiest airports in the world in terms of total passenger traffic for 2010.