Record Istanbul Rainfall Diverted 51 Flights From Istanbul Airport and Briefly Halted Sabiha Gökçen

Istanbul Airport sent 51 flights to other airports and canceled 19 more after the heaviest rain Istanbul has recorded since measurements began in 1942 hit the city on October 14, 2026, the Istanbul Governorship said. On the other side of the Bosphorus, wind shear stopped departures at Sabiha Gökçen Airport for 20 minutes that evening, according to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.

The storm killed three people, and four were still missing in the governorship’s October 15 update. Rescue teams pulled 2,722 people from flooded areas, and schools across the province stayed closed for in-person classes on October 16.

How the evening unfolded at Istanbul’s two airports

The governorship said Beykoz, on the Asian side, collected 10.3 inches (261 mm) of rain, with many other districts close to that. The city’s municipal gauges put Beykoz lower, at 242 mm, as Türkiye Today reported.

At 8 p.m. local time on October 14, the governorship said the runways were open and no flights had been canceled. The trouble came later that evening, as strong winds and poor weather disrupted operations at both airports.

In figures carried by CNBC-e around midnight, the ministry said 43 aircraft had been unable to land at Istanbul Airport. Thirty-nine went to other Turkish airports, led by Ankara Esenboğa with 16, İzmir Adnan Menderes with 10 and Sabiha Gökçen with 8.

The other four left the country: two to Burgas in Bulgaria, one to Athens and one to Tehran. The rest of the domestic diversions went to Balıkesir, Çanakkale and Antalya.

Sabiha Gökçen had its own problem. The ministry said departures stopped at 9:42 p.m. and landings were paused for a time because of strong winds and wind shear, and three inbound flights were sent to Ankara at 10 p.m.

Takeoffs and landings at Sabiha Gökçen resumed at 10:02 p.m., according to the ministry.

The governorship’s October 15 update put the Istanbul Airport figures at 51 diversions and 19 cancellations, seven arrivals and 12 departures. Neither statement explains the gap from the ministry’s earlier count of 43. The governorship said airlines covered meals and hotel rooms for affected passengers.

Why wind shear stops flights

Airliners land in heavy rain routinely, using instrument approaches that guide them down through low cloud. Wind shear is a different problem, and it is the one the ministry named at Sabiha Gökçen.

Wind shear is a sudden change in wind speed or direction over a short distance. Close to the ground, on final approach or just after takeoff, it can rob an aircraft of airspeed and lift when there is little height left to recover.

That is why airports pause movements when it is reported, rather than asking crews to fly through it. For an inbound flight, the choice is then to hold and wait or head for an alternate airport.

Airliners normally carry fuel to reach a planned alternate, and once holding eats into that margin the crew has to leave. That is how a storm over one city sends jets to Ankara, İzmir and Tehran, and our guide to how flight diversions work covers the fuel rules behind it.

The numbers sound large, but the airport is huge. Istanbul Airport handled 49,066 takeoffs and landings in September, the ministry said, an average of more than 1,600 a day.

By that measure, the 70 diverted and canceled flights were roughly 4% of an average September day’s traffic. The harder part is the knock-on: diverted aircraft and crews end up in the wrong city, and at a connecting hub a missed wave of arrivals can strand passengers for longer than the storm lasts.

It is the same scramble that followed a lightning strike at Luton in August, on a far bigger scale.

More rain is forecast

The governorship’s October 15 update reported no airport disruption beyond those figures. Sixteen roads were still closed across the province, and a ban on motorcycles stayed in force.

The weather is not finished. On October 16, the Turkish State Meteorological Service put Istanbul among 14 provinces under yellow and orange warnings, with rain expected to strengthen overnight and continue heavily across the city on Saturday, October 17, Sözcü reported.

Anyone flying through either Istanbul airport this weekend should check their flight status with the airline before setting out.