In a follow up to last year’s first-ever Lego inspired safety video, Turkish Airlines has once again teamed up with the creators of the Lego Movie for a second instalment. It probably comes as no surprise that the video coincides with the upcoming worldwide release of the Lego Movie 2. The video also celebrates the brand new Istanbul airport as well as the city itself – both of which have been at the centre of the airline’s marketing efforts in recent months.
According to Turkish Airlines, it took a staggering 979-hours over four months to create the video. Production took place not only in Turkey but also the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. It might look like a purely animated creation but in actual fact, over 20,000 Lego bricks were used to create the video.
Turkish Airlines had to create 11 different versions of the video in order to cover all the different safety variances across its aircraft fleet.
And the numbers don’t stop there – around 24,000 Lego mini figures were used to create the Cape Town crowd scene, while 250 real-life extra were also involved in the project. Those extras were most likely involved in the New Istanbul Airport scene at the end of the video – seeing that the airport is only currently operating at a tiny fraction of its planned capacity.
The grand opening of New Istanbul Airport has already been twice delayed and a slated new date in March may also have to be pushed back owing to recent flooding. The original plan had been to open the massive new terminal in October 2018 with Turkish Airlines switching its massive operation from Istanbul Atatürk Airport overnight.
After continuing construction delays, the new airport opted for a soft opening in November 2018 and is currently only handling a handful of daily flights. Once the first phase is fully open, the airport will be able to handle over 90 million passengers every year. A planned fourth phase of development would push that annual capacity to 200 million passengers.
If Turkish Airlines does manage to make the switch in late March, the process of decommissioning Atatürk will begin and eventually, the IST airport code will be transferred across.
The mega project has been dogged by allegations of worker abuse and environmentalists have also raised concerns about the siting for the airport.
