Turkish Presidential Flight Gulfstream G550 TC-ATA lands in Atlanta from Istanbul

Recep Tayyip Erdogan / Turkish Presidential Flight's Gulfstream G550, tail TC-ATA, flew from Istanbul Airport (LTFM) in Istanbul, Türkiye to Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (KATL) on Thursday, October 29, 2026. The aircraft departed at 17:23 UTC and landed at 01:32 UTC, spending 8 hours and 10 minutes in the air.

The great-circle distance between the two airports is 3,442 nm (3,961 miles, 6,375 km). The aircraft averaged 422 knots ground speed and reached a highest altitude of 47,025 feet and a top ground speed of 486 knots. Based on our estimates, the flight burned about 3,347 US gallons of fuel and produced about 32,148 kg (32.1 metric tons) of CO2, roughly the same as driving a car 79,574 miles. The Gulfstream G550 is an ultra long range jet with a range of 6,750 nm, a top speed of Mach 0.885, a ceiling of 51,000 feet, and typically seats 16 passengers.

The flight used about 51 percent of the aircraft's range. The Gulfstream G550 is a GV-SP type, with over 617 in operation worldwide. The departure airport, Istanbul Airport, has a longest runway of 13,451 feet at an elevation of 325 feet. The arrival airport, Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport, has a longest runway of 12,390 feet at an elevation of 1,026 feet.

This is the first tracked landing at Atlanta for any of Recep Tayyip Erdogan / Turkish Presidential Flight's four aircraft in our tracking window. The home base on file is Istanbul Airport (LTFM). Usual destinations on file include Paris, Riyadh, Dubai, Moscow, Beijing, and New York. In the 30 days before this flight, the owner's aircraft flew 8 flights totaling 15.4 hours in the air, with the longest leg being Abu Dhabi to Ankara on October 20, 2026, a distance of 1,447 nm. Another tracked aircraft, a MGM Resorts Embraer Legacy 500, landed at Atlanta about 5 hours earlier.

Before this flight, the aircraft had been on the ground for about 9 days, since its previous tracked landing on October 20, 2026, at Ankara. In the tracking window, all four of the owner's aircraft flew 17 flights from August 3, 2026, to October 20, 2026. The most common destinations in that window were Istanbul (Bakırköy) with 3 landings, Ankara with 2 landings, and Trabzon with 2 landings.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics since 2002, first as Prime Minister then President. Turkey is a NATO member with ambitions of strategic autonomy, making Erdogan one of the most diplomatically active heads of state globally, with shuttle diplomacy between Moscow, Kyiv, Riyadh, Tehran, and Washington. A web search did not find a scheduled public appearance, meeting, or event for Recep Tayyip Erdogan or the Turkish Presidential Flight near Atlanta at this time.

The Gulfstream G550 TC-ATA remains at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport as of landing. The aircraft's next movement has not been tracked.