Istanbul Airport

I am a Singaporean and took Turkish Airlines from Singapore to London with an overnight stay in Istanbul. Ataturk airport is quite clean and organized signs are placed nicely. It is strange police with guns are assigned for immigration purposes both in and out of country. They do not speak english and do not welcome at all. Airport facilities are nice Turkish Airlines has a perfect lounge for Business class passengers and it is one of the best in Europe. Duty free prices are very acceptable when compare to europe though my favorite is always Dubai.

I use IST about fifty times a year (I live in Istanbul but am not a Turkish citizen) and find it generally good. Nine times out of ten I have a minimal wait at passport control and my bags are often on the belt when I get to it. I agree that on departure it is much better to go through passport control opposite check-in zones G-H rather than at the other location near A- B. Also agree that better to eat elsewhere if possible: food is expensive and ordinary and you can do so much better in Istanbul. The departure info screens can be misleading for a first-timer: 'wait in lounge' actually means 'go to gate' - the next thing to come up will be 'boarding'!. Beware gates 301+ - the secondary X-ray there can be a zoo when all the Central Asia flights leave at around the same time (late evening). Get there early.

Use Istanbul for connections and meetings in Turkey quite often. The passport control lines coming in could be a disaster sometimes. Flying out the airport now offers a business/cip entrance to the airport with its own security and again a private passport control counter after check-in. Lounge options are numerous with lot's of good food/refreshments. I find the duty free prices to be really good compared to EU airports. The whole airport is smoke-free; absolutely amazed considering you can smoke virtually everywhere in Turkey. Apart from the second security check at the gates I would say this is one of the finest airports I've been to.

Very clean. when 3-4 flights arrive at the same time you have to wait at least 20 minutes in immigration queue. Entering the departure hall sometimes takes 15 minutes in security queue. Immigration officers in departure area most impolite.

The prices at this airport are extortionate. They charged 3 euros for a newspaper which had "Turkey: 2.20 euros" clearly printed on it a beer costs 8 euros (!) in the bars and even Burger King costs a small fortune. I will avoid using this airport for transit again - airports are always expensive but Istanbul Ataturk goes too far I hate being ripped off like this.

I was pleasantly surprised when I landed at Ataturk. The visa line was fast and then right over to passport control also very quick. Baggage took awhile to arrive and trying to get a cart is a bit of a trial. The ride into Istanbul is about thirty minutes and plenty of cabs and vans to take. The airport is clean and easy to maneuver..

Only used it for International Transfer between Europe and East Asia. Everything is ok CIP Lounge offers a great variety of foods and beverages much better than in any Lounge visited before. The airport terminal is clean and fancy. These are the goods. Now the bad. The Security check before boarding especially going from IST to Europe is a disaster very slow seldom impolite attitude of security personnel no special lines for Business Class/First Class. The prices all over the place are unbelievable even compared with EU airports. There is not a single place for smoking. Nothing against banning smoking from public areas but some smoking rooms should exist.

A mitigated impression. On arrival there was a long queue at passport control with many flights arriving. On departure the queue at X-ray et the entrance was too long very disorganised and unacceptable. But check-in was efficient and there was not too much queue at passport control. Prices at duty free shops and cafés are unacceptable (figures are the same as outside the airport but they charge in euro instead of Turkish lira!!). Cold drinks are not cold: why do fridges not work? But information on changed gates is always correct the airport is clean and flights are on time.

It is clean immigration much better and quicker than before. In my last arrival from landing to leaving airport to city by bus took only 30 minutes.

Firstly - make sure that you have spent all of your Turkish Lira and had something to eat and drink before you come to this airport - prices are a rip-off. Apart from that the airport is nice and clean. Make sure that you allow about 40 minutes to get from the front door to your check in desk because they X-ray your bags and you have to walk through a metal detector as soon as you get in the front door. The queue was long when we went through and the security people were pretty particular also. The lines for passport control were not that long but the people in the passport desks were pretty slow (All they needed to do really was put their blue stamp on the passports.) Once through all of that avoid the "duty free" and find a nice place to sit and look out. This airport is cool once you get past passport control and there are loads of spaces to sit. As you go to the gate you have another X-Ray queue to stand in but not as bad as the first. Once you are through this you can sit in the gate / lounge and wait for your aircraft to board or in our situation head straight onto the aircraft. There were no departure delays - actually our aircraft (BA) pushed back 5 mins early so they must be doing something right at this airport. I gave this airport a 3 star because of the extortionate prices they allow shops to charge.