Istanbul Airport

Customer Reviews

5 star Skytrax Rating
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Queuing Times 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Staff 12345
Customer rating from 635 reviews
3/10
5 star Skytrax Rating
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1/10

"biggest trap for the tourists"

(Romania)

Not Verified | The biggest trap for the tourists worldwide, one Big Mac 25 euros and a bag of pistachio 76 euros. Staff doesn't speak English, there is not Duty Free Shops. The airport is chaotic and be prepared to walk kilometers. Free wifi is complicated and you cannot access, except if you will scan your passport.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitFebruary 2025
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
2/10

"Istanbul Airport has been a rip-off"

(United Kingdom)

Trip Verified | Fast food price is just ridiculously expensive! Went to a fried chicken restaurant only to find out that their price has gone way too much for an average traveller. I checked other restaurants and snack bars to compare prices and their prices have increased. How can customers enjoy the airport when they are prevented from spending due to prohibitive prices? I missed the Old Istanbul Airport when the airport was more inclusive rather exclusionary than what I experienced. My partner also transited here and was surprised that there was no pharmacy inside the transit terminal. Although I love flying with Turkish Airlines, I will probably not do it for a long time as Istanbul Airport has been a rip-off for me.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitJanuary 2025
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
2/10

"prices are also very expensive"

(United Kingdom)

Trip Verified | This airport is luxury and new! However, there are multiple issues that needs to be addressed. The number of toilets for such a busy airport is ridiculously low and more importantly very very dirty! I couldn’t find any clean cabin during my visit which was very disgusting! The airport staff is somehow very unhappy and angry. Staff should be kind and accommodating. The prices are also very expensive compared to other international airports. I feel that this airport doesn’t represent Turkey well.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitJanuary 2025
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
3/10

“airport facilities are subpar”

(Poland)

Trip Verified | Arrived just before midnight with TA from KRK and was surprised with a 5hrs delay of my flight to Hong Kong. The airport facilities are subpar in comparison to Zurich or even Helsinki which I could have chosen as alternative transit for the same journey. So called "nap zone" is far from comfortable when you're drilling the walls past midnight. No matter how many dining and shopping options provided, you can't call it a world-class airport if they don't get the basics right for such circumstances, that is a comfortable lounge with reclined chairs. It's all utterly useless and irrelevant to a passenger who transiting at midnight and expecting to spend a whole night at the airport when they are drilling the walls around past midnight. Signages are confusing. Flight status boards displayed in local language only?? Not the way to go Turkiye.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitDecember 2024
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Wifi Connectivity 12345
no
1/10

“Be prepared to walk kilometers”

(France)

Trip Verified | Be prepared to walk kilometers, in an unfriendly environment. Get ready to pay a fortune for a bottle of water or an orange juice. Get ready to cross endless commercial zones looking like Las Vegas. Free wifi lasts only for one hour. Horrible experience. And this is a new airport! Whfy didn't the fire the architects immediately?
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitNovember 2024
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"miserable customer service"

(United States)

Not Verified |  Beautiful new architecture doesn’t make up for an airport’s miserable customer service. Upon arrival security officers shooed me away from several busy passport control areas before I found one where I could get in line after a very long walk. Lufthansa lost my bag. Dealing with Celebri, their baggage handler, was a dragged out, exhausting ordeal. I had no communication from them after making lost bag claim for more than 48 hours. Phones were not answered and calls not returned after leaving messages three times. Bag was finally located four days later, when I had boarded ship for Viking cruise but was still in port. The Lufthansa baggage service, Celebri, refused to deliver my bag to cruise ship at the port or release it to Viking representative at airport. Celebri made me return to airport in person to claim my bag. The airport is a LONG ride from town. Celebri is hidden in a secure area and can only be reached by a telephone by an unmanned information kiosk. Celebri employee who answered phone said she was eating lunch and would come out to help me in ten minutes. Multiple other travelers showed up, called Celebri and were given various snarky answers as to when a representative would come out to help us. It was more than 30 minutes later when a surly young man came out and guided us back to the secure area. The only answer I was given for why I had to claim my bag in person was “Customs.” After four days without my suitcase, being forced to retrieve it in person at the airport was an abusive four hour descent into a hell of rude, indifferent Celebri employees in an airport that is already not passenger friendly. They didn’t just ruin my day, they ruined my vacation by treating me like garbage. I strongly advise NOT checking a bag if you are flying to Istanbul.
Experience At AirportArrival Only
Date VisitNovember 2024
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"You are extremely stressed"

(Germany)

Trip Verified | I travel a lot and used IST frequently, mainly for transfer flights. Now I will choose other routes. Why? You need an average 20 minutes of walking between the gates, if you not happy 30 minutes and more. You have to consider a minimum of 2 hours transfer time (walking time to the transfer desk, security check, walking time to your gate). Short international transfer doesn't work at all. The staff doesn’t speak english, they are not supportive at all. Prices of everything are abnormal high. While I was waiting on n the cue of the security check they closed 50% - with hundreds of passengers in the cue. The result: You are extremely stressed. I catched my connection flight on last minutes after running through the airport. An experience I will not repeat at all!
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitNovember 2024
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"one of the worst airports"

(United Kingdom)

Trip Verified | Istanbul Airport is one of the worst airports you could ever visit. It is constantly under construction with people just hammering away, and it is just a terrible place to be. First, you can get free internet but you need to feed your passport details to a kiosk, which prints out a code you can use to connect for free for 1 hour only. 1 hour. At other airports it is free for unlimited use and you just need to connect to the wifi. Why the extra hassle for 1 hour? And if you connect to the internet, remember to use a VPN. I made the mistake of not doing this and soon I kept getting Blockchain phone calls. I knew it was the airport because of my unique name and how I use it daily, so I knew it was the airport. Your data is at risk if you connect to their wifi. And then we get to the insane pricing at the vending machines. Airports are expensive for sure, but a can of Fanta cost from a machine 450 TRY. That’s $13! £10! For a can of drink! Insanity! Oh, you want to go to Lost and Found for an airline to pick up something you forgot in a plane? It is in the arrivals area, so if you’re only transiting you still have to make your way through security and passport control, go to the baggage pick ip where the airline Lost and Found is, wait while they tell you “oh sorry you had to email us who was going to pick up the item so we can’t give it to you”, then having to get back through passport control and security again empty handed to catch your connecting flight. Genius. The one thing that is sorta okay is the Yotel hotel for long layovers you can sleep in airside. However, it is expensive at around $300 a room for a night, but they know you have no choice if you want to sleep so you have to take it. If you need to travel and can connect at a different airport, just choose a different place. Anywhere but this one.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitOctober 2024
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

“truly disappointed and dissatisfied”

(United States)

Trip Verified | We are a family of 3 with a severe low functioning child with epilepsy, hearing and vision impairment. We landed in IST with a short connection time. Airport assistance met us at the gate, and we told them we needed to get to our connection as soon as possible. They said they could use their powered wheelchair to transport my son and there was a buggy at the gate as well, but the buggy driver refused to transport the manual (not battery-powered) wheelchair even though we could fold it up. I ended up going on the buggy with our luggage and my husband ran and pushed my son in his wheelchair from terminal F to terminal B. The buggy driver even had the audacity to ask for a tip after dropping me off at the gate while my husband was still making his way to the gate. My husband and son made it to the gate in time for boarding but left us a bad impression of the airport service. On the return flight, we landed in IST for a 7-hour layover before our flight to ORD. An assistant met us at the bridge and, using our son's wheelchair, brought us to the IGA lounge as we requested and set up a time to bring us to the gate when it was time to board. Assistant came and brought us to the gate, he went to get the aisle chair, left it by the gate and told us that someone else would come and help us with the boarding. But when it came time for boarding, no one came to get us in line to board. There were two other assistants with powered wheelchairs in line helping their passenger board. We asked one of them if someone was coming to help us, she said to wait, someone will come. Then boarding started and the two assisted their assigned passengers on board then business class passengers started boarding. We were still left on the side even as economy class began boarding. The assistants came back out and we tried to get them to assist us, but they refused, saying that someone else is coming. We asked the check-in staff for help, and they refused to do anything saying someone will come and continued to board the rest of the economy class passengers up until the last few passengers. The boarding supervisor did not treat us with respect and kept putting us aside with lip service that someone will come and get us boarded with the aisle chair. Even when most of the passengers boarded, we were still left at the gate and the two assistants were just standing around doing nothing. We insisted on boarding ourselves but were prevented from doing so. In the end, the two assistants reluctantly assisted us through. Even when we requested help with our hand-carry bags to the plane, the check-in staff refused to help saying it's not their job. We were already stressed out with our son's damaged wheelchair, lack of sleep, and increasingly agitated son from waiting so long to board. We ended up boarding last with almost all passengers already seated. During this whole time our son was feeling discomfort and agitated from the long wait, ending up wetting and soiling his pants by the time he got to his seat. I broke down in tears seeing my son suffer, upset and uncomfortable, we were exhausted from half a day of travel, and felt abandoned at the gate without being able to pre-board and settle our son for the long flight ahead. We are truly disappointed and dissatisfied with the service at IST as well as the treatment we received from the check-in staff at IST. Our actual experience doesn't reflect the kind of service we expect based airline ratings.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitOctober 2024
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
6/10

“it is eye wateringly expensive”

(United Kingdom)

Trip Verified | Two things strike the traveller about the "new" Istanbul Airport, firstly it is huge and secondly it is eye wateringly expensive! Its single terminal building means you can walk everywhere but there are some very long stretches with no travelators. Departure Gates are shown 2 hours before the flight and there are no announcements so you have to watch the screens for information. Some transit passengers have to go through security scanning depending upon the origin of the flight - this is OK but even with brand new scanners that should accept liquids you have to remove them for separate scanning which can slow things down. The overriding feeling is that EVERYTHING is overpriced. Can you justify spending EUR8.00 on a Pan-Au-Chocolat or GBP22.00 on a McDonalds meal? The range of high end goods available in the shops is amazing but again the prices are not "duty free" or "tax free" but - how much can they get away with! The net result is a lot of people wandering around but not a lot of buying taking place. There is very limited seating in the main areas, except if you have bought food. Good seating at the gates and reasonable boarding processes. Only 1 hour of free Wi-Fi after you register your passport details available so use it wisely!
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitNovember 2024
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no