Istanbul Airport

When we landed in Istanbul it was manic. People running around like headless chickens looking for a member of staff - none to be found. When I eventually found someone and asked him to direct me, he itched his head and drove off on his Segway. No clear signs of where to go. Every member of staff I met at the airport was rude and didn't seem bothered at all. I was queuing for more than 2 hours, and there was only 2 people at the desk to help us. The officer at the passport control was horrendous, she shouted at me and walked away when I asked why I needed a visa if the flight was cancelled and I just had to go to the hotel desk. While getting my visa one of the staff decided to have a break, drink his tea and watch TV while there was an hour long queue to get the visa. Then I went back with my visa and a male staff was just looking at me and then said "no visa?" I had just got my visa and had the receipt in my hands. Gave it back to me when I opened the page and showed him, he repeated my name and gave me wink. The airport looked like a refugee camp, people sleeping everywhere, rubbish all over the floor, toilets were closed and refused to open them even though the cleaners had just finished.

Having travelled a few times through IST airport I can confirm that the airport is consistently poor. In normal operation a chaos. Ground staff are extremely rude (if you can even find available staff). The ladies at the information desk just look down to you and prefer playing on their smartphones, chewing gum or at least giving the feeling that you are a waste of their time. No better for the security staff, absolutely terrible, rude, unfriendly and dirty. Surely I understand that it must be difficult for staff to work in these conditions. The airport is clearly too small and not able to handle the capacity of passengers. There are no places to sit, people sleeping on the floors, lack of good signage, lack of overhead screens with flight information. The number of airbridges is limited so out of 10 transits I have not had the chance to use an airbridge one singe time. Bus transport is the standard. Delayed departure is a standard and chaotic boarding is also a standard. Alone I am fine but when traveling with my familly I do not see why I should face this mess. The airport is small, ok but please train staff to be friendly, available and improve as much as possible within the existing limitations. Even when the new airport is ready staff needs to be trained to increase the level of customer satisfaction.

Modern, bright and spacious airport with a good selection of food outlets and shops. The additional security check to access the terminal was a bit annoying but also reassuring. The only disappointments were the lack of a free wi-go and more that could be done to show design/decoration features of Turkey which has a rich cultural history. At present you could almost feel like in an a average airport somewhere else in the world. As Turkish airlines flagship airport and major international transit hub I would have expected more.

The worst airport I have seen and this is my opinion based on multiple visits to IST airport. Ground staff are simply rude. Boarding for flights is always chaos, unlike other airports where clear lines are made and passengers are comfortably boarded. As for the security, staff just yell in unfriendly tones at passengers to take your shoes off, on a dirty floor with no clean foot covers to use. The airport itself is cramped, there are no places to sit and people are sleeping on floors. Staff at the information counters are unfriendly and prefer playing on their smartphone instead of rendering friendly service to travelers. Even the tax free shops are unfriendly and unreliable. This airport and its ground staff are a nightmare to avoid.

I try to avoid Turkish Airlines because of this terrible Istanbul Ataturk Airport. It's badly organised and generally one of the worst international airports I've ever visited. The vast majority of of my transits to Ankara have been delayed. Leaving is fine returning and you know you are going to be late. It's an old airport. The domestic terminal is the old international terminal and don't you just know it when you are changing. Badly signed and very rude apathetic passport control. They lack professionalism. That doesn't help when catching a plane from the international terminal to domestic. You have to give yourself at least an hour and that's extremely stressful when you are already late for your connection. Seriously if you can avoid if you can.

My flight was delayed by Turkish Airlines and I had to spend some time in Istanbul Ataturk airport, they do not speak proper English, very rude. I found a pity for a lady who was travelling to Italy with two kids and couldn't speak English herself and was stuck in the Airport for 20 hours with no assistance, support or apologies from any Staff.

I've just had the worst experience of my traveling life, and it is not over. We (couple +5 year old) were due to fly out from Istanbul to London Gatwick with Turkish Airlines. Due to what would be a very manageable snow storm anywhere else in the world, we were first kept in the airport with a four hour delay. The area we were kept was very crowded and not at all equipped to handle thousands of passengers they were busing to the planes. Then we were kept in the plane for seven hours because the incompetence and mismanagement of ground services. Finally we were let off the plane. Once we got back to the airport we had to pass through customs again and saw that they had made no allowances for the mess they themselves had created. Nobody seemed to know where we should go or what we should do. Next day our flight was cancelled again. More lines and hours of waiting. Airport staff either incompetent or aloof to the plight of thousands of stranded passengers. I saw many crying adults and various scuffles throughout the airport. We are still stranded here - no seats until Wednesday they say! And they make no compensation for hotels or food. After more queuing we manage to file a claim to get our luggage back but thus far no news of that either. Avoid flying to or through Istanbul Ataturk at all costs!

I try to avoid Turkish Airlines because of this terrible airport. It's badly organised and generally one of the worst international airports I've ever visited. The vast majority of of my transits to Ankara have been delayed. Leaving is fine returning and you know you are going to be late. It's an old airport. The domestic terminal is the old international terminal and don't you just know it when you are changing. Badly signed and rude passport control. They lack professionalism. That doesn't help when catching a plane from the international terminal to domestic. You have to give yourself at least an hour and that's extremely stressful when you are already late for your connection. Seriously if you can avoid if you can. Munich Airport and Lufthansa are far more efficient. Just avoid Istanbul Ataturk Airport.

We were flying by Turkish Airlines from South Africa to Istabul and we got in Johannesburg info that flights are slightly delayed because of snow fall in Istanbul. When we landed following morning to Istanbul airport our nightmare started. We were over 4 hours in plane on runaway waiting for free gate. Airport staff were unable to help us where to contact to get new flight to Helsinki because there's not many who can speak fluent English. Transit desks - do they know what to do over there? They ask to contact to following desk in check-in and that means that we need to leave international area? After running around airport whole day we finally found small Turkish Airlines customer office where we after hard discussions get flight to Berlin in the late afternoon. This flight to Berlin was still delayed 3 hours and when we arrived to Tegel our connection flight was gone. We were home after 48 hours from time when we arrived to Johannesburg airport.

Good options for foods and drinks. Airport staff are definitely not the nicest, some can barely speak comprehensible English, which is really frustrating for an international airport. There is no free wifi which is quite unacceptable in 2015. Toilets are quite smelly. Overall, if you're transiting for 1-2 hours this is probably an okay airport. My flight with the supposedly good Turkish airlines was delayed for 5 hours and it was a nightmare waiting in this airport.