"the situation is getting worse"
4 reviews Herbert Poenisch (Malaysia)
Have transited at IST airport a few times in the recent months and I agree with other reviews that the situation is getting worse and worse. The stellar growth of TK, they receive a new plane every month has made parking positions, let alone jetties very scarce. Work on the apron in front of gates 208-218 has made things worse. Parking is available far away from the terminal which adds easily 1 hour to your transit time. We made it running from one end of the terminal to the next, but read the news, our baggage made it every time. Well done airport handling at IST airport. If you are planning to transit allow 2 hours minimum, and if not familiar with the airport double this time.
Experience At Airport | Transit |
Date Visit | November 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple 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 |
Recommended | no |
"tried my best to avoid it"
21 reviews R Arab (Poland)
I had to be there 6 times. Since the first time, I've tried my best to avoid it every time, but sometimes it's inevitable for me. The first time I arrived at the international terminal at 8 am. and I had to wait for my 3 pm. domestic flight. So I had enough time to explore the airport. It's a huge, modern airport but it is awful. No Wi-fi. Only the gates are as clean as it's supposed to be. The more it gets crowded, the more you realize the different halls lack any seats, you have to either stand or go to a cafe or something. More importantly, the staff seem to be paid not be friendly and helpful and you might come across with a guy who cannot speak English! Besides, every time I was there I stood in the line for about two hours for passport control! The only positive point I noticed was the convenient connection to the city center.
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | October 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"restricted by its limited capacity"
1 reviews Batu Okcuoglu (Israel)
Lack of free WiFi is a big problem and could not find a way to purchase access either. TTnet WiFi system is simply not sufficient. Airport is overcrowded - I know that a new airport is being built but until its completion Ataturk seems to be restricted by its limited capacity.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | November 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"no waiting facilities before immigration"
1 reviews Eric Spada (United States)
2 hour layover in the airport. Needed to exit and re=enter to check bags on a different airline. There were no good waiting facilities before immigration. If your airline desk was not open (as in my case) there was alternative but to sit at Starbucks or one of the restaurants and wait. Not being able to check bags and go through customs earlier meant an inability to get to the airlines or Priority Pass lounges on the other side.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | November 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"no free WiFi available"
1 reviews Yannick De Bel (Belgium)
Crowded airport, no free WiFi available and temperature inside the buildings too warm.
Experience At Airport | Transit |
Date Visit | November 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo 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 |
Recommended | no |
"airport is not welcoming anymore"
David Therond (Uzbekistan)
This airport is a complete nightmare. It is extremely small for the number of passengers going through. Toilets are the dirtiest I have ever seen in an airport of this importance. For a few years with the increase of THY destinations, the airport is not welcoming anymore. For the departure, most of the times it is done by bus to the maintenance area where the planes are also parked not only for maintenance. As THY, I will do all I can to avoid going through Istanbul aiport. On top of this the staff working there is not polite at all.
Experience At Airport | Transit |
Date Visit | November 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Family 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 |
Recommended | no |
"extremely poor directional signs"
1 reviews Jurgen Schulze (United States)
I have only one word for this airport: "chaotic". The primary purpose of this airport is to provide sales opportunities for anything (well, nearly) that you might want to buy. "Flying" is not part of the concept. Gates are all over the place with extremely poor directional signs. Like London, gate decisions are taken at short notice (to allow you more time shopping, and a stiff walk to loose a few pounds to your gate), and then you encounter more chaos because there is no difference between business/first/economy passengers, and if you have young children or use a wheelchair - tough luck. Although there are many gates with skywalks, the preference is apparently given to bussing passengers all over the place. The entire airport lacks a concept, let alone proper management or organization. To be avoided whenever you can.
Experience At Airport | Transit |
Date Visit | November 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"one of the worst airports in Europe"
John Chambers (United Arab Emirates)
This really is one of the worst airports in Europe to get through. They have made television programs about it but these shows gloss over the fact that travel at Ataturk is chaotic - little attention is given to the friendly handling of passengers and processing of people from stressed perimeter security to check in and through on-site security and immigration is terribly inefficient - not to mention that it is grossly overcrowded. They are building a new 3rd Istanbul airport at the moment (due to open in 2018) and this is intended to be the world's largest with a capacity of 150M PPA. This is meant to be competition for Dubai's new World International but if the way they handle people at Ataturk is anything to go by, the new airport is going to be an unmitigated disaster.
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | November 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"airport is overcrowded"
1 reviews George Gounaris (Greece)
Turkish Airlines are great, but when you are getting off the airplane, you must be prepared to face to a new world. Airport is overcrowded and obviously incapable to serve all these people passing from their facilities. Airport employees are bored with lack of respect to speak and assist you. Boarding procedure it was joke, with the ground assistant to shout like selling potatoes in a grocery marker. Maybe the most dirtiest toilets I have ever used in a airport. Smell of pee and flock of flies in all toilets, seriously? Free Wi- Fi was only available at Starbucks cafe, otherwise you have to pay. The check in area is a mass public market area with gypsies, luggage, boxes and everything you can imagine. Overall, an overcrowded place trying to be international airport. Disaster.
Experience At Airport | Transit |
Date Visit | November 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple 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 |
Recommended | no |
"worst airports I've ever visted"
Imran Kangel (United Kingdom)
Without doubt one of the worst airports I've ever visted, a total chaotic experience and really poor customer service at the service desks and passport control The departure gates are totally a mess with overcrowding a common scene at each arrival gate. Queues are long, with people pushing in / queue jumping a common occurence. I needed help from the customer service staff due to my Turkish Airlines flight stopping at Baku airport (without any prior warning or notification I may add, my flight was supposed to fly direct from Islamabad to Istanbul, the Baku stop over resulted in me missing my connecting flight from Istanbul to Birmingham). The customer service staff are rude and never look up to listen also found one of the service desk personnel answer her phone mid way through conversation. Passport Control staff were extrememly rude and had a chip on their shoulder. Turkey as a country is beautiful and the general public are great people. But the airport staff give you a negative feel for the country, thankfully due my connecting flight not being till the next day i decided to visit Istanbul and found the people and country to be an amazing experience. But the airport and Turkish airlines are a big let down. My flight from Istanbul to Birmingham was the worst airport experience I have ever had. We were taken to our aircraft via bus ten minutes after scheduled departure and then had to travel by bus another 15 miinutes to our aircraft, once we exited the bus, we were made to wait in the rain to enter the aircraft, in fact one passenger who was with a one year boy waiting in the bus while it was raining was told to get off and stand in the rain. Islamabad airport is better than Istanbul Ataturk Airport.
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | October 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo 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 |
Recommended | no |