Istanbul Airport

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.

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.

I had a round trip from Washington DC to Bucharest Romania via Turkish Airline with connection at IST. My first transit was on 27/08 and my plane to Bucharest was late leaving, but was in the evening so it was not so busy. But my return was late morning and I had a 2 hour 15 minute layover which was just barely enough. That Airport was so crowded it was difficult to even walk fast and of course I came in at one end and was departing from the other end. I never saw such a slow security set up near my departure gate. It appeared they were checking to see if any passengers were leaving with drugs in their luggage. Plus a "Registration" and a passport check. 3 separate lines waiting. I just barely made my flight to the US. Employees of Turkish and security were rude and had just plain nasty dispositions. I would advise anyone to stay away from using flights going through that airport. Too crowded, too chaotic, too rude, and too confusing. Turkish Airlines has grown too big for that place. Airport staff just told me "Follow the signs" with no additional help. People cut lines since they have no marked or roped lanes for queues. Total mess.

We arrived 3 hours prior to departure time and check in had only just opened, the queue wasn't long. Going through security was a nightmare but we were prepared for that, once through security the departure lounge was absolutely mobbed, as we had time and it was an early morning flight we went to the food court and made our way to the Italian cafe, the service was nothing short of disgraceful with very rude staff, I ignored this and after we ate (2 adults and 3 young kids) we were just finishing our tea when one of the staff dropped a btl of juice whilst stocking the shelf and the lid flew off splashing my wife and kids, the 3 members of staff behind the counter who witnessed this just looked at each other and looked at us and just started laughing, what I experienced next was unbelievable, the member of staff who dropped the bottle came around from behind the counter picked up the bottle took a drink from it and walked back again, no apology, no acknowledgement...nothing!. The floor was covered with the spilled liquid and no effort was made to clean it, we waited another 5 minutes and the decided to leave and as I was leaving I politely asked the young man behind the till to get someone to clean the floor before someone slips on it, he looked at the floor then looked at me and gestured with his hand to just go away whilst laughing and saying something to his colleague - I said again for him to get it cleaned up and this time he bacame very aggressive and started shouting at me in his own language, I stood my ground and insisted they clean it before someone falls to which he became more vocal and attempted to come from behind the counter, he at this point was being held back by his colleagues who I assume we're telling him to calm down. Customers around me were shocked and my kids became very frightened so I decided its best we left and as we were leaving - and I kid you not - he was screaming at the top of his voice and attempting to jump over the counter and was being restrained. This didn't ruin my holiday but made my decision never to travel via this airport, what sealed it for me was when I asked a female member of staff at reception at the Turkish bank airport lounge if there was an ATM in the departure lounge and without even looking up I got a very rude and abrupt "I don't know!". I could also add some more examples but I think you get the gest of it - this Airport needs a complete overhaul of its customer services, I have never experienced a member of staff actually attempting to cause me physical harm, especially as I was with a 2, 7, and 9 year old. An absolute embarrassment to the wonderful a Turkish people I met on holiday, the staff at this airport need a good kick up the back side and made to realise its us customers who keep them in a job.

Not up to international airport standards at all. No wifi is unacceptable in this day and age. Queuing times for check in are a joke. I arrived 3.5 hours before departure and joined the check in line as soon as it opened but still it took 1.5 hours to check into my Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi. The airport clearly can't cope with the traffic and announcements seem to be only in Turkish (given its an international airport I would expect at least one other international language like English). The car rental return is a disgrace too. No signage at all. It's near the cargo area. I found it by chance because I randomly turned right instead of entering the highway after exiting the airport (car rental return is NOT within the bounds of the airport). I've been traveling for 18 months and for the volume of traffic coming here, I expected better.

Absolutely horrible transit experience at Istanbul Ataturk airport. After disembarking the flight from Bangkok we had to queue up for an additional security check where bottles of water were taken off us. When in the terminal we asked Turkish Airlines staff about providing drinking water to which they just shrugged. Free airport WiFi is unavailable unless you have a Turkish mobile number so had to pay for services instead, also had to pay for replacement water as it was not provided by the airport or TK. No general seating areas were available (we found an empty gate and used that) until being moved on by more rude staff. Never again will I use Turkish Airlines unless major changes are made at Istanbul Ataturk Airport.

The transit arrangements at this airport are a shambles. From start to end it was an endurance test. The biggest issue is the sheer unfriendliness of the staff which by the end of the experience means that you, as a passenger, just can't be bothered to smile either. A poor reflection on Turkey (especially given the name of the airport is Ataturk) and as for Turkish Airlines it seems they just don't care how their passengers are being treated/handled by their staff and contractors.

I strongly suggest that you do not use this airport for connecting flights for the following reasons: 1) Most of the feeder flights from Turkish Airlines use old fashioned stairs to get you on and off board. Thus, you have to lug your carry-ons up and down a flight of stairs in any type of weather or temperature. 2) You are shuttled to and from your aircraft via a bus, which adds at least 15 minutes to your time to connect with your flight. 3) The airport is incredibly busy and filled with people who do not travel frequently. As such, you encounter children playing in the middle of the airport, people not staying to the right on the few people movers that exist, etc. Your ability to move from one gate to another is hampered. 4) As mentioned, there are too few people movers, so you had better be in good shape as I would estimate that the distance from one end of the terminal to the other is about 3 km.

My husband and I just waited in the customs line for two hours. The air conditioning did not appear to work and while it was 67 degrees outside it felt like 95 degrees in the line. There was very little organization and people were jumping the line regularly even though other passengers would yell and scream. No one in security seemed to care. We landed at 5pm and expected to reach our hotel by 8pm for a dinner reservation. However after waiting two hours then trying to locate our bags which were no longer at the conveyor belt that was listed, grabbing a cab we missed our dinner reservation. Also at the cab stand we had to wait in line again as others tried to jump it, however at this point my husband and I learned to just push our way to the front.

Needs more organization especially at the departure levels. I think the problem is caused by the flight delays and at the same time causing flight delays. IST-RYD flight never takes off on time.