Istanbul Airport

You will be charged to use a trolley, very long queue to drop luggage and rude staff especially at passport control. The worst is the internet, you cannot use the internet even to check your flight information. To use the internet you have to pay but you will need a Turkish phone number to receive a message with a user code.

Probably the worst in Europe. Very crowded, lacks organization, delays are a daily occurance, staff not friendly. Cleanliness is non-existant, smells awful, no airport wi-fi internet connection available. Never using this airport again.

When you pay so much extra for business class, you'd expect better service and more comfort but this airport didn't provide that. Was travelling Qatar and was informed that only business passengers flying Turkish Airlines cans use the fast track, so had to wait quite a while in long lines. At passport control thankfully there was a fast track but only one member of the staff so the economy line was moving faster than ours. The lounge was decent though, not great but not bad at all. Overall, too crowded, very busy and not enough staff, however it depends on what time you're flying.

Arrivals at Istanbul were efficient. Passport control were OK, but the delivery of Priority declared baggage (tool boxes) a real disaster! Travelling every 2-3 weeks on TK flights with my “Priority” declared tool boxes/baggage, IST Ataturk airport the delivery is a disaster. Average waiting / delivery time is 45 minutes. Other airports and grounding suppliers doing much better. Turkish Airlines, TGS should improve here.

This is quite a bad airport. It has no free WIFI, you have to pay with a Turkish card/or get a membership. The facilities in the airport are poor and the toilet isn't the best either. I was walking to the waiting area of my plane and had to pass a guy checking my boarding ticket and passport. His attitude was beyond bad and disrespectful. The airport terminal itself doesn't offer much, only few shops and it seemed very unorganized. It's not comfortable being there, it reminds me of being at a Turkish bazaar as it is overcrowded.

Really dont like this airport. Too big, too crowded and very hot. Passport control on departure was painfully slow, long lines and not enough staff. The only advantage was no queue for security. Thankfully I had access to the Turkish Airlines CIP lounge which provided some relief from the crowds.

Was unfortunate to transit 5 hours in this airport due to a missed connecting flight thanks to Turkish Airlines delayed flight. It would have been great if there is a fast pass accessed at the security checks for those who has an urgent connecting flight to catch, as to be honest, my boyfriend and I would have been able to catch our connecting flight if it wasn't for the long security checks and so on (also the delay did not help). Staff were pretty rude when we asked them for assistance in rebooking our next flight and the Bake and Cake shop which is supposed to supply us with free sandwich due to their flight delay, was horrible. Shops were limited in that airport and most of the time I couldn't figure out if the prices were in Turkish Lira or in Euros (they were not consistent in their price tag throughout the entire airport).

Flew in from SFO. Arrivals: Bags took almost an hour to come. Flights coming after ours had their bags delivered first. Trolleys need to be issued by inserting Turkish Lira or Euro. Which means you need to exchange money prior to accessing your own luggage. Trolleys in a condition fit enough to make you cry. Departure: Flying to Delhi. Worst departure terminal in the world lazy ground staff. Flying in Business Class I am supposed to pickup my own suitcases (all 5 of them) as well as my handbags on my own load them onto a security scanner before getting inside the terminal and at the same time bear the brunt of the security staff. Majority Long Haul Flights of Turkish Airlines are parked on the Tarmac instead of the Jetway despite several empty Jetways and they overload people onto their buses.

One of the worst most overcrowded Western airports I have had the displeasure of using recently. Despite exponential passenger growth at IST (namely Turkish Airlines…) there has obviously been absolutely no consideration for terminal expansion and infrastructure improvements. There was very long immigration lines both inbound and outbound coupled with rude immigration staff. Limited options in the food court which was so packed you could barely walk through. Very poor generic lounge facilities. Boarding gate (which of course was standoff bay with a bus) was ridiculously packed and crowded. I would guess that the airport facilities are around 50% undersized for the amount of passenger traffic going through IST. The whole experience both inbound and outbound was crowded inefficient and unpleasant. I would liken it to being in Times Square during New Year’s Eve. So I'd suggest using SAW if you are entering Istanbul and definitely forget about transiting IST.

I use this airport every 2 weeks and have done for 2 years now. In the beginning I admired how they managed to handle such a volume of traffic in a relatively small space. But now IST airport is going downhill very fast as it cannot cope with the growth of Turkish Airlines. The terminals which were built to handle about 30 million passengers annually now have to deal with nearly 60 million people each year. Same goes for the just 2 runways. I can understand that the airport staff are becoming increasingly frustrated and at times rude. Airside: Once you have reached Istanbul airspace be prepared that it will take at least another 30 minutes until you land. 3 weeks ago it took almost an hour as the plane had to fly for a long time over the Black Sea until joining the 100 kilometres long queue of other planes on their way to the final approach. Once you have touched ground you are not there yet. Taxiing takes quite some time as taxiways are often blocked by other planes and in many cases you will be brought to the terminal by bus. Also regarding take-offs delays seem to increase. It happened 2 times last month that the plane I took was on waiting position 10 to reach the runway after a long wait until starting to taxi so another useless 45 minutes being spent on the tarmac. Terminals: The waiting time for immigration is never predictable and can be anything between 2 minutes or 2 hours. Emigration is a bit faster but it is always difficult to predict as well how long it will take you. Lately queues seem to have become longer in general. Security check is usually relatively quick. The international terminal is very crowded and the food options are quite costly compared to Turkish price levels but normal compared to the usual rip-off at airports. I used the domestic terminal only once. It looked quite run-down and it took 30 minutes until the luggage was delivered. Not a good one-time-impression. In both terminals the number of airbridges is by far not sufficient which means that you will be taken by bus to and from your plane in many cases. When the departure announcement shows gates 301 - 312 you will get the "flair" of a totally overcrowded coach station. Ground transportation: The metro to the city centre is quite cheap (215 TL with IstanbulKart - you can get it at the airport) and runs every 6 minutes (which is not enough though between 18h00 and 19h30). The Havatas buses to Taksim are a comfortable alternative but during rush hours it can take much longer to the city centre.