Istanbul Airport

The terminal building itself is modern clean and well maintained. However the terminal is very crowded at times though immigration and check in are quite quick. I really like this airport because its close to downtown (20 minutes by bus with no traffic 45 minutes with heavy traffic).

Very long lines at the immigration at arrival and at departure - three booths were open while hundreds of passengers wait. This is very strange. This is from a country that spends so much money promoting itself to be a tourist destination.

The hardware of the airport is modern and sleek. Unfortunately the services level is just appalling. I could not find a trolley. Even I found a trolley I didn't have the 1Tl to take out the cart. After immigration there was no small trolley. When I tried to ask around no one could offer help or speak in English. The Turkish lounge was liked a run-down cafe.

Very easy through immigration - friendly guy on duty which was a good invitation to Budapest. The terminal itself is clean and so few people which was nice. Same shops as most other airports around the world. Had lunch at Greenpoint restaurant - a bit pricey but good food nice cold Efes beer and wifi - a good place to waste a few hours. Overall a good airport and easy to get around.

Arrival was fine however having to pay for a visa in US dollars British pounds or Euro and not the local currency makes you wonder where the money ends up. Leaving was another story. We were flying to Tel Aviv and the recent tension between Turkey and Israel was obvious. There were checks and counter checks. Passport control was tediously long with officials on a go slow. They checked every page of our passports with no consideration for passengers boarding times. When we arrived at the gate with about 5 minutes to spare we were confronted by a sign saying that the gate number had been changed to the other end of the terminal. With travelators out of action the walk was extremely stressful. Rounding the corner to the gate we were confronted by another long line to pass through another x ray security check. Thankfully a man let us take his place at the head of the queue. In a lather of sweat we made it to the bus to take us to the plane it remained stationary for about another 10 minutes with no air conditioning before leaving the terminal. I just wonder if we would have experienced the same frustration if we were flying to another destination.

Arrival process remarkably smooth on Jan 1 trip with no lines at immigration. Selling visas to passengers is just a plain scam in my eyes though. Departure 2 days later a whole other story. Security at the entrance extremely slow and tedious with rude staff. Another 30 minutes to pass immigration. You really have to factor these time consuming hurdles in or you may actually miss your flight. What boggles the mind is why this immigration has to take so long despite the fact that everyone seems to get in (or out) anyway and why it is necessary to have the process done by such rude staff. The Turkish are not the most cheerful people in this world and the airport staff is solely responsible for ruining your travel experience through IST which is otherwise a fine terminal. This also happens to be one of the most expensive airports in the world for shopping and f&b and what is up with the pricing in Euro's for certain articles another misleading scam I assume.

Had strange set of experiences at the airport on my way to Chicago. Check in at front door had the staff person wanting a long conversation with me on what I did and saw in Istanbul while line behind me kept getting longer. Was asked repeatedly if I packed bags myself - thought answering once would be enough. Got asked again by security staff at airline counter - weird. Once we got to gate area the usual second scanning went fine but then more security staff processing very slowly. Stamped my wife's boarding pass but not mine and I did not notice. Then right at jet door was told to wait with no explanation then the staff with stamp shows up some minutes later but took his sweet time processing. Overall a very disruptive process. Inside of airport shops restaurants etc nice though. Security is out of control at this airport which is too bad as the rest of the airport is nice.

Big clean modern airport. But it could be better. As many reviewers have said the cafes and bars are expensive - even by international standards and by Turkish standards are crazy: 17.5 TL for a coffee and a small sandwich. At busy periods the queues on arrival and departure can be lengthy and its not always clear if you're in the right queue - for example many people join the passport control queue without realising that they need to queue for an buy a visa first - better signage would help. The increased traffic also seems to be generating delays with too many planes scheduled to depart at the same time and the runway just can't cope. Recently sat on the apron for 45 minutes having pushed back from the terminal because of the volume of planes waiting to take-off before we even got into the queue at the end of the runway.

A nice airport to look at but be warned very very expensive! Wanted nearly 34YTL for a glass of Turkish wine! Check in areas and arrival area's very nice and clean as where the washroom facility's just don't expect to leave with any money if you go in the Duty Free shops or restaurants!

Flying from the middle East to Istanbul airport is always annoying as through-tickets are never issued. This means the usual long queue booking the seat for the next segment of the journey. Free newspapers in the main hall are a nice touch though and it is nice to be in one of the airports of the region (bordering on the Middle East) where no-one smokes.