Istanbul Airport

Good looking international section very poor domestic half. DEPARTURES: In the mornings when conecting from domestic to international terminals the 1st security checkpoint is downright a third world situation. It is organized chaos. Basically whoever squeezes and pushes their way the best will be able to make their flight. Hard to pass people in this situation when they are using trash bags as their carry-on. Hang on tight to the person you are travelling with otherswise you could lose them in the wave of people cramming their way in. Istanbul Security was doing nothing to alleviate the situation. After that it is a very long line through customs to depart the country. I only made it through since some very nice Norwegians allowed my wife and I to cut so we could make our flight into Vienna. It seemed like another 2 or 3 security checkpoints before you finally get to your gate. But you're not done. You will still be crammed on a bus to be taken to your aircraft. Its creepy in here as many Turkish people don't understand that staring at somebody is impolite. In the US it is not tolerated but in Turkey there is nothing you can do. DEPARTING TO ISRAEL OR USA: Extra security on Turkish Airlines. You bags that you have already checked in may be checked back out and you will have to go through each of them with Turkish security before they will place a G.A.S. sticker on your passport. Without that sticker on the back of your passport you won't be leaving. INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL: The terminal all in all is not that bad if you get the chance to actually enjoy it. Some really good Duty Free stores and cafes although the prices for even Efes are very overpriced. ARRIVAL: Very simplistic plenty of customs kiosks set up. Visas are available for purchase at the airport right next to the customs. DOMESTIC TERMINAL: Very poor in comparison. Bad lighting not very clean and little to do. Nice bar in the middle but very expensive...but a good place to kill time as the atmosphere in here is better than the rest of the terminal. The Information desk had no information. Flights that were taking off after mine had a gate scheduled but mine did not. The lady who worked there spoke little english and said "You come back in more time." Don't expect much in domestic. Overall Istanbul isn't a bad airport it just has a few hiccups here and there. It needs to improve on security and the domestic side needs a revamp.

I have used this Ataturk Airport more than a dozen of times in the past and feel OK in general as for its international terminal facilities. However the security check might be too strict. You have to walk through a metal detection gateway while having all of your belongings through X-ray screener to enter the terminal. One day when I proceeded to the security check at the entrance I precautionary took out/off all of metal materials cell phone wallet coins belt rings watch etc. and walked through the gateway but it alarmed. The personnel demanded me to take off my shoes and I tried again; however it alarmed again although only things I put on were a woolen jacket a cotton shirt cotton pants cotton socks and cotton underwear! There are long queues at pasport control on departure most of the time but this can move fast but you will see a long queue once again for metal detection gateway X-ray screening for your cabin baggage and checking your pasport and boarding pass at boarding gates even if you left the airline lounge after sipping a few cups of coffee after you heard the boarding announcement in the lounge. The pasport control on arrival especially at midnight could be a truely nightmare. As you can see in the previous comments passport control personnel are quite slow even though they don't ask you questions such as purpose and duration of your visit. In addition to that when I took a flight from FRA arriving at 2 am I saw a few counters open and arrived passengers filled in front. I could hardly say they were in lines. Most of the people in lines seemed from Russia or eastern Europe. I happened to realize then that Russian women are awfully clueless and mannerless. Once my line moved a bit faster than other lines then some of the women in the line called all of their friends in other lines to come and the line in front of me suddenly got longer than ever since I stood at the end of the queue! And also another woman suddenly muscled her way into the line. I complained but she insisted that she had been there in line! There was no personnel to control those mannerless people. I could go out the terminal almost 2 hours after landed even though I had trouble neither with my luggage nor at custom. Since then I have been trying to avoid arriving at midnight. Domestic terminal is quite poor and seedy. Terribly long queue for entering terminal check-in and security check once again before boarding gates in the peak periods. Many Turkish people jump the line. Nothing fun to kill time both before and after the security check. Especilally the self- service cafe after the security check charges 4 USD for a can of coke. All in all they could manage to catch up world-class standard for facilities (only international terminal though) but their operation is still need improvements.