Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport

This is the worst airport if you need to change flights in Istanbul. After arrival you follow the transit signs only to find a fully functional and running escalator back to the transfer lounge guarded by 2 officials sending everybody back to arrivals. Even if you have only a short time you have to exit through the customs avoid all the people waiting in arrival lounge make your way to the departure security again and find your gate.

Transited via SAW on my way to and from TLV 3 hrs and 1 hr transit times respectively. Both connections were easy and the terminal is really impressive. Plenty of facilities and pretty friendly staff. A nice surprise as I had low expectations.

Arrived from the UK 14/03/2014 for a connecting flight to Gazipasa Alanya. I had 65 minutes. There were huge queues for passport control and no system for filtering persons connecting with internal flights from all the other arriving passengers. In a word it was chaotic and very stressful. I did make my connection but only by asking fellow passengers if I could go before them and luckily the flight was 20 minutes late departing. Why oh why can't they have dedicated passport booths for passengers connecting with internal flights. It doesn't take that much imagination. International transfers were catered for.

My advise is to avoid this airport at all costs. My daughter and I were travelling to Barcelona this was to be our second flight of the morning. We landed on time (from first flight) had 1 hr 10 minutes to make the second flight. The gate for international transit passengers to proceed from domestic flights to the international terminal was locked. Told to go through the baggage control area exit into the arrivals hall then make our way to the international terminal! When we got to the departure gate area of the international terminal we were greeted with the most chaotic sight I have witnessed in an airport. There were 400 people queuing (if you could call it that). 4 passport control desks were operational. After 40 minutes in the queue I knew we would miss our flight! When our flight was called for final boarding I started to move forward asking people in front of us for permission to pass. I became very irate as my flight had been announced 'ready for departure' but still no call for us by name to come forward for boarding. We eventually cleared passport control where a very rude/ignorant official stamped our passports. We were running to the gate when an airport official asked us if we were on the Barcelona flight? He got on his walkie talkie and said 'don't take the bags off I have the passengers with me' then reopened the departure gate to let us through. We got on the flight. I will never travel through this airport again.

Nice clean and modern airport. But it is miles form Istanbul and transport options are not great. Very high prices for food and drink. Higher than any airport I have been to. This is counter productive as I didn't spend anything! £8 for a beer. The same applies to Ataturk as well. Advise to airport Managers - lower the prices and earn more revenue!

SAW-ASR. In physical terms the airport has a nice wooden interior full of natural light yet in the terms of staff and organization it is a nightmare. Almost nobody speaks English excessive and rude security controls. Wi-Fi is available only through an authorization system available exclusively for people with Turkish sim- cards. Disappointing and infuriating. An international airport managed in a mindset of a local bus station. If the fares were right I would always fly to/from Ataturk instead.

Improved from five years ago in that public transport does reach airport. 80 mins from Taksim for 12 Lira. The airport is spacious and modern. Security were unfriendly and borderline rude. The business class lounge is very basic with only cold food and no wireless internet.

SAW-KYA. Ground staff have little English langauge skills. TK employees at TK counter. Same for security staff very impolite and rude no English knowledge in an international airport.

Flying Easyjet to LGW. A pleasant enough airport no long lines but not much choice of food before or after passport control and very expensive. Duty free shop had a good choice and was reasonably priced. The down side was a totally disorganised gate check just before boarding; we were allowed to walk through with a water bottle we bought into the airport with us but other passengers had bottles taken off them they had purchased at the shop next door to the gate. people seemed to be wandering in and out of the gate area without any checks at all. A sign at the entry to the departures informs people that this is the worlds best airport!

I regularly fly through SAW airport for domestic flights especially to Izmir. The airport has a car parking sufficient enough to capacity however the desk for payment is with one clerk in an unfriendly and rude manner. After having a 1 hour flight you might face with long lines before the payment desk if you have the chance for on-line check-in remember to check-in to the front seats so that you will be able to get on the bus and pick-up an easy location to reach the airport first and if lucky enough you will have a front place in the payment line.