Istanbul Airport

Late evening arrival from STN. Visa queue 10 mins. Passport control quick though and no other delays but long walk to domestic terminal if you are connecting inside Turkey - some moving walkways but otherwise up ramps and round quite a maze of passages to get to gates. All signed and not difficult though. Return journey passport control quite efficient and no untoward delays. Shopping choice good but duty free prices are high. Couldn't notice any extremes of smoking though around the terminal or at gates so as a non-smoker quite happy with that and new facilities being added to improve shopping. Used CIP lounge as short time to wait for connections - good service nice choice of refreshments and varied seating areas including some very plush rooms and good business desks too but intrusive noise from adjoining areas plus 4 tvs on different channels were competing as well. Security not an issue - prompt no extra delays or problems. Whole airport appeared nice and clean and was a good experience.

Queue for visa a little slow on inbound but moved at a reasonable pace considering a lot of flights arrived at the same time. Bags arrived quickly. Domestic terminal very busy in morning peak but lines moved at a good pace and wait times were not to long. Receiving bags off domestic flight was very quick so off the plane to outside the domestic terminal. Outbound international terminal: check in was quick passport control was a little slow Good selection of shoping and restaurants and generally easy to move around. Overall an easy to use and efficient airport.

Ataturk is a modern friendly and well organised airport came from london on 18th August immigration was bit slow but if not travelling within EU you have to be a bit more patient baggage arrived quickly departure 4 days later: painless no queues at check-ins even though it was 1h before departure good duty-free shops some queues to security but not as bad as in london very nice and easy to use airport: the only disadvantage is that smoking is permitted in many areas but in turkey for some reason you can smoke absolutely everywhere - hope that will change when they are eventually allowed into the EC.

Have been using IST for many times and this time arriving from Rome FCO. terminal was clean Immigration was not so fast and depending on arrival time it could take 1 hour or less. Luggage was ready after immigration finished. Havas shuttle buses to city are very good while taxi fee to city is sometimes USD 35-40. on outbond trip: Security at entrance was so fast surprisingly Check in was not so bad and depends on airline but no arrangement from airport staff to manage the passenger queues. Immigration was fast and security at gate was efficient.

Check in here is awful not organised particularly well not enough desks open when we last travelled which had a knock on effect on then getting through security. We were surprised that everyone managed to make their flights as it took so long . And then there is the palaver at the gate itself - more security and little organisation. Have to say though that the Airport Hotel was marvellous great rooms superb staff and lovely breakfast looking out over the apron. We are used to many different airports and to be honest they all have their faults - at least at Ataturk Airport you can pass the time by people watching.

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.