Istanbul Airport Tickets and Tours | GetExperience.com

Istanbul Airport opened in 2018 on the Black Sea edge of the European side, and took over from Ataturk the following spring. Its terminal is among the largest ever built. The number that matters is a different one.

Why the distance is the whole problem

Sultanahmet is about forty-five kilometres of road away. Reckon on an hour, and more at the wrong time of day. The second airport, Sabiha Gokcen, sits on the Asian side and is no easier to reach.

Neither is a place to land without a plan. Working out the ride afterwards costs more than arranging it costs beforehand.

Getting into town

• Private transfer. A driver waiting in arrivals, priced per car rather than per head, which makes it sensible from three people up.
• Havaist coaches. Routes reaching both sides of the city, for a fraction of the fare and rather more of the day.
• M11 metro. The airport line runs to Gayrettepe, where the M2 takes over. About an hour to the peninsula with one change.
• Taxi. Metered and legitimate, and still the commonest thing arriving passengers complain about.

Practical

• Departures. Allow three hours in summer. Passport control is the bottleneck, not check-in.
• Traffic windows. Seven to ten and five to eight are the bad ones, and there is no clever back road.
• Istanbulkart. Buy one in the terminal. It covers the metro, the coaches and everything else that moves in the city.
• Arrivals duty-free. There is a shop before customs, which surprises people who have stopped looking for one.
• Long layovers. Eight hours is enough for the old city, but only with the transport arranged. Improvising eats the flight.
• Airport to airport. Crossing town from Sabiha Gokcen to here is a two-hour proposition, and that is on a good day.