I have heard that the security measures at Istanbul airport have been significantly increased, is this causing delays and should I plan to be there earlier than two hours before the flight ?

?? anyone

Well, the only experience I have is from October 2002. My bags were completely emptied, searched, and repacked, which took a good 30 minutes. That was after going through the normal check-in, ticketing, passport showing, what-not for normal international flights. I was at the airport 2.5 hours early and only sat for about 20-30 minutes.

Perhaps someone else can give you more recent feedback.

We were in Istanbul just a few days after the bombings. When we were leaving we came to the airport two hours before the plane was supposed to leave, and really congratulated ourselves for once being on time. First we went through one check, did some duty free shopping and went throught another check. And we thought that was it.

We decided to start walking towards the gate long before boarding was announced, because we did not know how long way it would be to the gate. And it was long, but like I said, we had plenty of time. Then we spotted a pub on the way, and decided to have a beer, after all it was almost an hour before the plane would leave. After that we landed to the gate, and there were two queues, and both had about 200 people. And at the other end was the third checkpoint, even more through than the first two. My husband and I stood in different queues.

After about half an hour we were both through (or so I thought), and I ran to the airport bus that took people to the plane. The bus was full of people but did not leave. It was only 15 minutes to the departure time. And my husband was nowhere. And the bus full of people was waiting. Less than 10 minutes before the departure he finally appeared. He had been pulled aside, and they had had a very tight search (even when his bag and himself had already been triple checked). Everything had been opened, even his deodorant and shaving stuff. Every piece of his clothing had been turned inside out and so on. Well, the "terrorist" and I made it to the plane five minutes before departure.

So security did not cause a delay, but it sure took a lot of time.

Go to the airport two hours before departure, and don't linger in the cafes or pubs. Go and linger in the queue.

We had a considerable delay when the screeners found a brass object that we had bought at the Grand Bazaar for $100 (a fake astrolabe). They were concerned that we were smuggling valuable artifacts out of the country. Unfortunately the Grand Bazaar doesn't produce certificates of inauthenticity. They relented when we offered to leave the item behind so we could catch our flight...

Thanks for the info

Hi Marko,

Been to both international and domestic terminals few times this month.( last nigjht arrived frm Amsterdam ) Everything looks fine and up & running.

Be there 2 hrs. earlier for international flights thats it.

No problems whatsoever...

Regards,

Murat
[email protected]