Layover in Istanbul. Huge airport

For the first time, I landed at Istanbul Airport (IST), the airport located on the European side. On my previous visit to Istanbul, I had landed at the secondary airport on the Asian side.

The airport, which is Turkish Airlines’ main hub, is enormous!
It covers about 77 square kilometers (77 million m²) and handles around 80 million passengers annually. Besides its size, there are plenty of loungers, chairs, and benches to make transit comfortable.
It’s impressive to see the number of destinations served, from Russia to the USA and even more exotic locations (like Iraq, Somalia, etc.)

One interesting thing: since we arrived during the evening prayer time, the airport was full of people in towels and bathrobes, having just performed their ablutions before prayer.

The only downside was the really outrageous prices — very high, even considering it’s an airport.Read more