New Istanbul airport.

[mrsgee]

Travelled to Birmingham today through the new airport. Have to say not impressed at all. Left Ercan in time, landed in Istanbul on time, and then taxied around for a good half hour, before being loaded onto buses. From landing to actually getting into the airport took almost an hour. So finally got into airport, very big and spacious, that part was ok, but feels no where near finished. Staff were really helpful as far as they could be, but didn’t seem to be very well informed, but first day I guess. Off we go searching for HSBC Lounge, one lady sent us one way, it wasn’t there, another man sent us another way wasn’t there either. Eventually someone told us there was not one. Right, ok so, is there a lounge we can pay to go into, yes, pointed us in the direction of IGA I think it was called..... so off we went..... 774 tl for two of us to go into the lounge but as we had a few hours to kill thought, ok. Extortionate but there you go, you live and learn and we certainly did. For our money we had a supply of soft drinks water, coffee, and a very poor selection of salads. WiFi didn’t work. Lots of seating in there, but honestly do not waste you money. The lettuce on the salad bar I would not have fed to a rabbit. So, time to board flight for Birmingham, again taxied around the runways for almost an hour..... not a good experience. I am sure they will get it right, but have a long way to go.