Getting around IST
Istanbul Airport is one building, not several: IGA describes it as a terminal of 1.4 million square metres under a single roof, split into an international side (piers A–F) and a domestic side (pier G) rather than separate terminals. It opened for service on October 29, 2018, and took over commercial flights in full on April 6, 2019, when Turkish Airlines moved its entire operation from Atatürk Airport in what the airline calls the largest relocation in the history of civil aviation. Turkish Airlines, which brands itself the airline flying to more countries than any other, now flies to 130 countries from this hub. Because the terminal is so large, getting between distant piers is the real question for a connecting passenger — walk it, or pay for the iGA Buggy shuttle that runs to the gates. DHMİ, Türkiye’s state airports authority, put 2025 traffic at approximately 84.5 million passengers.
