Three airports

IST, SAW and Atatürk are not the same place

Flight tickets, hotel pins and older blog posts still mix the three names. Land at the wrong one and you are on the other side of the city, or at an airport that no longer takes scheduled passengers. Read the code on the boarding pass before you book a car.

Road distance from IST to Taksim or Kadıköy is traffic-dependent. This guide does not lock 40 km or 55 km, and it does not promise a fixed minute count. Reaching the European centre by road is often well over an hour at peak times. The Asian side, including Kadıköy and SAW, means a bridge or a tunnel if you go by car or taxi, and those tolls are extra.

Airport overview film—pair it with the dates, runway note and fares below, not with a frozen destination count.

The terminal you use for scheduled flights is the single main passenger building. A second terminal is not in passenger service, and the M11 stop labelled Terminal 2 is closed until that building exists.

Opening and operator

29 October 2018, then the full move on 6 April 2019

The ceremony and the first air-traffic opening were on 29 October 2018. That is not the same day the whole scheduled passenger operation left Atatürk. The full move of scheduled passenger flights happened on 6 April 2019. An April 2018 opening date is wrong, and Atatürk is not still the passenger airport.

The operator is İGA (Istanbul Grand Airport), a build-operate-transfer consortium. Day to day, that is the company behind the terminal, the airport Wi-Fi and the airport’s own published passenger information on istairport.com.

On 18 September 2026 a fourth main runway opened. It is about 2,820 metres and the first east–west strip. The airfield is now described as four main runways plus two reserve strips—six strips in all. A longer-term sketch of nine runways and 200 million passengers a year is a plan, not a result already delivered in 2025. A frozen “350 destinations / 110 countries” count is the same kind of outdated line. The site is often cited at about 76.5 million square metres. Airport City—hospital, fairground, residences—is not described here as already open.

M11 · TCDD Taşımacılık

The metro already runs to Halkalı

M11 is operated by TCDD Taşımacılık, not by Metro İstanbul. It is not a “planned extension” beyond the airport. Passenger service now runs Gayrettepe – Istanbul Airport – Halkalı, about 69 kilometres and about 57 minutes end to end. About 15 stations are in service. The Terminal 2 station stays closed until that terminal exists.

The line opened in stages, which is why older pages stop at the airport:

• 22 January 2023: Kağıthane–Cargo.
• 29 January 2024: Gayrettepe–Kağıthane.
• 19 March 2024: onward toward Arnavutköy Hospital.
• 19 June 2026: Arnavutköy Hospital–Halkalı, with passenger service from 20 June 2026.

Useful changes, not one-seat rides into every neighbourhood: a short walk from Gayrettepe toward the Zincirlikuyu metrobus; Kağıthane toward the M7 metro; Halkalı toward Marmaray. M11 does not take you directly to Sultanahmet or Kadıköy. Hours are roughly 06:00 until around midnight. There is no night metro on this line. Headway is often cited around 15 minutes—treat that as a soft figure and check the day.

The fare is distance-based under the İBB TUHİM decision effective 20 July 2026. It is not the flat 46.20 TL city-metro fare. The first tap takes the maximum band; the exit gate refunds the unused distance. There is no transfer discount with other modes. Older quotes such as 29.90 TL, or a 90 TL card price, are not this tariff. This page does not convert the bands into another currency.

Pay with an İstanbulkart and keep it for the exit gate so the unused distance can be refunded. A long ride toward Halkalı or Gayrettepe sits in a higher band than a short hop; the table above is the full-fare scale, not a special airport surcharge.

Metro context—hours end around midnight, and the Terminal 2 station is not in passenger service.

IETT expresses

Five city buses, all on the European side

The official iett.istanbul page lists five airport expresses, and only these: H-1 Mahmutbey, H-2 Mecidiyeköy, H-3 Halkalı Marmaray, H-6 Yunus Emre / Arnavutköy and H-8 Hacıosman. Drop H-4 Atatürk. It is not a current IST express.

The TUHİM list of 20 July 2026 prices these airport buses at 92.40 TL, counted as two full boardings. They stay on the European side. They are not a substitute for HAVAİST HVL-6 to Kadıköy, and they are not the luxury coach to Taksim or Sultanahmet.

Use IETT when your stop is actually on one of those five lines and you are comfortable with a city-bus ride after a long flight. For a named central stop with a fixed coach fare, HAVAİST is the product built for that job.

Yellow taxi

Opening fare 71.94 TL, then 47.92 TL per kilometre

Airport taxis use the same UKOME tariff as the rest of the city, as published for 20 July 2026. For a yellow C-segment cab the opening fare is 71.94 TL, the distance rate is 47.92 TL per kilometre, and the minimum trip is 230 TL. That table has no day rate and no night rate. Bridge, tunnel and motorway tolls are extra. This page does not lock a Taksim total or a Sultanahmet total: the meter, the route and the traffic decide the ride.

Ranks are at the airport. Use the official queue rather than a driver who approaches you inside the terminal. A fuller discussion of why the total moves sits in how much a taxi from Istanbul Airport costs. Cab Istanbul is not that queue. A booked transfer is a different product, arranged before you land.

Five common arrivals

Taksim, Sultanahmet, Beşiktaş, Kadıköy, Esenler

These five places are the ones readers ask for most. Fares in the coach column are the 20 July 2026 HAVAİST prices. Road times are deliberately not locked. At peaks, the European centre is often well over an hour by car, and the Asian side adds a bridge or tunnel toll.

Aksaray (HVL-1, 470 TL), Bakırköy / Merter (HVL-4, 420 TL), Beylikdüzü (HVL-2, 460 TL) and Halkalı (HVL-8, 350 TL) are on the same coach tariff if your hotel sits on those lines instead. None of them changes the rule that road time follows traffic.

Where to sleep

YOTELAIR in the terminal, Hampton a short drive out

Only two hotels belong in this guide. YOTELAIR—often still called YOTEL—is the terminal hotel. Airside rooms are for passengers who stay inside the international transit area and do not pass Turkish immigration. Landside rooms require you to pass immigration, which means you need the right to enter Türkiye. This page does not lock a cabin count and does not quote an hourly rate.

Outside the fence, the only nearby hotel named here is Hampton by Hilton Istanbul Arnavutköy, a short drive from the terminal. Older lists of star ratings, review scores and unverified addresses are dropped rather than reprinted. Cab Istanbul does not sell either hotel.

Food and shopping

Duty-free, cafés and restaurants after security

On international departures, duty-free and food are extensive once you are through security. That is as specific as this guide gets. It does not lock a restaurant count, and it does not describe hologram displays or a “Magic Mirror” as if those were verified fixtures.

Cafés are spread through the terminal for a coffee before boarding or while you wait on an arrival. They are ordinary terminal food outlets, not a reason to miss a tight connection. If you are only transiting airside, you use what is on the airside side of passport control; landside cafés are for people who have entered or not yet departed through immigration.

Sit-down restaurants follow the same rule: the range is wide after security on international departures, and the mix changes. Eat where your gate and your connection time allow. None of these outlets is sold, reserved or recommended as a Cab product.

Visa and baggage

Sort the visa before you fly; bags follow the ticket

If your nationality needs an entry visa for Türkiye, arrange it before travel. The official e-Visa site is evisa.gov.tr, and it covers tourism and commerce only. Turkish Airlines states that there are no e-Visa kiosks at IST. Do not rely on a general “two counters after landing” story. Visa on arrival exists only for specific nationalities—check mfa.gov.tr for your passport, not a forum summary.

Airside international transit, where you do not pass Turkish passport control, normally needs no entry visa. Some nationalities can still need an airport transit visa even for that airside path. Read the rule for your passport before you accept a tight connection.

Through-checked bags on one ticket stay with the airline. Do not tell every transit passenger they must claim luggage. Separate tickets and self-transfer are different: you often have to collect the bags, enter Türkiye, and hold the visa or the exemption that entry requires. Build the connection time for immigration and a second check-in, not for a sterile walk between gates.

• One ticket, bags tagged to the final city: stay airside if the airline through-checks you. No automatic luggage claim.
• Two tickets you joined yourself: plan to enter Türkiye, with the right visa or exemption, and to re-check the bags.
• Landside YOTELAIR, or any city hotel: you are entering Türkiye, not remaining in international transit.
• Airside YOTELAIR: only if you are eligible to remain inside the international transit area on that itinerary.

Before you go

A short checklist that matches the 2026 airport

• Read the airport code. IST is Arnavutköy. SAW is the Asian-side airport. Atatürk is not the passenger hub.
• If you need an entry visa, use evisa.gov.tr before the flight, or confirm a narrow visa-on-arrival rule on mfa.gov.tr. Do not expect a general visa desk after landing.
• On one ticket, assume through-checked bags stay with the airline. On separate tickets, assume you will enter Türkiye.
• M11 runs Gayrettepe – airport – Halkalı until around midnight. It does not run all night, and it does not go to Sultanahmet or Kadıköy.
• HAVAİST fares are the July 2026 line prices above. IETT is 92.40 TL on H-1, H-2, H-3, H-6 and H-8 only.
• A yellow taxi starts at 71.94 TL and bills 47.92 TL per kilometre, minimum 230 TL, tolls extra. A Cab transfer is a booked car, not that queue.

Parking tariffs, lounge prices and left-luggage prices are intentionally absent. They were not verified as a 2026 table worth copying, and a wrong number is worse than a pointer to istairport.com, hava.ist and the hotel’s own page.