0

I booked a flight with Turkish Airlines from Germany to Mardin, Turkey. The transit time between the international arrival and the domestic departure is only 100 minutes. Who knows about the procedure at Istanbul airport?

Is it enough time? Do I have to go to passport control and security check? Must I collect my luggage and check in again? Mardin is only a domestic airport without customs.

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

As you are connecting to a domestic flight you will need to pass through immigration. At Istanbul airport, this can take anywhere between a few minutes and 30+ minutes depending on the time of day and how busy they are at the time.

As the airport you are connecting to does not have Customs, you will need to collect your bags at Istanbul and take them through customs there. If the airport you were connecting to did have customs then you could avoid this step.

Next you will need to proceed to the domestic terminal (a 10-15 minute walk from the International Arrivals area) where you will be able to re-check your luggage, go through security, and board your domestic flight.

100 minutes for all of this is possible - but tight. If you need a visa to enter Turkey make sure that you have arranged this in advance (to save having to line up at the visa-on-arrival counter first), and once you land don't waste any time!

Improve this answer
8
  • I was at Istanbul last summer and I'm pretty sure I saw people with tight connections being ushered to a short passport line.
    – phoog
    Feb 17, 2018 at 20:36
  • For passport control three are 3 lines - the normal one, a Turkish Airlines business class line, and a TAV priority line (other airlines business class, etc). I'm fairly sure there's no short-connection line, especially given that most connecting passengers are international and don't need to go through passport control.
    – Doc
    Feb 18, 2018 at 3:21
  • @phoog you may be thinking of the fact that connecting international passengers are often allowed bypass security. As you exit the plane from some locations connection passengers are sent one way, arriving (incl connecting domestic) passengers go another way.
    – Doc
    Feb 18, 2018 at 3:24
  • I was standing in the passport control line and some people who were not Turkish citizens were being escorted to the Turkish citizens' line, off to the right. But the backup was exceptional: it took over a hour to get to the front of the line. Maybe they were just trying to clear the backlog. In any event none of those people were going to international connections, at least not directly. You also left out the e-visa line, which was separate, off to the left.
    – phoog
    Feb 18, 2018 at 5:33
  • 1
    @phoog Sorry, but that is incorrect. (I passed through immigration at IST airport 6 times last year using an e-visa, so it's a topic I'm very familiar with)
    – Doc
    Feb 18, 2018 at 18:03

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .