Questions and Answers

Hi, first post with your site. I appreciated your story re:the new Istanbul airport.
I’m traveling to Israel and planning to fly Turkish Air. There’s a stopover for each if flights from Boston to Tel Aviv. Would you happen to know if all of the Turkish Air gates are in close proximity to one another? I’m concerned that I may have to walk a considerable distance from arrival gate from Boston, to departure gate (both flights on Turkish Air) gate for Israel. There may not be sufficient time to make the connection, if there are delays in Boston departing, or in Istanbul.
Also, are there any food courts or restaurants available in the secure area (if, in fact there is a significant timeframe for stopover)?
I speak no Turkish-strictly US English. Are service providers multi-lingual?
Please excuse my naïveté with asking such basic questions, but I have never traveled to the Middle East prior to this trip.
Thanks for any and all info you may provide!
Nancita B

Welcome [USER=5738]@Nancitab B[/USER] – Istanbul is Turkish Air’s hub so the majority of gates in the airport belong to them. I don’t believe you’ll have any issue getting food or service in English or a mix of English and hand gestures.

As I look at Turkish’s schedule, they allow a minimum of 1h 45m between flights to Tel Aviv. But the good news is that even if you miss that connection, there are several more flights from IST to Tel Aviv that day.

The new IST airport is quite large and quite spread out, according to Ben’s blog post about it so it may indeed take time to get there. But transit time between gates should already be accounted for in the airline schedule and even if you miss that flight there are several more that day to get you to your final destination.