Tight flight connection at Istanbul Airport (IST) –How to Manage

Turkish Air cancelled our flight from Palermo to IST forcing us to take Italian Air to Rome and then change planes for a flight that doesn’t arrive at IST until an hour before our TK flight to JFK.

If TA canceled your flight, were you not eligible to cancel and refund the entire ticket? How much more was it to fly from JFK to Rome and then on to Sicily on ITA?

Is the return flight on a single ticket? If so, it is TA's responsibility to get you on the next flight with available seats.

Thanks for your insights Mark! Yes, I believe Turkish Air will have to put us on the next flight the following morning if we miss the connection and I would hope they would put us up in a hotel. The two small kids make this and the seating arrangements stressful. Would love to make the connection. Good suggestion about cancelling the whole thing but at this late date we couldn't find anything that would make sense in terms of cost and seating.
John

Hi John,

Haven’t been through IST with a connection under 2 hours, but a hour connection looks like it is super tight.

My recommendation is that you reach out to your travel agent and have them walk through the steps for your transfer. Please advise them on whether you are checking luggage. The travel agent should be able to advise you on whether you have to pick up luggage if you are on a different airline and then check into Turkish Air or if the way the travel agent ticketed the flight, the luggage will go straight through to your final destination.

The travel agent should be able to provide you with a map of the airport and an idea of the transit times between your two flights at IST. They should also be able to help you book tickets as close to the front of the plane so you can exit quickly.

I would also ask them specifically how you are going to get rebooked if you miss the connection.

The problem with a tight connection at IST is the airport is enormous--not just the terminals, but the runways are off in the distance. My on-time flight landed and then spent 30 minutes just getting to the gate, and I understand this is common. Sorry to be so pessimistic.

Here is a link to a YouTube video covering transfers at IST:

https://youtu.be/zt7fO423P8o?si=NhJXlHMaCWXdm4hD

There are a number of them - should hopefully give you an idea of what to expect.

You could also look at ontime performance of the arriving and departing flights on FlightAware or similar website.

Also not wanting to rain on your parade, but as ponygirl noted IST is enormous and you really can taxi for a half hour after landing to the gate, then you may have a VERY long walk to the next gate (it took 15 minutes to walk to passport control from my gate). You may want to do some homework on the layout of IST airport and look at typical gates for the flights you are on (not every flight uses exactly the same gate). Are you checking luggage? That would be a bigger concern for me with such a short layover, so make sure to pack your important items in your carry on including anything necessary for an overnight stay.

Did Turkish Air rebook your cancelled flight from Palermo? If so, you might need to spend some time on the phone with Turkish Air getting information about what will happen if you miss your connection, including whether hotel is provided. If you booked the Italian Air flight on your own/separately, then you might want to consider 1) changing the flight to the day before or 2) bumping your IST-JFK flight to the next day so you can do a long layover. There are airport hotels airside (Yotel) as well as nearby. With two kiddos this might reduce stress.

Has your travel agent ever personally flown through IST?
I have transited through the huge IST airport several times since it opened and believe one hour is, unfortunately, not nearly enough time.

IST has the largest airport terminal building in the world and it’s the largest airport by area in all of Europe covering 76 square kilometers, which is 29 square miles of land!
By comparison, FCO airport in Rome covers 16 square kilometers and JFK in NY covers 8 square kilometers.

Your plane can easily take 15 minutes just to taxi to its assigned gate. This leaves you with only 45 minutes. Just deplaning at one gate and walking to your other flight’s gate can take more than one hour depending on whether you have checked luggage you will have to collect and re-check after going back through security. If you do have checked luggage to collect in IST for your flight home— I would plan on overnighting in Istanbul.

IST has huge distances you need to walk through the terminals and there are very few moving sidewalks for such a large airport. IST also has inadequate signage directing deplaning passengers to Passport Control, and the Luggage Carousels. To get through it all with two little ones in tow will make it even more challenging.
The key to having any chance of making the flight is to check-in any luggage you must check-in all the way through to the U.S. so you don’t need to collect it and go back through security.

Something that is not clear from the OP's post is whether the FCO-IST flight is on the Italian airline or on TK. If latter, then luggage shouldn't be an issue since either the bags (assuming OP has checked luggage) will be through checked to the final destination or the OP will have to deal with collecting and rechecking luggage at Rome and not IST.

Given the fact that TK provides hotels for so many transiting passengers with long layovers and also encourages stopovers, they will almost surely provide a hotel, transport, and meals should the OP miss their connection assuming the ticket is on TK stock.

Thank you for your helpful responses! The flight from FCO to IST is ITA but operated by TK and I believe the travel agent booked it as a part of our whole round trip JFK to JFK itinerary. I hope this means we will likely be provided with a hotel if the connection is missed.

Not to pile on, but, we flew into Istanbul in August. I don’t believe we have ever walked that far in an airport. It is, indeed, huge. With small children,I don't see any way to make a connection in an hour.

Have you considered having your travel agent move your flight from Sicily to IST back one day earlier. Of course the agent should provide lodging (and transportation) for you at a hotel near the airport. I stayed at an outstanding one about 10 minutes from the airport last September. This way your international leg remains intact.

I wholeheartedly agree that a one hour may be incredibly tight.

If any one in your family has any mobility issues such as a turned ankle or a bad knee that might be slowing them down—be sure to request transfer assistance from the airline so you can get a ride in an electric cart from your arrival gate to your departure gate at IST.

Good Luck!

I would never attempt such a short layover in a huge airport with two children under five! It’s pretty obvious that your travel agent has never been to the Istanbul airport.

If it were me, I would arrange to stay in a hotel overnight in or near the Istanbul airport and then fly to JFK the next day. Worth every penny to avoid a really stressful situation.

I am so grateful for so much insightful info from so many knowledgeable people in this forum. This will really help us to prepare for what is coming. Based on what I am hearing I think it is likely that we will be spending the night in Istanbul, hopefully at the expense of the airline. If they can get us on a flight the next day it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

The only thing I will add is I know people who have made the one hour connection. So while everyone else is right, and you should mentally prepare for the worst, it’s not impossible that you will make it if all is on time. Just be ready to walk fast.

"Hopefully at the expense of the airline" isn't a position I would want to be in before my travels. Your travel agent should be working hard to help you understand the situation they put you in - don't let them off the hook. That includes helping you find better flights or rearrange your itinerary so you are not sprinting through the world's fourth largest airport with two small children, or are stuck paying for overnight accommodations (potentially for more than one night).

Also your agent should have recommended this, but if they did not you might consider getting a travel insurance policy that covers trip interruption/delay. Read the fine print VERY carefully including any exclusion clauses that might be based on when you purchase the policy.

Looking at Turkish Air website, I am unable to find an itinerary . PMO-FCO-IST-JFK for Oct 26 that does not have at least a 3hr 45 min. stop at IST.

Did your travel agent create the ridiculous routing or did Turkish Air?

If your agent cobbled together a routing Turkish does not sell, relying on Turkish to take care of you ( should you miss the 1 hr connection) may be unrealistic.

Turkish Air DOES offer the one hour connection - depart FCO at 20:05 [TK flight but also ITA codeshare] - arrive IST 23:45 then depart for JFK at 00:45. Travel agent could easily tack on the leg from Palermo.

Edit: departure time to JFK corrected to 00:45

Hi John, One advantage to transferring flights in cash-strapped Turkey is that Booking.com is showing dozens of highly-rated airport hotels located within 2-3 miles of IST with rates starting at U.S.$30-$50. Some have airport shuttles that will pick you up just outside the airport terminal.
Cheers!

I also had trouble finding the one-hour layover, but will take markcw’s word for it that it exists! It does sound brutal though to be traveling on a route with so many connections late at night with two kids. I found several itineraries with much longer layovers that would work, particularly if you are willing to spend a night in Istanbul (or possibly Rome). It seems like a good travel agent would be suggesting some of these alternatives, rather than just insisting that the one-hour layover will be fine. Keep in mind that airlines often close the door on the aircraft 15-30 minutes before the actual departure time, and once they do that, they won’t let you board even if the aircraft has not pushed off.

I agree with CL that "Hopefully at the expense of the airline" is probably not the way to go. As a real-life example, I recently was scheduled for a one-hour layover in Seoul, South Korea. Unfortunately, my plane from the States left two hours late so, of course, I missed the next flight in Seoul. Only because it was the airline’s fault (mechanical issues) did they pay for a hotel and meals, putting me on the next day’s flight. If I had missed the flight because it took me too long to get off the first plane and then I couldn’t move fast enough to a distant gate, they would have rebooked me for a flight the next day, but it would have been extremely unlikely that they would have paid for my extra expenses.

Really, why set yourself up for so much stress and exhaustion? Fly to Istanbul, find a nice airport hotel to sleep and have a good breakfast, and fly out the next day non-stop to JFK.

I've had tight layovers in IST myself. While the new airport is huge, these tight connections in fact can (and do) work. The trick is to look for the short transfer shortcuts.
When you arrive at the airport you deplane in the upper level, and normally you would walk to the main terminal building, which, depending on where you plane docks, can indeed be quite a walk. However there are distributed over the different piers separate short transfer checkpoints, which you can use if you have a short connection. These allow you a shortcut to the departures level, with a checkpoint where there are usually no queues.

And while the airport is big, it is not absurdly so. Walking between two furthest away gates would take a normal person about 20 minutes. That is the worst case scenario...

I love IST. Large but well organized and well run. Not my first choice, but I have done 1 hour connections there maybe 3 times over the years. Always made it, but walked brisket.

Get a seat near the front of your arrival flight. That's always good for 5 minutes.

I did have a Turkish Air flight this year that con̈acted to Malaysia Air. The Turkish Air flight was late because the airspace over Iran was closed while they fired missiles towards their west. Missed my connection, but Turkish Air cause it was their ticket put me up in a 5 star hotel for the night and I caught a flight out in the morning. Treated very well.

Thank you so much for the tips on how to negotiate the Istanbul airport for our tight connection. We have not been able to find any alternate flights that make sense so we are trying to do everything we can to make the connection.

I really appreciate all the help you have given us.