Istanbul Airport once again crowned world's best airport: Survey

ISTANBUL

Türkiye's Istanbul Airport, the biggest airport in Europe, has once again been crowned the world's best airport through a survey by the leading travel magazine Travel + Leisure.

The airport was the world's best for the second straight year.

"And if it's possible, the airport got even better — securing a 98.57 score compared to last year’s 95.79," Travel + Leisure said in a statement.

The airport's operator, iGA Istanbul Airport, said the award was presented to Corporate Communications Director Gökhan Şengül at a ceremony held in New York.

In the survey, airports were evaluated based on accessibility, check-in experience, security, dining options, shopping and overall design.

iGA Istanbul Airport first entered the magazine’s prestigious ranking in 2021, the first Turkish airport ever to do so.

"Following iGA Istanbul Airport in this year’s top ten were some of the world’s most prominent airports, including those in Singapore, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Japan, India and Hong Kong, underscoring iGA’s remarkable achievement on the global stage," iGA said.

Istanbul Airport was Europe's second-busiest airport last year and began simultaneous triple runway operations this April.

With this infrastructure, it became the first in Europe to have three runways and the second in the world, after the United States.

The airport handled about 80 million passengers in 2024, making it Europe's largest and second-busiest airport.

It also became Europe's busiest air cargo hub last year, according to the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe's 2024 Annual Traffic Report.