Arriving at Istanbul Airport With a Wheelchair or Reduced Mobility

Istanbul Airport is one of the largest terminals in the world, and the distances inside it are the thing that catches people out. A walk that would be nothing at a smaller airport is a serious undertaking here.

If you or someone travelling with you cannot manage long distances, two separate things need arranging — and they are arranged with two different people.

Inside the Terminal Is Your Airline's Job

Assistance from the aircraft door through passport control and baggage reclaim is provided by the airport, and it is booked through your airline, not through us. You request it when you book your flight, or by contacting the airline afterwards — most ask for at least 48 hours' notice.

We cannot arrange this for you and neither can any transfer company. If it has not been requested, it may not be waiting. Do it early.

Outside the Terminal Is Ours

That is where we pick up. Our meeting point is the same as for everyone else: leave through Exit 13 and head for the sign marked M55. Our team is there whatever time you land.

What changes is what we do once you arrive, and that depends entirely on what you tell us beforehand.

What to Tell Us, and Why Each Thing Matters

Is the wheelchair folding or rigid? A folding chair travels in the boot and takes roughly the space of a large suitcase. A rigid one takes considerably more. Either is fine — but the chair has to be counted as luggage when we choose the vehicle, and that is the calculation people forget.

Can the passenger transfer into a car seat unaided, with help, or not at all? This is the single most useful sentence you can send us. It decides which vehicle makes sense and how the driver should be ready to help.

Is there a walking frame, crutches or oxygen? Same reasoning — space, and knowing in advance rather than at the kerb.

How far can the passenger walk comfortably? Not "can they walk" but how far. The honest answer shapes everything.

At the Other End

Tell us about the hotel too. Some Istanbul hotels are on streets a car cannot reach, or have steps at the entrance and no ramp. If that is the case we would rather find out while there is still time to plan around it than on the morning you arrive.

One Request

Send all of this when you book, not on the day. None of it is difficult to arrange with notice, and almost all of it is difficult to arrange at the airport kerb with a tired family and a queue of cars behind.

In Short

Book assistance inside the terminal through your airline, early. Tell us about the chair, the walking distance and the hotel entrance when you book. We will meet you at M55 like everyone else, with the right vehicle and a driver who already knows what is needed.