Lounge Review: IST IGA Lounge

Index to Genius1 Trip Reports

When Istanbul’s new airport fully opened at the end of 2019, so did new airport-operated lounges in both the domestic and international areas of the terminal. The international lounge serves most non-Star Alliance airlines, including BA, as well as being open to various lounge pass holders and pay-per-use passengers. Open 24 hours, the lounge is located to the left after security in the direction of the A and B gates. The entrance to the lounge itself is located one level above the main concourse, adjacent to the SkyTeam lounge.



The lounge is clearly geared up for heavy use, as the reception is a maze of tensabarriers. There was thankfully only a short queue when I arrived one April morning last year – I was checked in by a fairly unwelcoming human, before being permitted entry to the lounge via a boarding pass scan at the automatic gates. It’s odd that those not needing to purchase access or prove lounge membership credentials have to queue to see an agent despite there being automatic gates – I’m assuming this is due to boarding pass details not being automatically readable by the gates without human intervention at the reception desk.

Once inside, a long corridor leads past a luggage storage area, washrooms and showers and a small duty free store before opening up into one of four main long rectangular areas. Floor plans are helpfully dotted around the lounge as the space is large and amenities are not immediately obvious.





The welcome lounge is the first area passengers arrive in, which comprises of a (roped off) grand piano and a few seating clusters – mostly low-backed armchairs arranged in groups of two. One gentleman was sleeping on two of these chairs and was promptly woken by a member of staff and chastised at some volume. A ‘relaxation area’ (which looked remarkably similar to the welcome lounge) is next.





The tended bar area features a billiard table and is located adjacent to a partially enclosed ‘outdoor’ terrace, which was devoid of furniture potentially due to the biblical rain in progress outside that morning.







The final part of the first quarter of the lounge is a business area, with a few communal work tables, a couple of PCs and a number of meeting rooms, all with display screens.





The central core of the lounge is home to a large buffet and dining space with two self-service island buffets and tended counters at either end. One end is branded as a ‘pita oven’, but there didn’t seem to be much on offer that morning besides some sad-looking olives, prunes, cheese, cold cuts, cut tomato and courgette. I don’t know whether the lounge was suffering from a catering issue during my visit, but there was precisely nothing that interested me which is something of a rarity when it comes to my lounge visits.







Prayer rooms, a baby care room and further washrooms and showers are accessible from both sides of the lounge in this central core, with a spacious children’s play room at the far end, monitored by CCTV that is broadcast to the seating area directly outside the room, which I thought was a thoughtful idea for parents needing to keep an eye on their little ones.



Three different lounge areas make up the bulk of the lounge’s seating in the next strip of space, with the seating area directly opposite the children’s room being alcohol-free. There are a variety of different armchair seating options throughout this area, although none are particularly comfortable or privately arranged. A coffee station is located adjacent to the play room.







Accessed from the alcohol-free lounge on a lower level is the ‘private resting area’ which is about the least private space one can imagine. Rows of high-back armchairs and loungers are arranged in semicircles, on full display to the main (elevated) part of the lounge and with full light and noise from the terminal’s windows and concourse below. A huge advertising screen is thrown in for good measure. There’s another coffee station tucked around the corner to keep you even further awake.





The lower ‘Bosphorus Terrace’ and elevated coffee break area both seem to act as extensions of the dining area, with coffee stations in both. The elevated area feels like an afterthought, and I think could well have been originally designed to be part of the adjacent SkyTeam lounge space which is clearly visible. Indeed, some of that lounge’s wall panelling extends into the IGA lounge’s space. Both of these areas are devoid of any character and suffer from the same light and sound-related issues as the private resting area, although this time to a more tolerable degree given their intended function.







According to the airport’s website, complimentary massages are offered in the lounge every day (except Mondays and Thursdays for some reason) between 08:00-17:00. I didn’t see any trace of this offer during my visit, although I was in the lounge well before 08:00 on a Thursday which might have explained it.

Whilst the IGA lounge has space and a variety of amenities, the execution of the interior design and layout doesn’t feel at all homely, welcoming or high quality. As with many lounges open to the main terminal, light and noise pollution is a real issue, which coupled with the unacceptable low variety and quality of food available doesn’t have me rushing to return to this lounge.