Sabiha Gokcen Airport Meet and Greet
Sabiha Gökçen meet and greet is Turkey Airports Assistance’s arrival service at Istanbul’s second airport, SAW, on the Asian side of the city. You are met at the gate, walked to the dedicated lane at passport control, helped through reclaim and handed to whoever is collecting you. The airport is smaller than Istanbul Airport and it fills differently, which is what this page is about.
Sabiha Gökçen is not Istanbul Airport
The two are on opposite sides of the city and opposite sides of the Bosphorus. Booking the wrong one is a genuinely expensive mistake here, because the correction is a road journey across Istanbul rather than a walk to another terminal. If you are landing at the other airport you want Istanbul Airport meet and greet instead.
Sabiha Gökçen is the base for a large share of low-cost and charter traffic, and that shapes the arrival hall. Aircraft land in banks rather than in a steady stream, so the passport queue goes from short to long and back again within the hour. The terminal is compact, so the walking is shorter than at Istanbul Airport, but a peak arrival bank fills the hall quickly and being at the front of it is worth more than the shorter walk saves.
Lounge access is not included at Sabiha Gökçen
Lounge access forms part of the service at Istanbul Airport, where the IGA Lounge is included. It is not included here. We would rather say that plainly than let you book on the strength of a page written about the other airport. If the lounge is the reason you were booking, tell us before you pay for anything and we will say what is possible at SAW.
What the service covers here
- A name board waiting at the arrival gate
- The dedicated passport lane rather than the public one
- Reclaim and the customs channel, with the trolley
- Handover to whoever is collecting you
- The same on departure, met at the terminal door
The lane does not change what happens at the desk. The border officer still decides, and the checks are the ones everyone goes through. How the lane works is set out on our Istanbul Airport fast track page.
If your flight is diverted to the other airport
This is the one delay case that is specific to Istanbul, and it is not a delay. A diversion between Sabiha Gökçen and Istanbul Airport is a change of airport: a different greeter, a different terminal and a road transfer you had not planned. Tell us as soon as you know, rather than on landing, because the arrangement has to be rebuilt at the other end rather than moved.
An ordinary delay is simpler. Your greeter tracks the flight and meets the aircraft when it actually lands.
Questions
Is lounge access included at Sabiha Gökçen?
No. It is included at Istanbul Airport only. Anything you have read on our Istanbul Airport pages about the IGA Lounge applies to that airport and not to this one.
I land at Sabiha Gökçen and fly out of Istanbul Airport. Can you cover both?
Yes, as two arrangements rather than one, because they are two airports with a city between them. Send both flight numbers and we will tell you what each end involves and what the road transfer means for your timings. The other airport has its own page.
Is the lane busier at some times than others?
The hall is, and that is the point of booking here rather than at a quieter airport. Low-cost and charter schedules cluster, so several aircraft can empty into passport control together and then nothing for a while. We cannot promise you a clearance time and nobody at a border can, but we can put you in the shorter queue when the bank lands.
More about the service and who provides it is on our Istanbul Airport meet and greet page.
Booking a Sabiha Gökçen arrival
Send your flight number, the date, and how many passengers and bags are travelling. We quote each booking individually, so tell us the flight and we will come back with a price. Nothing is charged until you accept the quote, and payment is then taken by card through Stripe or PayPal. Taxes are inside the figure you are quoted, and changes or cancellations are free until 48 hours before the scheduled flight time — the detail is on our Cancellation and Refund Policy page.