Esenboğa International Airport is an airport located 28 km northeast of Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It has been operating since 1955.
In 2009, ESB served 6,085,126 passengers, 4,987,983 of which were domestic passengers. It ranked 5th in terms of total passenger traffic, 2nd in terms of domestic traffic and 7th in terms of international traffic among airports in Turkey.
Esenboğa International Airport was awarded as the best airport in Europe by ACI Europe (Airport Council International) and the award presented to airport officials on 17 June 2009 in Manchester. The award is given in 4 categories every year and Esenboğa was in 5–10 million per annum category. It is the first time an ACI award was granted to a Turkish Airport. According to ACI-Europe, “As with number of the top candidates in this category, the airport excels in all the keys areas of operations, however the judges singled it out for its work in the area of environmental innovation, securing an incredible 25% energy savings stemming from its recycling of exhaust gases to power its air conditioning plants.”
Location
The airport is located northeast of Ankara, 28 km from the center. The airport is connected with Kızılay (the city center) and Ankara Intercity Bus Terminal (Turkish: Ankara Şehirlerarası Terminal İşletmesi, AŞTİ) by EGO city bus number 442 (from 6 am to 11pm). Transportation to the city center is also by taxi (around TRY 45 one way, metered) and through the Havaş bus line (approximately TRY 12,5 one way). The road between Esenboğa airport and the Ankara ring road was expanded during the summer of 2006, decreasing the driving time between the city center and the airport by several minutes.
Ankara Airport ( Esenboğa International Airport ),
Ankara and Istanbul airports must be the most expensive in the world. Food is poor and expensive and beer is an absolute rip off. Expect to pay £5 or 7.5 Euro for a beer. Coffee which can only be described as dish water is £2.50 a cup. In Munich on the same day I payed 2 euro for a far better beer.
Flew out on 23 October. No queues and the place is clean and all but empty, no doubt because there is less than one international flight an hour. CIP lounge is comfortable and has nice views but a limited range of food. Expect to pay at least £25 for a taxi into or out from the centre.
Ankara Esenboga Airport is a surprisingly small airport considering the size of the city, although a much larger terminal appears to be under construction next door to the current building. It is also lacking in amenities. That being said, its small size makes it very easy to negotiate, and I whisked through both arrival and departure formalities (although passengers on outbound flights have to pass through security twice upon arrival at the airport and after check-in). The airport’s only serious inconvenience is its location 25 miles outside of the city.
This airport is quite unpleasant and kind of shabby looking for an airport of capital city. No place to kill time until boarding time except simple bar and restaurant, which over-price everything. There is no boarding bridge and all passengers are conveyed by buses to aircrafts.
It is quite far away from the city. If it is not the rush for you, taking Havas (limousine bus) is the cheapest. 8.5 New Turkish Lira. Taxi will cost 45-55 from the airport to the city center. (usually 55 to Cankaya) From the city to the airport, you may have a chance to negotiate with drivers for discounts, if you speak Turkish language. From my experience, 35 from Cankaya was the best.