The ‘most expensive airport’ has $20 beers and $7 bananas — and it’s not JFK or La Guardia
That costs how much?
No traveler expects an airport to have affordable food and drink options. Even if you skip having a sit-down meal — and instead stock up on some snacks and water — no matter how you slice it, you’re not getting out cheap.
To further prove that point — Istanbul Airport has just been named the most expensive airport for food and drinks by Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, as reported by the Mirror.
Turkey’s primary airport has the nerve to charge voyagers $19.95 for a beer and almost $7 for a banana.
If you ever find yourself in that European airport — don’t even think about buying the small 3-ounce piece of lasagna they’re charging almost $28 for, according to the Italian news website L’Economia.
To make matters worse, the writer said the lasagna didn’t even look worth its high price tag: “It looks more like a piece of brick with a sprinkling of what looks like grated cheese and a pseudo-basil leaf.”
Chicken salad? Almost $20. A nice little croissant as a pre-flight snack? That can run you between $17 and $20.
One might get excited when they see an American fast-food chain like Popeyes or McDonald’s at this airport — but beware: Those prices seem to be just as annoyingly high.
The Italian site pointed out that a measly combo meal of four fried chicken wings, fries and a Coke costs almost $20. A McDonald’s Big Mac and Double Quarter Pounder costs between $25 and $29.
And leave it to Reddit to join the complaints about the wildly high prices at the Turkish hub. In the subreddit dedicated to Istanbul, one poster shared that the high food prices took away from the overall airport experience for them.
“The prices are more than exaggerated, with all respect to Istanbul, they are ridiculous. They are from 2 to 4 times higher than at Frankfurt Airport ([where] I always fly out of),” they shared.
“The terminal is just amazing and magnificent, however, the prices unfortunately made the experience somewhat worse,” the user added. “They know people will pay. My sister was in Dalaman [on the Turkish coast] recently and said two Big Mac meals were around 40 euros.”
“I was in the USA a few days back and La Guardia and Orlando … were quite reasonable on prices as airports go,” a commenter said in response.
