Rent a car at Ataturk airport is a question whose answer changed in 2019: Istanbul Ataturk closed to commercial passenger flights on 6 April 2019, its IST code passed to the new Istanbul Airport on the Black Sea side, and the old field - reassigned the code ISL - now serves general and executive aviation only. Practical translation: there are no passenger rental desks at Ataturk anymore. Istanbul's rental market now splits between the new Istanbul Airport (IST) in Arnavutkoy, with the full international line-up serving Europe-side arrivals, and Sabiha Gokcen (SAW) on the Asian side. City offices around Taksim, Besiktas and the business districts cover mid-stay pickups. If a booking tool still shows Ataturk desks, treat it as stale data - and the honest Istanbul advice stands regardless: in this traffic, take the car only for the escapes, not the city.
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