Meet and Greet at Antalya Airport: Finding Your Driver

02

Which terminal, and why we ask for the flight number

Antalya Airport is more than one building, and which one you land in is settled by your airline and by how the airport spreads its traffic that season rather than by anything you decide. Allocations have moved before and will move again, so a terminal number you read anywhere, this page included, is worth checking against your own booking before you fly. The layout of the buildings themselves is a subject for our airport guide; for the meeting, the only thing that matters is that we know which one to send the driver to.

For the meeting itself the consequence is simple. The driver goes to one hall, and if you come out of the other, the two of you are several hundred metres and a road apart. Your flight number is what tells us which terminal to expect, which is why the booking form asks for it rather than for the airline and the time. The terminal is printed on your boarding pass and shown on the airline's confirmation. If your flight changes after you book, send the new number: a rebooking onto a different carrier can move you to a different building entirely.

• Give the flight number, not just the airline — the flight number identifies the terminal.
• Re-check the terminal on your own booking shortly before departure; allocations shift between seasons and during building work.
• Connecting through Istanbul and arriving on a domestic leg means the domestic terminal — say so when you book.
• Signage inside the terminals is Turkish and English, and the walk from a remote gate to passport control can be long.

03

Where your driver waits, and what they cannot do

The driver waits in the public arrivals hall, landside, past the point where the customs channel opens onto the concourse. That is as far as anyone without a boarding pass can go. Nobody can meet you at the gate, at passport control or at the baggage belt, and the first moment you can be met is when you walk through those doors with your luggage already collected. Greeters stand in the designated area rather than pressed against the doors, so expect a row of people holding signs a few metres back, not someone reaching for your trolley as you emerge.

The car is not at the kerb. Kerbside stopping in front of arrivals is controlled, so the vehicle stands in the car park and the driver walks you to it once you have met. How long that walk is depends on the terminal and on where the car is parked. If anyone in your party cannot manage a few minutes on foot with luggage, say so when you book and we will tell you what is possible — that is a question worth asking rather than assuming. Help with the cases as far as the vehicle comes with the ride and needs no arranging.

• The driver cannot pass into the baggage hall or the customs channel: the meeting is always on the public side.
• Child seats: ask when you book, with the child’s age and weight — the types available vary by date.
• Give the number of bags as well as passengers — Economy takes 4 passengers and 4 bags, the standard van 7 and 7.
• How long the driver waits before a missed meeting is treated as a no-show is agreed at booking — ask if your itinerary is tight.

04

The name sign, and the name on it

The sign is a printed sheet held at chest height with a name on it in capitals. Which name depends on what you gave us: normally the lead passenger's surname, or surname and first name, exactly as written on the booking. Some passengers would rather not have a surname on display in a public hall and ask for a first name, initials or a company name instead. That is a perfectly ordinary request — make it when you book and the sign will be printed that way.

The commonest mismatch is spelling. A name written in Cyrillic or Arabic script and then transliterated can come out several different ways, and a surname beginning with Ş or Ç may appear as S or C. If your passport spelling differs from the one you booked with, send us both. When you scan the row of signs, read them as approximations of your name rather than hunting for an exact match, and if you see something close, say hello — it is faster than standing back and wondering.

• Ask for a first name, initials or a company name if you would rather not display your surname.
• Send the spelling you want printed if your name transliterates in more than one way.
• Look for your name rather than for a logo or a uniform: the name is the reliable part.

05

If you cannot find each other, and what not to do

First, stay inside the building. Almost every difficult case begins with a passenger walking out of the terminal to look for the car, because the hall is crowded and the exit is the obvious thing to do. Outside you are away from the signs, away from the air conditioning and among people who make their living approaching arriving tourists. Stay in the arrivals hall, near the exit from customs, where the signs are — that is the spot the driver is watching.

Second, send a message. WhatsApp with your name, your flight number and which terminal you are standing in; that last detail resolves most cases in a single message. Take your phone off flight mode before you leave the baggage hall so roaming or an eSIM has time to connect, and bear in mind that airport Wi-Fi in Turkey usually wants a phone number to send a code to. If your phone is dead, ask at a terminal information desk rather than borrowing a handset from someone who offered.

Third, and most important: do not accept an unsolicited offer. Anyone who approaches you first in the hall or on the forecourt, tells you your transfer has been cancelled, that the driver is not coming, or offers a better price for the same ride, is not from us. A booked transfer is never resold at the kerb, and nobody will ask you to pay again in the hall. When in doubt, step back, message us and wait: the arrangement you made is still the arrangement.

• Stay in the arrivals hall rather than walking out of the building.
• Message on WhatsApp with your name, flight number and terminal.
• Ignore anyone who approaches you offering a ride, a better price or news that your driver has cancelled.
• Do not hand your booking paperwork or passport to anyone who is not holding your sign.

06

Delays, diversions and changed flights

Flights are tracked. The driver works from the live arrival time of your flight number rather than the scheduled one, so a two-hour delay at the departure airport or a slow turnaround moves the meeting instead of losing it. You do not need to call from the aircraft, and there is no point messaging from the gate before boarding. A late landing is routine and is handled without any action from you.

Diversions and rebookings are the exception, because tracking shows where the aircraft went but not what you decided to do. If you are put on another flight, sent to another airport or end up spending a night somewhere, message as soon as you have a signal and give the new flight number. The same goes for a voluntary change made days before travel: a rebooking is invisible to us unless you send it. A late landing moves your evening rather than wrecking it: the drive is the same drive, and the car is still yours.

07

Gazipaşa-Alanya: the same meeting, a much smaller hall

Gazipaşa-Alanya is the other airport on this coast, east of Alanya, and it is a fraction of the size of Antalya. One terminal, one arrivals hall, and a walk from the customs channel to the meeting point measured in steps rather than minutes. Finding a driver there is genuinely easy: when a flight lands there are rarely more than a handful of people holding signs, and the whole landside area is visible from where you come out. Everything written above about signs, spellings and unsolicited offers still applies, but the geography stops being a problem.

The thing to settle in advance is which airport each leg of the holiday uses: most Side and Manavgat bookings land at Antalya, but by no means all of them. Gazipaşa suits Alanya and the eastern resorts, and because it handles few flights the hall empties as soon as one has cleared: no concern at all if you have booked, a real one if you meant to improvise. If you fly in to one airport and out of the other, say so on the booking, because the return leg is planned backwards from the airport rather than from the hotel.