‘ ₹500 for one banana’: Travellers have called this the ‘world’s most expensive’ airport | Trending

They claimed that the airport sells the most basic food items at premium prices. With a beer selling for £15 or ₹1,697 and one banana being sold at £5 or ₹565. The main airport in Turkey sees an average footfall of 220,000 passengers every day and travellers have widely considered its high prices outrageous, especially in the food and beverage category.

Sky-high prices

According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Istanbul Airport is the ‘most expensive airport’ in Europe for food and drinks. One Italian writer described his experience of buying 90 gram lasagna being sold for £21 or ₹2,376.

“It looks more like a piece of brick with a sprinkling of what looks like grated cheese and a pseudo-basil leaf,” he said, adding that the quality of the food did not match the exorbitant pricing.

Even pocket-friendly fast food chains like McDonald’s and Burger King sell their staple dishes at sky-high prices.

‘The prices are ridiculous’

One stunned traveller even took to Reddit to ask why the prices were so high at the airport. “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 (my airport of reference, I always fly out of there). Why are the prices so high? Is there any particular reason? The terminal is just amazing and magnificent, however the prices unfortunately made the experience somewhat worse,” he said.

Others compared the prices at the airport with other in the US and were confused about its steep pricing. “They know people will pay. My sister was in Dalaman recently and said two Big Mac meals were around 40 euros or ₹3,882. I was in the USA a few days back and LaGuardia and Orlando MCO were quite reasonable on prices as airports go,” said one of them.

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