New Istanbul Airport

[StevieBee]

Had cause to transit through the new Istanbul Airport yesterday. Very impressive facility! But a couple of pointers for the regular travellers or those heading there soon.

It's open, but I wouldn't say it was finished. Not that many places to get a drink or food once you head out to the gates. The food stalls are there and manned but selling nothing other than rolls and bottles of pop. And some of the flight notification signs are a little on the optimistic side ('go to gate', yet it's three hours until your flight!).

None of the lounges yet accept Priority Pass. If you're not travelling Business, there is a pay-lounge at €50 per person. I had a quick look and thought 'nah', nice but not worth €50!!

On the good side, they have teams of 'Ask Me' people who - unusually for Turkey - all seemed to know the answers to questions being asked.

Turkish Airlines remain one of my favourite airlines to fly with.

Overall, teething niggles aside, does seem a good airport, well run and a nice place to be for a few hours. The only downside is that they appear to have located the runways on a different continent to the terminal. Did take quite a while to trundle to our gate.

[StevieBee]

shirt said:

StevieBee said:

Turkish Airlines remain one of my favourite airlines to fly with.

i would be interested to know why. i find them to be distinctly average to below average.

All comes down to personal experience. A good marker for me is the care and attention airlines pay to to sub-optimal routes, not just the portfolio routes. I travel to north Cyprus a lot and prefer going to Ercan rather than Larnaca. Only a few airlines fly into Ercan and all have to go via Turkey. If you fly Atlas and Pegasus (neither of which are too bad either), your plane to and from Ercan is usually one that has seen better days, as have the crew and everything else tends to be a bit tatty round the edges. The plane I flew from there on yesterday with TA was a brand-spanker Airbus with entertainment and attentive crews to levels you'd get if you were heading to New York. All on a 1 hour flight. And for the same money as the others. Have experienced similar with them on other similar routes.

And they bumped me to Business Class on the flight to Istanbul last week for no apparent reason!

[StevieBee]

shirt said:

something other than efes on tap would be nice for starters.

Amen to that! OK in a bar on Kyrenia harbour. Elsewhere.....nope!