This was one of the flights I had for my trip to Sicily, Italy and Malta in Easter 2016.
This is the 2nd leg. The original assigned aircraft is an Airbus A320, however, it was changed to Airbus A319 till the last minute.
Catania is the second largest cities in Sicily, followed by Palermo, so do the size of the airport! TK only flies to Catania, but not Palermo.
There were five sectors:
1. 17/03/2016 TK71 HKG-IST (http://flight-report.com/en/report-13885.html)
2. 18/03/2016 TK1393 IST-CTA
3. 24/03/2016 KM643 CTA-MLA (http://flight-report.com/en/report-13887.html)
4. 27/03/2016 TK1372 MLA-IST (http://flight-report.com/en/report-13888.html)
5. 28/03/2016 TK70 IST-HKG (http://flight-report.com/en/report-13889.html)
Gate area
TK1393 Istanbul (IST) -> Catania (CTA)
Airbus A319 TC-JLR
Seat length
Seat with no personal IFE
Cabin view
Heading to the runway, the terminal view
Flags of Tulip!!
Here we go!
Leaving IST
I think here is Greece…
Breakfast, loaded in IST
I appreciate the freshly squeezed orange juice very much! Except the meals on TK71 HKG/IST, which are loaded in HKG, I can try them! Impressed!
Another cabin view after meal service
Approaching Sicily, very blue sky!
Mount Etna, with a heavy zoom…
Without a heavy zoom, the sky looks blue again!
Landing in CTA
Baggage claim area
Arrival hall
Catania Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)
It is very strange that in Italy, the immigration officer didn't scan my passport details in their computer systems, but just give an entry stamp in the passport and let us go. Later when we are leaving the Schengen from Malta, the officers there feel very strange and luckily we got the passport stamped. I heard of people having similar experience too. Is it common in Italy? Think the immigration is loose if it is the norm!
Thanks for the FR, as usual TK offers a solid product on intra-european flights.
Is it common in Italy? Think the immigration is loose if it is the norm!
It looks like you're a first timer in Europe (schengen), most of the time you just get a stamp. Occasionally they might run a scan on your passport to check it against Interpol/Europol databases but I'd say it happens 5% of the time.
2 years ago in FCO there was a huge lineup at immigration after successive arrivals of long-haul flights, since the Italian police was understaffed they just waved everyone with a blue passport (US/CAN/AUS..) in without even bothering to open them let alone giving stamps.
Oh... I am not that new... I am a stamp collector, at present, I have stamps from F, E, P, B, NL, D, H, EST, FIN, LV, LT, SE, N, DK, PL, I, M, CY and SK...
This is also a reason why I like Turkish Airlines! Planning to get HR and SI next!
In my previous experiences, I think almost 90% of the entry and exits got passport scanned. Maybe just because I always use the airport checkpoints...