Review of Turkish Airlines flight Istanbul → Malé in Economy

Welcome to Trip Report 5 another long-haul flight on Turkish Airlines en-route to Colombo.

IST-MLE (10th May 2015) Turkish Airlines/TK730/Airbus A330-300

Watch the entire Trip Report below:


Having flown this sector before I joined Flight-Report.com, please do bear with the limited narration since i'm unable to recall the finer details of this sector.

Trip Report 5

This being my 5th Sector on Turkish Airlines,and as expected on their Airbus A330-300. Turkish Operated dailiy flights connecting Istanbul to Colombo via. Male, however as of now they operate just 5 Weekly flights scaling down operations.

Flying in from Ercan North Cyprus gave us a short layover of a couple of hours before we connected to our flight TK730, taking us via Male to Colombo.
Navigating through Istanbul Ataturk Airport was a piece of cake! No Pre-flight meal this time though and we were ready to board! It was a pleasant sight to see many SriLankan's, mostly connecting from Europe as well as a large delegation of Turkish Citizens ready to board TC-JNI

Onboard

As always Departure was on time for the upcoming 8 Hour flight to The Maldives : Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (VRMM/MLE) A technical stop en-route to Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport (VCBI/CMB)

TC-JNI a.k.a "Konak" was in immaculate condition! A 5 year old Airbus A330-300 powered by massive Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines!

Over Istanbul


The load factor today was around 80%

Shortly after take-off the First Meal out of the two that we'd be getting was served.
The Options being Turkish Styled Minced Beef or Chicken Cutlet, for me as always it was beef over chicken, served along with salad, a bun and a Coke to finish things off. Overall the dinner was wonderful!



With nothing left to do, and this being a red-eye flight, I decided to sleep ( I generally never sleep on Short and Medium Haul, however since this was indeed a long haul flight it was one of the rarest of the rare occasions for me, feeling pretty nostalgic after such a blessed trip!

At Cruising altitude of 42,000 ft.


Managed to watch 3 movies to help pass time, I decided to explore the aircraft once on ground in Male

So here came Breakfast, it comprised of Turkish Spinach Pastry and scrambled eggs. Not something I enjoyed much



Cabin/Seat/IFE
The interiors overall were state of the art, welcoming, modern and very comfortable and overall the best economy product i've been on. Highly Recommended!
Cabin was configured in a spacious,fresh 2-4-2 Layout with plenty of leg room for such a long flight



After being airborne many hours the Maldives was in site




Here we see the many Islands of the beautiful Maldivian Archipelago.


Flap set! Time to Land at MLE



Rain as usual played its part!


A section of today's traffic at MLE

A Condor Flugdienst Boeing 767-300 (DE2320), having arrived from Frankfurt (FRA) alongside an Air India Airbus A321 from Trivandrum and a Maldivian Bombardier Dash-8 Q300 in the foreground


Tigerair Airbus A320-200 from Singapore-Changi (SIN)


With that, all passengers continuing to Colombo had to wait in the aircraft whilst they refueled (Aprox 30 mins) before rotation to CMB

Await my next FR for the rest!