Review of Turkish Airlines flight Istanbul İzmir in Economy

Airline Turkish Airlines
Flight TK2030
Class Economy
Seat 07A
Aircraft Boeing 737-800
Flight time 01:05
Take-off 22 Nov 18, 15:55
Arrival at 22 Nov 18, 17:25
TK   #13 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 776 reviews
ISTFlyer
By SILVER 749
Published on 27th November 2018

Note: This report is exclusive for Flight-Report. For photo usages at other websites please credit the link of this report or contact by direct message.


Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Flight-Report members and readers,

It's an honor to present this exclusive series to the community as this series would include 2 regular domestic flights within Turkey but the other two flights would be a beginning for me as a new airport is opened in my city of origin. Due to the first two months of opening, discounted fares were offered from that airport to some destinations starting from 9€ in Economy Class and 39€ in Business Class. Unfortunately, this series would only contain Economy class flights but I have 10 ticketed Business Class journeys from that airport to 4 different destinations in December and I expect to report all of these 10 flights exclusive for the Flight-Report community.

The third part of this series would contain the report of my first flight departing from Istanbul Airport. In this report, I would contain more information regarding the ISL terminal instead of the flight. The service and the meal of the flights were same as the previous two reports.

The routing for this exclusive series would look like this 



Apologizes for the delays publishing these series. Ce série des FR's va être traduire en français dans quelques jours.


Pax for this flight

Business Class: %100
Economy Class: %90-95 


Istanbul Airport - ISL


After, having a tour in the arrivals level, I have headed upstairs to the departure level. The check-in hall looks like this.


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Future TK sales office


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FIDS for this afternoon


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Then I went to the check-in counters to change my seat, but unfortunately there were no other window seats available in the aircraft. The agent offered me 12C which would be an emergency exit row but I decided to stay at the same seat. The reason that I want to change my seat could be find in the following texts in this report.


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Kiosks were also available. For the moment passengers could check-in through employees; after the airport is completely opened, passengers would need to use self service machines.


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Most of the stores aren't opened yet


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International departures, the construction of the new lounge could be seen from this point. This area is closed at the moment and all international passengers pass through security at the domestic departures area and use the temporary passport booths to access the international departures area.


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Also, I had a tour outside of the terminal


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Havaist buses are the shuttles that would operate from/to the city to the airport


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Also İETT ( municipality ) buses run from several locations to Istanbul Airport.


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The carpark is free of charge for the moment


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And we are heading back to the terminal


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Again, TK check-in area


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Boarding Pass


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And it's time to head to the airside


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There were enough lanes opened from passengers and the security process took less than 5 minutes.

After the security checkpoint, branches of major stores ( some of them are only popular in Turkey ) are available.


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And then I went to the departures level using the escalator.


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The international concourse


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After heading downstairs to the departures area, the first thing visible was the TK corner sign. Until the lounge has been opened, TK has a temporary facility to handle lounge needs. This area is accessible only by an eligible boarding pass.


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Bus gates


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Children areas


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The concourse


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There were two art galleries at the moment, one is the Ara Güler exhibition and the other one is an exhibition about the construction of the airport


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We're approaching the end of the concourse


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The future domestic lounge would be accessible by these two elevators. Like IST, the lounge would also have a separate outside entrance for passengers starting their journeys at ISL. I would share a report of this lounge next month, if it is opened at that time.


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Gloria Jean's Coffees had a store which was open at that time


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FIDS, our flight is the only domestic flight left for the day


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GATE AREA & BOARDING


A view of Gate G2


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Our aircraft was visible from the gate


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Information board at the gate


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After a few minutes, pre-recorded boarding announcements were made and passengers were asked to use the correct lane for boarding.  The left lane was used for priority boarding while the right lane was used for general boarding. By the way, the PA voice in the announcements are similar to the women in Google Translate ( both in English and Turkish )


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Fuselage shot


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TK 2030 ISTANBUL AIRPORT-ISL to IZMIR ADNAN MENDERES AIRPORT


After being welcomed by the crew. I headed to my seat.


Seat:

Compared to the previous two flights, the seats which are installed with the Thales IFE system have more legroom and they are much more comfortable than the ones which are installed with Panasonic IFE system. Pillows&blankets were available at overhead bins.

Just for you who wonder why 7A was the wrong choice, it is missing a window. 


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This seat had USB ports installed to the screen.


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But unfortunately, the IFE screen was closed again.


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Overhead panel


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Before pushing back videos including the safety videos were shown, unlike like the previous flight Star Alliance videos were also monitored.



IFE

The same magazines from the last flight were present at the seat pocket.


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Meal:

As I hadn't got a window I slept during this flight so I didn't have a meal but it was the same kaşar cheese sandwich from the last two flights. 


IZMIR ADNAN MENDERES AIRPORT - ADB


We had arrived to gate 236 on time.


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Then I headed to the transfer desk but there were no Çelebi agents ( which handles AtlasGlobal ) there to check my documents so I needed to exit from the baggage claim area and go to the departures level.


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Welcome to Izmir.


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Arrival FIDS


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And it's time to head to the departure level for my next and last flight of this serie.


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Thanks for reading this exclusive report and hope to see you in another report.

See more

Verdict

Turkish Airlines

7.6/10
Cabin8.5
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi6.0
Meal/catering8.0

Istanbul - IST

10.0/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0

İzmir - ADB

10.0/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0

Conclusion

As this was my first time departing from Istanbul Airport, I was impressed with the terminal and the facilities available and I felt like paradise after flying from the small and squeezed Atatürk Airport domestic terminal. By the way, the quietness of the airport is really enjoyable but it won't take long to transfer operations from Atatürk Airport. The flight was a regular domestic flight but I would suggest to not choose 7A for its magnificent view from the window :) ( I knew that 7A was had a missing window before but I was inattentive during OLCI ).

ISL
(+) Wonderful airport but much more work is needed to complete the construction
(+) Quiet and peaceful at the moment
(+) Easy access and efficient
(+) Priorities respected while boarding
TK2030
(+) Meal OK for a domestic flight
(+) Seats were comfortable compared to JHx series 737-800 aircraft
(+) At least there were USB ports on this flight
(-) IFE system closed during the flight ( - 3.0 from the entertainment section )
ADB
(+) Efficient airport

Information on the route Istanbul (IST) İzmir (ADB)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 5 avis concernant 1 compagnies sur la ligne Istanbul (IST) → İzmir (ADB).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Turkish Airlines avec 8.1/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 15 minutes.

  More information

4 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 477880 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    Hi Eryorulmaz, thanks for sharing this first report from Istanbul's new airport! Wow, the new terminal really is impressively huge, as I expected it would be. The design is beautiful and looks so much better than the old airport. I like how the design has a distinctively Turkish flare. It's too bad the TK lounge wasn't opened yet. Considering their lounge at old IST is known as one of the world's best lounges, I can only imagine how awesome the new ISL lounge will be.

    Thanks for this exclusive series!
    • Comment 477896 by
      ISTFlyer SILVER AUTHOR 399 Comments
      Hi KévinDC and thanks for stopping by,

      I agree that the terminal is really huge and sometimes people would need to walk for 1-2 kilometers to reach to immigration area or transfer security. The design is obviously better than Atatürk Airport. Even though the TK lounges aren't opened yet, there are temporary lounges for eligible passengers. I've heard that the domestic lounge would open in December and I wish I could experience that lounge on my mileage runs in late December. For the international lounge, I've heard some news that it would be similar to the present IST lounge but would have two different sections. ( One for *G and M&S Elite, the other one for C pax and M&S Elite Plus ) Unfortunately, that is all I know about the international lounge.

      Thanks again for your comment and have a great day.
  • Comment 477921 by
    lagentsecret 12186 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this FR

    The checkin hall looks gorgeous.

    It's empty, it should be a weird mood.

    "I would share a report of this lounge next month, if it is opened at that time."
    I hope you will be able to visit it

    See you soon
    • Comment 477962 by
      ISTFlyer SILVER AUTHOR 399 Comments
      Thanks again for another valuable comment,

      "The checkin hall looks gorgeous." "It's empty, it should be a weird mood."
      - Yes it looks gorgeous, It would be mostly not crowded because most of ISL passengers would be transfer passengers, but who knows what would the situation be in a Turkish national holiday.
      "I hope you will be able to visit it"
      - I hope I will

      Thanks again and hope to see you soon.

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