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
Flight routing
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4KK 23 Izmir to Istanbul Atatürk-IST ( Economy ), Airbus A321-200, Primeclass Lounge Izmir Domestic
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: 0/12 -> %0
Economy Class ( EkonomiPlus ) : 155/192 -> %80
I've heard the exact amount of pax onboard this flight while from one of the ground staff while setting up the boarding area.
ONLINE CHECK-IN
Online check-in was completed 48 hours before scheduled departure.
AtlasGlobal blocks the first 3-4 rows ( depending on aircraft type ) of their EkonomiPlus cabin for Atlasmiles Gold & Platinum members. To avoid a restricted recline seat, I have chosen seat 13F.
Boarding Pass
IZMIR Adnan Menderes AIRPORT
After heading to the departure level, just after my previous flight
I have saw that the AtlasGlobal counters were closed at that time. They open 2 hours before scheduled takeoff
But I had my mobile boarding pass so I directly headed to the security checkpoint which took 5 minutes to clear. Then, I decided to visit the Primeclass lounge with my Vodafone discount to spend the rest of the time at the airport. The regular entry fee for this lounge is €12.
PRIMECLASS LOUNGE DOMESTIC - IZMIR Adnan Menderes AIRPORT
The ambiance of the lounge
Hot dishes offered today
In addition, soup was also offered
Other selections
In addition to these photos, alcoholic beverages are also offered and facilites such as business area, showers, phone chargers are available at this lounge. There is also a special room that passengers could play PlayStation while waiting for their flights.
Spotting from the lounge,
Starting with this Onurair A320 which would head to Istanbul Atatürk
It was my second time that I saw TC-SEY that day, that bird was at Antalya that morning.
And, this TK A330-300 ( TC-LOA ) was heading to Istanbul Atatürk as TK2327
TC-ODA being pushed back
Later on, I had a shower at the lounge and then left the lounge and headed to gate 121 which was a bus gate.
GATE AREA & BOARDING
Boarding was made by bus 30-35 minutes before scheduled departure time. Priorities were respected during boarding, even though there was only one priority customer onboard today. He boarded the bus first.
After being bussed to gate 33 located on the international terminal
I have boarded the aircraft from the front stairs
KK 23 IZMIR Adnan Menderes AIRPORT TO Istanbul Atatürk AIRPORT
I was welcomed by the crew and the flying chef while boarding the aircraft.
Seat:
The seats of KK are designed for short haul and they are comfortable. The legroom is also good for a domestic flight.
Overhead panel
TC-SEP had arrived from Munich that evening.
We started our pushback few minutes later than our scheduled departure time. At that time the crew made a safety demo for passengers as the overhead monitors didn't worked. By the way, seat 13E ( the seat next to me ) was empty during the flight.
AnadoluJet 737-800 which would head to Ankara as TK7519
TC-JVL, the aircraft that I came from Istanbul Airport, had completed its ISL rotation and heading back to Atatürk Airport as TK2335
TC-JVS was at the remote stand that night, this bird would operate the ISL rotation next day.
A last view of the terminal
We are taking off
Sarnıç district
Buca district
And downtown Izmir
IFE
As the overhead monitors weren't working today, the only IFE options were those which could be found in the seat pocket. Puzzles and the Glober magazine
AtlasGlobal has started flights to Odessa this month.
AtlasGlobal flight in the Glober magazine
One of the best things that KK offers is their free Fly&Bus shuttle services which they offer a free shuttle bus service from the city center to the airport at several destinations.
AtlasGlobal route map
Meal
Shortly after takeoff, the meal service begun. AtlasGlobal is the only domestic carrier that offers multiple options for the meal service. Passengers could select between a hot sandwich and a marble cake. They are also the carrier that offers the most soft drink options within Turkish carriers.
I was exhausted that day so I have only took several pictures before landing and after landing.
IST International Terminal
We were going to park at a remote stand.
And we had parked next to another KK A321 which had arrived from Madinah.
Istanbul Atatürk AIRPORT - IST
Later on, we were transferred to the domestic terminal by bus. A last shot of the aircraft
And, I would like to end this series of Flight-Report's with this photo of the domestic arrivals hall.
Once again thanks for reading this serie, and hope to meet you in a future report.
Thanks for sharing! AtlasGlobal seems to be good value for a lower price than competitors. It's nice that Turkey has 3 reasonably large carriers competing on domestic routes to keep prices down.
Thanks for the comment,
"AtlasGlobal seems to be good value for a lower price than competitors."
-AtlasGlobal is one of the cheapest airlines in Turkey on domestic routes along with Pegasus & SunExpress and they are the cheapest full service airline in domestic routes within Turkey. Their existence could make their customers save money on domestic routes but they only have 6 domestic routes in their entire network and their international routes could be more expensive than TK.
"It's nice that Turkey has 3 reasonably large carriers competing on domestic routes to keep prices down."
- Yes, it is nice that there are competitors facing Turkish Airlines on domestic routes, but the main reason that these companies are flying several domestic routes is not lose their slots at IST and that's why they don't prioritize operating these routes form IST and their timetables and route selections aren't well selected, so it can be difficult to arrange a domestic trip without including flights from TK or PC. The reason that these airlines ( such as AtlasGlobal and OnurAir ) doesn't prioritize operations from IST is that they earn more profit on seasonal charter routes so they are mainly focusing on operations from Antalya.
Thanks again and hope to see you in another report.
Very interesting, thanks for the information! I forgot there was also SunExpress and OnurAir on many domestic routes. But yes, too bad the schedules aren't always convenient. Thanks!