Ladies and Gentlemen,
The domestic series would end with the last report in this series with this short 45-minute hop from Istanbul to Izmir onboard the Turkish Airlines Boeing 777-300ER. On this occasion, I had the chance to visit the Turkish Airlines Domestic Lounge in Istanbul Airport after the pandemic.
Here is the routing for this trip
Flight routing
- 1
- 2
- 3TK 2336 Istanbul Airport to Izmir, ( Economy Class ), Boeing 777-300ER, Turkish Airlines Lounge Domestic
- 4TK 7509 Izmir to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, ( Economy Class ), Boeing 737-800
Loads for this flight
Business Class: 40-45%
Economy Class: 95-100%
ISTANBUL AIRPORT - IST
After arriving from my previous flight and heading up from the escalators at the domestic-domestic transfer boarding pass control, I was in the domestic departures hall.
As the Turkish Airlines Domestic Lounge in IST was open, I decided to directly head over there.
After using the elevators down to the lounge, I was in the domestic lounge
Boarding pass for this flight
Turkish Airlines DOMESTIC LOUNGE - Istanbul Airport
During my visit, the Elite Plus & Business section of the lounge was closed and all passengers were directed to the Classic Plus & Elite section. Despite one section being closed, the open section was 50% full and it was easy to find a seat.
Due to COVID-19, only olive thymes, veggie sandwiches and vanilla&chocolate cakes were available as food. Nothing else was available to eat.
The only drinks available in the lounge were water, soda, peach juice, cherry juice, tea and coffee. For coffee, milk was available at the bar.
My selection for the day
For those who wish to see a report of the lounge pre-COVID, you could visit this Flight-Report where I visited the lounge in the opening day.
BOARDING FROM THE LOUNGE
As you might know, Turkish Airlines offers direct bus transfers for passengers eligible for the lounge. There are 10 different bus gates at the lounge where passengers are bussed to the jetbridge or remote stand. Here is the FIDS from the domestic lounge
About 30-35 minutes before scheduled departure time, lounge boarding had started from gate 3.
As there were about 20-25 people boarding the flight from the lounge, a larger Cobus was dedicated for our flight. When there is fewer passengers, a small minibus is allocated for lounge eligible passengers.
After a 10 minute bus ride, we were at gate B15 in the international terminal where our aircraft was parked.
TC-JJO named Istanbul would be the aircraft taking me to Izmir. This would be my second time on this specific aircraft. For boarding, door 2L was utilized and all other doors were closed.
Fuselage shot
TK 2336 Istanbul Airport TO IZMIR Adnan Menderes Airport
After being welcomed by the crew and being handed my hygiene kit, I took my seat 12A which is the second row in the Economy cabin.
The seats were the Weber seats which are equipped with the Panasonic ex2 IFE system.
The legroom was decent for a Boeing 777-300ER and the seat was comfortable
In domestic flights, the IFE system has limited content due to copyright reasons so live TV and international movies are not offered.
Today's route
Our neighbor was this Turkish Airlines A321-200 in the special livery Discover the Potential: Turkey
Boarding was completed on time and after the ground staff left the aircraft, we were all set for pushing back.
At that time the safety video was monitored
Shortly later, we started our taxi which took less than 5 minutes.
And we took off from runway 35R
The massive IST tower
Shortly after our takeoff, we made a sharp leftwards turn and IST was visible
Another shot of IST from the air
At that time, an informative video about the COVID-19 virus was monitored from the personal screens.
This aircraft was equipped with Wi-Fi but as usual, Wi-Fi does not work on Turkish Airlines domestic flights.
Shortly after the seatbelt signs were turned off, the water service had begun. As I also mentioned in the previous report, unfortunately, TK removed their food service on all domestic flights and all international flights under 2 hours in both Economy and Business; and the only thing that would be served onboard would be water.
After listening some music we were already over Izmir and the cabin crew made a trash collection run and we have started our descend.
City of Izmir
Gulf of Izmir
FuarIzmir Expo area
Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport from the air
We were going to land at runway 34R
And we've touched down at ADB on time
After a short taxi, we have parked at gate 242 in the domestic terminal.
IZMIR ADNAN MENDERES AIRPORT - ADB
While deboarding the crew made the announcement that deboarding was going to be made row-by-row, however, as expected, passengers did stand up after the seatbelt signs have been turned off and people rushed through the curtain to the door, there were no row-by-row boarding in practice.
After saying goodbye to the crew, I have left the aircraft and here is the last shot of TC-JJO.
While I was at the carousel, my bags were already at the belt as bags arrived with the respect with priority tags.
After that I left the airport and this report and series have come to an end.
Thanks for reading and hope to see you in another report.
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Thanks for sharing this FR
Very poor (quality and choice) lounge spread
I barely can believe it's a TK lounge
With a widebody an one hour flight is always pleasant
Still not enough to make a good flight because of the limited catering offer
See you soon for another QR serie
Hi lagentsecret and thanks for your comment,
- Indeed yes, TK was famous for their lounges and when they moved to the new airport, they scaled up their domestic lounge offerings, however, unfortunately, now they are down at the bottom.
- Obviously yes, it's more pleasant than a domestic configured 737.
- Yes, TK's hygiene based marketing strategy isn't tempting for me and what made TK a superior airline was the catering and the onboard service. However, for a domestic flight, I wouldn't expect much but still no catering at the moment is ridiculous.
- Hope to see you there, it's almost ready and would be published soon.