Introduction
Hi there!
This is the first (and only) flight report that will be covering my trip to South Africa back in February.
You can find the French version of this flight-report here.
Many options exist to fly to South Africa (more specifically Johannesburg and Cape Town) from Europe with one layover. But when it comes to Durban, options are much more limited.
As I didn't want to go through the hassle of having 2 layovers, as I did on my previous trip to South Africa in August 2023, I searched the few options available to fly to Durban with only one stopover.
Those are: Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Turkish Airlines.
Qatar Airways and Emirates were eliminated since, either the layovers were much too short (for Qatar), or too long (for Emirates).
As such, the last remaining option is Turkish Airlines. And it's a great one ! The layovers are only about 2 hours long and the price is reasonable.
The IST-DUR and DUR-IST flights aren't nonstop though - They do a one-and-an-half hour stopover in Johannesburg. But even with this stopover, it is still quicker overall than having 2 layovers.
Flight routing
- 1TK1810 - Lyon LYS -> Istanbul IST - Boeing 737-9 MAX
- 2TK42 - Istanbul IST -> Durban DUR - Airbus A330-300
- 3TK43 - Durban DUR -> Istanbul IST - Airbus A330-300
- 4TK1809 - Istanbul IST -> Lyon LYS - Boeing 737-800
At Lyon - Saint-Exupéry Airport
I began this journey by arriving early at the airport :
The queue for check-in lasted about half-an-hour.
The boarding pass :
The security process was lengthy despite the fact that there wasn't actually much people at all.
And it was after a quick walk without stopping at the duty-free that I arrived airside
I then used the time I had to do some plane spotting :
Here's an A320 from Tunisair :
A Pegasus A321 that will soon take off to Istanbul's second airport :
And this Transavia 737.
I then passed through passport control which was quick and had little to no queue. Unfortunately, it's difficult to do spotting from the non-Schengen gates as the views are obstructed by fences.
After a short wait, today's plane, a five years old 737 MAX 9 registered TC-LYD, arrived :
Boarding was called about 40 minutes behind schedule.
Am I the only one who thinks the 737's nose looks ugly ?
The flight
The first impressions of the cabin are great. It looks modern and is especially great for a 3-hour flight, even featuring IFEs !
Adjustable air vents are available.
I was lucky to have 2 windows for this flight!
The same Transavia plane is still stationed to our right :
Other views of the seats, which include an adjustable headrest :
A view of the cabin :
The only thing in the seatback pocket is the safety card :
Oh, and according to the IFE, the plane wasn't a MAX 9 but a 737-800 !
The safety video was in Turkish, English, and French.
I like the blue mood-lighting !
After boarding finished, we started to push-back. The Transavia 737 is still there, with an A319 or A320 of British Airways hidden behind the winglet, with to it's right a Vueling A320. Further away an EasyJet A320 (neo ?) is parked, and finally to the left a white-tailed 737 of which I can't identify the type or airline.
Free wi-fi was offered for Miles&Smiles members, going from SMS only for Classic members to 400 MB for Elite and Elite Plus ones. I didn't try it out for that flight.
We then started taxiing up to the runway, passing by the D gates :
Take off :
With a nice view of LYS :
Other shots from the take off :
The flight continues under a nice sunset :
About 1 hour after take-off, the meal is served. 2 choices were available : chicken or pasta. I opted for the pastas, and was pleasantly surprised by the meal quality for a 3 hour flight. It was a very nice meal, which even had metal cutlery.
Landing and Istanbul airport
The next 2 hours were uneventful. We soon arrived in Istanbul :
Sadly, I don't have clear photos of the landing.
We passed by this 777-300ER of Turkish Airlines.
And it was after a long 20 minutes taxiing that we finally parked at a remote stand. The bus ride was quite short and we soon arrived at the airport.
Whose size is impressive !
And to end this Flight-Report, here's a picture of the airport's duty-free :
Yikes, that's really long. I guess everyone on the flight was checking baggage haha
Very nice cabin and the meal looks amazing, especially for a 3h flight! It's funny how a meal in Economy on a 3h flight on TK is basically the same as you'd expect in Short-haul First/Business in North America. The full hot meal with the IFE and multiple charging points really makes for a great experience--doesn't get much better than that on short-haul (outside of Asia anyway).
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your comment !
That was the case. Turkish Airlines' baggage allowance is quite high even on their lowest fare, and everyone took advantage of that. And this queue was nothing compared to the return flight out of Durban when we had a family of 8 people, each with 2 overweight piece of luggage, and they started complaining about the fact that they had to pay more for them... We waited so long that someone asked us to go to the business class check-in instead!
I was always impressed by Turkish Airlines' meal quality. I found this meal better than what I had on a eight-an-a-half hour flight with Emirates a year prior to Johannesburg.
I fully agree on that.
Thanks for stopping by !