…and I’m Still Walking

It takes me twenty minutes to walk from my arrival gate at the end of the pier to the main concourse. And then from there, it’s another ten minutes to immigration and security for domestic transfers. Passengers with a domestic connection enter the country here in Istanbul, but go through customs at their destination.

Behind immigration and the security checkpoint, it takes me another ten minutes to finally reach the Turkish Airlines domestic lounge. The concept is rather interesting. The lounge is at ground level. It’s fairly big but has a reduced offering of food and beverages compared to the much acclaimed international lounge. There is a separate section for Star Gold passengers.

Boarding

Boarding for passengers in the Star Gold Lounge is directly from the lounge. A plush passenger bus then brings the premium passengers to their aircraft.

In theory it’s a great concept. It suffers a bit, though, in execution. The ride from the boarding gate to the aircraft is very short, it’s a distance of only about 500 metres. The aircraft is even parked on a contact stand.

The Cabin & Seat

This aircraft has a very similar cabin to that on the previous flight from Basel, which seems a bit of a waste of space and an extravagance on such a short flight. Our scheduled block time is eighty minutes, although the pilot announces our flight time today is only 55 minutes. The load is very light – we’re five passengers in the forward cabin, of which one is staff.

The Service & Crew

The crew on this flight are a lot more engaging than the ones on the previous flight. The Business Class cabin is served by two young men that I would place in their thirties. The service begins with a choice of juice as a welcome drink. This time I have the orange juice. The guy in front of me asks for a beer, to which the crew inform him that no alcohol is served on domestic services. The crew also hand out the menu for the meal.

Our taxi to the active runway takes forever. Eventually, we take off in a southerly direction from runway 18L just as the sun begins to set. As we climb out, we pass the terminal building. From above you get a much better handle of just how enormous the whole construction is.

The Meal – Dinner

Despite the fairly short flight time, Turkish Airlines feels compelled to offer a full meal service, including a hot meal, on this flight. There’s slightly less food on the tray than on the previous flight from Basel and there are no options in the menu either.

It looks as though the artichoke heart is for Turkish Airlines what those dreadful meatballs are to Lufthansa, and that the Germans insist on serving everywhere they go.

I don’t have the beef, but the celery salad, the bread roll and the piece of chicken I have and they all taste very good. It’s an impressive meal for a flight of only 55 minutes! Although I wonder what the service is like when the Business Class cabin is full.

This time, I don’t ignore the dessert. Profiteroles are one of my favourite desserts, and this is a nice one.

Arrival

The approach into Antalya at dusk is very scenic. We fly out to sea with a high mountain range off to our left and right, curving around the bay. We then make a wide sweeping turn to line up for an approach from the sea.

We land and make our way to the international Terminal 2. We disembark and head dowstairs to ground level where a dedicated Business Class bus is waiting to take us to domestic arrivals in Terminal 1 on the other side of the airport.

Passengers arriving on an international flight via Istanbul have to clear custons in Antalya, and there’s a separate luggage belt for international transfer luggage.

I step outside where the car and my driver are already waiting. There is a tram that runs to the airport, but that’s going the opposite direction to where I’m heading. The journey by car takes about 25 minutes.

Conclusion

I must say, I’m pleasantly surprised by Turkish Airlines. The quality and quantity of the food they serve certainly leaves the competition in the dust. The fact that they also have a dedicated Business Class cabin with a proper seat certainly adds to the appeal of Turkish Airlines. In this case, it also helped that both flights were nearly empty up front.

Money obviously is not an issue for Turkish Airlines right now, because I very much doubt they are able to turn a profit, even with the Turkish salaries being what they are. It’ll be interesting to see how the airline evolves and how it will handle having to make money at some point.