After a Paris-Istanbul flight below what one can expect from Turkish Airlines, here is the continuation to Izmir, still in economy class, and on Boeing 777-300ER. A flight I had already made a few months earlier in business class for comparison.
To fly from Paris to Istanbul on a single-aisle aircraft and the very short flight to Izmir on a double-aisle long-haul aircraft is a little bit like doing things the other way around, but that’s the charm of the trip.
Ground experience and lounge
After the long walk from my first flight to the police and security checkpoints, I found refuge in the Turkish Ailrines Elite Domestic lounge, which has already been mentioned here.
My opinion on the place hasn’t changed: new, quite big but a catering offer really not at the level expected from Turkish Airlines.
Boarding
One of the only good things about this lounge is that it is located on the tarmac and offers bus boarding to its visitors without having to walk to the gate.
Let’s go to the boarding area of the bus.
As I pass my boarding pass I hear a little beep. Upgrade ? No, just a change of seat. And here I am demoted from 10A to 32B!
The explanation? “That’s the way it is.”
In fact this flight is alternately served by medium and large aircraft. This day it was supposed to be an A320 or a B737, I don’t remember. But the previous flight having been cancelled, they had to rush a B777 to accommodate the passengers of the two flights on a single one and this led to a rather random redistribution of seats without much regard for the status.
We are on our way to the plane.
Surprisingly, this one is not in contact. In fact it is well at a door but not in contact with the jetway. Probably a plane arrived from an international flight that would have taken too long to bring to the domestic area. For us it doesn’t change much between going up the outside stairs or going up the inside stairs at the door to take the gangway, but for the other passengers it must have been less comfortable.
Between us and the passengers arriving from the “normal” route, that’s a lot of people, so the airline had the good idea to put two staircases to board both from the front and from the back.
But the passengers were divided in an arbitrary way: this bus boards from the front, that one from the back etc.
Bottom line: there are passengers who boarded from the front while they were in the back of the aircraft and passengers who boarded from the back while they were going to the front.
The result? A joyful mess. Have you ever tried to pass a person in the aisle of an airplane, each going in the opposite direction of the other and carrying hand luggage? Well, it wasn’t two people crossing each other but two lines.
Cabin and settling in on board.
Not easy in such conditions to take decent pictures of the cabin. I had already noticed that the economy cabin of Turkish Airlines’ single-aisle medium-haul aircraft with its leather seats was much nicer than that of the A330 with its faded blue canvas seats.
Same with the B777.
It has the same blue as the A330…with red headrests. Not the best effect, it goes better with a dark blue.
But you have the same ones in green headrest version… as much as red is the airline’s color, I don’t know where they get the green.
In short, I am not a fan. It looks at best cheap and at worst of questionable taste.
Wider than the A330, the B777 has a 3-3-3 configuration instead of 2-4-2.
I eventually get to my 32B. A middle-seat ! There’s nothing worse. At least I consider myself lucky to have a place in the luggage compartment, many passengers having stored their stuff elsewhere than in their seat to “go up” the line more easily.
Nothing new on the screen and the in-flight entertainment system, we have the “standard” equipment of the airline. Once again I find the screen less beautiful than on the more recent twin-aisle models.
On the other hand it seems to me that there is much more room for the legs than on the A330 to my memory. Strange. From now on I’ll really have to get a tape measure to check all this.
On the other hand I find the seat, if not hard, at least not very pleasant. Effects of the age to support the weight of the passengers? Fortunately it’s a short flight.
It’s not as obvious as when I compared the A330 and the A321Neo, but I find the economy cabins of Turkish Airlines’ medium-haul aircraft more pleasing to the eye and to use than those of their long-haul aircraft.
I’m lucky, there’s a free place not far away. My neighbor goes to join some friends and I get the 32C, an aisle then, moreover with a free seat between the occupant of the window and me.
We are ready to go but something seems to be wrong. The passengers are counted again. Then a second, then a third time.
Come on… the doors are closed, safety instructions “Lego 2 style”, and we go. With 15 minutes of delay. And it’s really getting cold in the cabin.
Well…not so fast. By dint of repeating it, I think you have understood: in this new airport, there is a huge distance between the terminal and the runways, therefore a consequent taxi. The distance between Istanbul and Izmir is about 500km by car and 320 by plane. It will take us already 15 minutes of taxi to reach the runway (and it’s not the longest I’ve done in Istanbul).
We end up running on the runway.
The flight and the service
No matter how comfortable the flight is, the choreography of the service on a 320 km flight is something that does not tolerate the slightest improvisation, all the more so when you are on board an aircraft that carries nearly 350 passengers!
2 minutes after takeoff, the staff leaves their seats and rushes into the galley.
5 minutes later the service begins.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that in business they served a real small menu with a hot service on this Istanbul-Izmir. Of course I didn’t expect this much in economy. A drink and a bag of cakes at most in my opinion.
I was right for the drink, wrong for the cakes: we have a real hot sandwich.
Ok it doesn’t look appetizing. Now it’s getting better.
Toasted bread, tomatoes and melted cheese!
So it’s not great gastronomy but considering the context it’s good to take up the challenge and to propose a hot dish which, by the way, is pretty good. I don’t know what more they could have done.
16 minutes after the beginning of the service, we are told that we have to go down. Two minutes later my area of the economy cabin is cleared, but not from the last section of the aircraft. Flight attendants look at each other and run in every direction…problems with the distribution of tasks?
15 minutes later we touch the runway and 3 minutes later we are at our parking point.
An express flight where everything is done to maintain a decent performance at the cost of a crew sprint.
We can hardly ask more of them.
The Crew
There is not much opportunity to judge it on such a flight. As always with Turkish, courteous, professional, efficient, polite and smiling. Except that unlike a medium-haul flight, they don’t have time to disappear at the end of the service.
The arrival
Remote parking at Izmir airport equals disembarkation by bus and the mess and discomfort that entails.
Bottom line
A flight made a bit chaotic by a poorly managed boarding. The change of aircraft does not explain everything. On board I felt at times some confusion both at the boarding and at the end of the service.
On such a short flight, the bad experience of boarding and, to a lesser extent, disembarking, inevitably leaves a bad memory. Not to mention the change of seat at boarding!
Otherwise the attitude of the staff was irreproachable and the catering could not have been better.
For information my routing
- Paris-Istanbul : Turkish Airlines Economy
- Istanbul-Izmir : Turkish Airlines Economy (here)
- Izmir-Istanbul : Turkish Airlines Economy (pointless, no review)
- Istanbul-Paris : Turkish Airlines Economy
Articles similaires
Review :Turkish Airlines Business Class, Istanbul-Izmir, Boeing 777-300ER
Review : Turkish Airlines, Business Class, Izmir-Istanbul, B777-300ER
Review : Turkish Airlines economy, Paris-Istanbul, A330
Review : Turkish Airlines Economy, Istanbul-Paris, A321Neo
Review : Turkish Airlines Economy, Paris-Istanbul, A321
