News Forum - Direct flight between Istanbul and Phuket reopens

[Thaiger]

A direct flight into Phuket operated by Turkish Airlines has just reopened. The first flight of this renewed Istanbul to Phuket route landed on Saturday, according to the Phuket News. This is the first flight directly from Istanbul Airport, historically a major travel hub, since the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown disrupted international air travel. The Turkish Airlines flight landed in Phuket on Saturday with 168 foreign visitors. Phuket News reports that airline staff were waiting in the terminal to welcome the tourists back to the island at last. Right now Turkish Airlines is maintaining 2 flights a week between […]

The story Direct flight between Istanbul and Phuket reopens as seen on Thaiger News.

Read the full story

[KaptainRob]

Turkish is one of my favourite airlines and Istanbul is a major European hub.  I look forward to flying with them again one day soon.

[Cathat]

Turkish airlines have done very well managing the crisis.everybody has taken pay cuts on a sliding scale and they have not put anybody out of work.

They are very well positioned for a strong recovery especially for the european far east routes.

Well worth trying if you have not used them before.

They are nice people to fly with and often have very competitive fares to thailand.

 

[HiuMak]

12 hours ago, Thaiger said:

A direct flight into Phuket operated by Turkish Airlines has just reopened. The first flight of this renewed Istanbul to Phuket route landed on Saturday, according to the Phuket News. This is the first flight directly from Istanbul Airport, historically a major travel hub, since the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown disrupted international air travel. The Turkish Airlines flight landed in Phuket on Saturday with 168 foreign visitors. Phuket News reports that airline staff were waiting in the terminal to welcome the tourists back to the island at last. Right now Turkish Airlines is maintaining 2 flights a week between […]

The story Direct flight between Istanbul and Phuket reopens as seen on Thaiger News.

Read the full story

super

[RampantRabbit]

10 hours ago, Cathat said:

Turkish airlines have done very well managing the crisis.everybody has taken pay cuts on a sliding scale and they have not put anybody out of work.

They are very well positioned for a strong recovery especially for the european far east routes.

Well worth trying if you have not used them before.

They are nice people to fly with and often have very competitive fares to thailand.

Thye  need to  up their  game   a bit  in Business with those  old a330's although to be fair those  seats are nice and roomy compared to the modern sardine  business  class if  you dont mind having a neighbour to climb over.

[KaptainRob]

58 minutes ago, RampantRabbit said:

Thye  need to  up their  game   a bit  in Business with those  old a330's although to be fair those  seats are nice and roomy compared to the modern sardine  business  class if  you dont mind having a neighbour to climb over.

AFAIK they use both A330's and B777's on the IST to BKK or HKT routes.  The average age is ~ 8 years and on my last 2 flights I had one older A330 and one brand new A330 (2017)  - the new model was far superior and I was told they normally utilise newer models on long haul, which makes sense.

Business class had a chef prepared meal, which was quite a novelty, not sure if Covid may have killed that off, but the service was superb.  IST is a major Euro hub with better connections IMO, than transiting via the ME.

[RampantRabbit]

On 11/23/2021 at 9:01 AM, KaptainRob said:

AFAIK they use both A330's and B777's on the IST to BKK or HKT routes.  The average age is ~ 8 years and on my last 2 flights I had one older A330 and one brand new A330 (2017)  - the new model was far superior and I was told they normally utilise newer models on long haul, which makes sense.

Business class had a chef prepared meal, which was quite a novelty, not sure if Covid may have killed that off, but the service was superb.  IST is a major Euro hub with better connections IMO, than transiting via the ME.

Its  not the age its  the seat config, you have to  have a neighbour, the food  I didnt like, the Istanbul  lounge is  huge but can be busy, I was herded  with the cattle class onto a bus to get the flight not segregated as is more usual, the toilets on the a330 are  small, I guess  having flown on the A380 which is a vastly superior  plane spoiled me, A380 first bathroom