Ismilee

Sounds like opening on 7 April is a bit unlikely then? Surely other airlines would have the same regulations that need to be met.

ISTFlyer

I have found this article while surfing on the web. I am sharing this article which has been posted this week.

northsideguy

ISTFlyer

In your specific travel dates, unless you are scheduled for a long layover, there won't be any problems. You would arrive to the same airport and depart from the same airport if both of your flight are marked "IST".

None of the administrations ( including the Ministry of Transport ) won't change as the election at the end of March is local elections where eligible voters vote for their mayor and local parliament for their city and their district. So this election has nothing to do with the airport directly. However, the government party doesn't want to lose votes, especially in Istanbul, so they are not postponing the movement date nowadays.

Ismilee

Thanks for posting - very informative.

northsideguy

mafaky

There are a number of material mistakes in that article. However, I cannot fully say that it's a totally "misleading" one. The author should have done some deeper research, especially regarding the figures and then the said article would be more enlightening and possibly more objective one. Today I don't have the time to go over those mistakes, but will try to do so later during the week.

mafaky

The very latest indications reveal that the Big Movement is going to happen on April 5th & 6th, and all airlines will resume operations from Istanbul Airport starting 00:01 (local time) on 7th.

One curious member at wowturkey Forum made some investigations:
1) He selected a TK international flight out from AHL on a date prior to April 5th and attempted to buy a ticket. That ticket indicated a "Airport Tax" corresponding to USD15, which is the current practice at IHL. He then attempted to buy a second ticket on April 15th for the same destination: this time the Airport Tax corresponded to €20 (which is the practice at Istanbul Airport).
2) Later he checked numerous TK Fights out from Istanbul/European side, after 7th. A lot of USA flights looks like "cancelled" and some for more than a week. Similar cases for some European flights. Some frequencies seem to be reduced and then again increased over a period of 2 weeks (like CDG, MAD, AMS). Well this means that either these flights are cancelled (which is the worse option of the findings) or those flights are not on sale yet (as of yesterday) for whatever reason... We'll soon see, possibly during this week...

Another Forum member whom I know privately has better insider information from TK. He says, around 4.000 flights will be cancelled during the "transition period" until TK's S19 timetable will be re-aligned to the routine one, in April. In my opinion, so many cancellations indicate this transition period to be 2-3 weeks, starting from the 7th.

Again we'll see, by the time comes (or whenever these cancellations will be publicly announced...)!

LAST MINUTE NOTICE: As of now, there's the official declaration from TK (on their website) that Ataturk Airport based flights will be ceased by April 6th, 02:00 a.m. and all TK operations will start from the (New) Istanbul Airport will commence starting 02:00 p.m. on the same day. (To be cancelled flights, excluded)

So this time that Big Movement is for real but I am very sceptic about its consequences and possible problems arising during the next several months...

northsideguy

mafaky

Tha above statement on TK's site is misleading: There will be a black out period between 02:00 and 14:00 (local times) on 6th April, for TK fights. After 14:00 hrs. (2 p.m.) TK flights will resume but there will be many cancellations for the next 2 weeks or so.

cphi4545

Hi Flyers I have a scheduled flight from CPH via Istanbul to BKK on the 4 of april, 1 day before the planned move. I have now got a email with a schedule change so that i will fly from CPH to IST Ataturk, and instead of the 4 hours stopover i have now a scheduled flight almost 28 hours later on the 5 april 20.15 instead of 4 April 20.15 from the new Airport. This of course is causing troubles for both booked hotels etc in BKK, but what about accommodation in Istanbul and transfer to new Airport the day after if i choose to keep the booking. Can i count on getting hotel/transfer and so on paid by TK ?...

ISTFlyer

You could call the call center and request to change your ticket depending on availability. A local sales office would also work. I am not sure if they would give accommodation to you because you have the option to cancel your ticket. Contact the hotel department of Turkish Airlines to see if you are eligible. ( You could find the relevant e-mail address for the hotel department in the TK Miles&Smiles forum ) If you are booked on the 20:15 flight ( TK64 ) on the 5th, your flight would depart from Atatürk Airport. However, if you want to avoid the chaos, I would suggest you to cancel your ticket and rebook your flights on another airline.

cphi4545

Thank you IstFlyer, you might be right, i have booked trough an agency so have to contact them, but the best is maybe to avoid TK complete during this period.

cphi4545

ISTFlyer, thank you for your reply.

I think you are right about getting a refund and try to avoid IST and TK during this chaotic transition period. I have to contact agency as i have booked through them and hope that they apply to the refund ruling by TK.

northsideguy