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TK operations from "Istanbul Airport" aka Istanbul New Airport (ISL/IST)

Old Oct 5, 2018, 9:18 am
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Last edit by: ISTFlyer
Please note that this thread discusses only TK operations from the new airport. There will be no discussion of the politics involved. These can take place in OMNI PR. Anyone interested in general issue surrounding the new airport may find these in the "Europe" forum. The usual FT rules apply.
For a general discussion about the airport, not related to TK, please visit: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/europe/1955797-istanbul-new-airport-ist-isl-master-thread.html
Lounge questions have now a dedicated thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/turkish-airlines-miles-smiles/1963594-tk-istanbul-airport-thread-2-lounges.html
starflyergold
TK forum moderator

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This is the list of all Istanbul Airport threads where you could find more details related to your question if it's discussed in one of the forums below.

TK in Istanbul Airport: Thread #1 - General Discussion ( YOU ARE HERE )
This is the thread that you could ask your questions about the airport related to Turkish Airlines which doesn't have a dedicated thread. For example questions about check-in desks, the Miniport service, fast-track security, care points, etc... could be asked here if they are directly or indirectly related to TK.
TK in Istanbul Airport: Thread #2 - Lounges
This is the thread dedicated for lounges and questions about the TK lounges at Istanbul Airport. Sleeping rooms in the lounge could be discussed in the third thread as it's mainly related to longer connections. Please do refer to the respective threads in the Europe forum for other contract lounges at Istanbul Airport and PriorityPass lounges.
TK in Istanbul Airport: Thread #3 - Stopover Hotel, Touristanbul, Sleeping Rooms
This is the thread for passengers booked a long connection. The thread has a guide that would give basic information about the free city tour, the stopover hotel option for eligible passengers as well as the sleeping rooms in the lounges in Istanbul Airport. For issues onlyrelated hotel suggestions refer to the Europe forum.
TK in Istanbul Airport: Thread #4 - Transferring/Transit at Istanbul Airport
This is the thread were you could ask your questions about any type of transfer at Istanbul Airport. Such as what to do within a xxx hour layover, or facilities at the transfer area directly related to transit issues. Also questions related to transfer security, immigration in single/seperate tickets could be discussed here. As well as what to do in case of misconnections. The transfer hotel where passengers could access by paying: YOTEL has a dedicated thread where you could find here.
TK in Istanbul Airport: Thread #5 - Miles&Smiles Card Pickup at Istanbul Airport
If you want to pickup your Miles&Smiles card in Istanbul Airport, please consult this thread where you would be able to find the locations of the card print points for Miles&Smiles members.

There are also threads not only related to the TK pax but to all passengers traveling from Istanbul Airport. These take place in the Europe forum.

Istanbul Airport Master Thread
For any question related to the airport instead of TK ( facilities, pay-to-use services not related to TK, transportation, rental car services, hotel services, non-TK lounges ) please consult this thread in the Europe forum. Also please discuss, Flightradar24 related ADS-B issues, delays related to the airport here, unless it's a direct TK issue.
PriorityPass Lounges in Istanbul Airport
There is no PriorityPass Lounges at Istanbul Airport at the moment. However, I would update this thread when there is an available lounge for PriorityPass at the airport.

I (ISTFlyer) have removed the FAQ's as they are now all answered in the respective WIKI sections of the respective forums.
Print Wikipost

TK operations from "Istanbul Airport" aka Istanbul New Airport (ISL/IST)

Old Feb 10, 2019, 11:31 am
  #346  
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For now on, the confirmed lounges is Istanbul Airport are;

Domestic Departures
IGA Lounge - Domestic ( no idea about opening date )
Turkish Airlines Lounge Domestic ( opened to service )
International Departures
Turkish Airlines Lounge Miles&Smiles ( opening soon )
Turkish Airlines Lounge Business ( opening soon )
Turkish Airlines Exclusive Lounge ( opening soon )
IGA Lounge - International ( opening soon )
SkyTeam Lounge ( no idea about opening date )
Emirates Lounge ( no idea about opening date )
International Arrivals
Turkish Airlines Arrival Lounge ( no idea about opening date )

Last edited by ISTFlyer; Feb 10, 2019 at 3:03 pm Reason: adding info thanks to mafaky
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Old Feb 10, 2019, 1:13 pm
  #347  
 
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Paul has said:
Istanbul New Airport opens as a Turkish Airlines hub on March 3, 2019, and to other airlines much later over the next few years. Check before you travel.
This is practically impossible. TK, other domestic and all other international airlines will be moving out to ISL (which will become IST by that D-day) on the almost same time-frame. There's no such possibility that other airlines may follow TK "much later" (by months or by years).

@ ISTFlyer: You can add the "Emirates Lounge" to your above list. Paul (in his article....) clearly mentions that there will be one to open sooner or later, its location is already signposted. Now I wonder about the OneWorld chaps. BA & QR will be the major participants to ISL/IST, and as they do have a lounge at Ataturk, there's no reason why they will not have one here!... Also TK already has two neighboring lounges in the domestic terminal (one is currently/temporarily) used for their crews.
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Last edited by mafaky; Feb 10, 2019 at 1:19 pm
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Old Feb 10, 2019, 1:47 pm
  #348  
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Will BA/QR be? In recent weeks BA has been flying 1x or 0x to IST, often cancelling its lone flight and just FIM'ing people. They are now down to one full time employee at the airport, and speaking of lounges, they closed theirs years ago, so although I would hope that they will have a lounge or that there is some sort of 1World lounge, I am not holding my breath. QR may increase services, but what will they possibly ever do, 4x to Doha, one day? I am happy to hear taht Skyteam is giving it another go at the new airport since they abandoned their current IST lounge last year, and I can dream that this might mean a comeback for Skyteam carriers in Istanbul, because currently, you are looking at 1xAF (Joon, but will be AF again in 6 weeks), 1x KL, 1x Tarom, .5x Korean, 1-2x MEA, and 3-5 each SV to various destinations and 2 x Aeroflot. Five years ago, it was up to as many as 5xAF (4x to CDG and 1x to Toulouse), 3xKLM, 1x DL, 2x Tarom, 1x KE, 1x CZ, 2x MEA, 5x SV, 3x Aeroflot. So Currently 9-10 flights per day, when before it was above 22 flights per day.

The rumor is that as some point after the new airport really opens AF/KL will raise frequencies to 2 and 2, but we'll see.
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Old Feb 10, 2019, 3:28 pm
  #349  
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Originally Posted by hfly
Will BA/QR be? In recent weeks BA has been flying 1x or 0x to IST, often cancelling its lone flight and just FIM'ing people. They are now down to one full time employee at the airport, and speaking of lounges, they closed theirs years ago, so although I would hope that they will have a lounge or that there is some sort of 1World lounge, I am not holding my breath. QR may increase services, but what will they possibly ever do, 4x to Doha, one day? I am happy to hear taht Skyteam is giving it another go at the new airport since they abandoned their current IST lounge last year, and I can dream that this might mean a comeback for Skyteam carriers in Istanbul, because currently, you are looking at 1xAF (Joon, but will be AF again in 6 weeks), 1x KL, 1x Tarom, .5x Korean, 1-2x MEA, and 3-5 each SV to various destinations and 2 x Aeroflot. Five years ago, it was up to as many as 5xAF (4x to CDG and 1x to Toulouse), 3xKLM, 1x DL, 2x Tarom, 1x KE, 1x CZ, 2x MEA, 5x SV, 3x Aeroflot. So Currently 9-10 flights per day, when before it was above 22 flights per day.

The rumor is that as some point after the new airport really opens AF/KL will raise frequencies to 2 and 2, but we'll see.
It's true that SkyTeam members had decreased their operations to IST but Tarom is still 2x, Aeroflot would be 5x after 31MAR and ME would be 2x wide-body during summer; I've heard the rumor that KLM would reintroduce their night-stopper flight and AF would reschedule their operations as this route would be served by AF instead of JN. On the other hand, like Vancouver and Heathrow, they could also accept Priority Pass customers to make extra money.

When it's come to BA, yes they have closed their lounge in Istanbul alongside with some destinations in Europe. Last, they have closed their lounge in Munich which they operate 5-6 times a day. After cancelling the flight which was departing around 13:30 from Istanbul, BA had lost most of their customers to the US or Canada as this flight had the best connection times. Now instead of 08:45, 13:30 and 17:00 they operate at 10:00 and 17:40 which are not healthy times for connections. BA scheduling has to reconsider their schedule for the IST route. I also agree that BA could save money while cancelling individually their IST flights as most of the time the aircraft is half empty during the winter season. However, in the summer season it's rare to see an empty seat on BA. Also QR would increase their flights while new slots would be available. And the other oneworld airline that flies to Istanbul, Royal Jordanian, wouldn't have impact on a lounge. I've also heard the rumor MH and IB could return to Istanbul. And let's don't forget AT or ( possibly CZ ) joining the alliance that both flies to IST. Maybe we won't see an OW lounge at the first point but later on, I wouldn't be surprised to see one.
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Old Feb 10, 2019, 3:31 pm
  #350  
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Originally Posted by mafaky
@ ISTFlyer: You can add the "Emirates Lounge" to your above list. Paul (in his article....) clearly mentions that there will be one to open sooner or later, its location is already signposted.
Thank you, just added to the list

Originally Posted by mafaky
Now I wonder about the OneWorld chaps. BA & QR will be the major participants to ISL/IST, and as they do have a lounge at Ataturk, there's no reason why they will not have one here!...
Both BA and QR are contracting the Millennium Lounge alongside with RJ. The BA Terraces Lounge had been closed few years ago and the location is now being served as the Primeclass Lounge.
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Old Feb 10, 2019, 7:33 pm
  #351  
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I also forgot that AZ went down from 4x to nothing. I already mentioned that the rumor is that AF and KL may go up to 2x each again after the new airport is established. Aeroflot going to 5x is something, but does not cover for the other 15 or so flights that are gone.

Regarding 1World. BA has had an identity crisis regarding Turkey as a whole the last several years. I am not even going to get into the electronics ban, which they extended for almost an extra year, because they did not want to pay the extra costs, I am not even talking about their flitting into various Turkish cities for a season or two, and then dropping them, nor the fact that their business product is garbage when compared to TK, and that they do not even give Y passengers water on a mid haul flight (which is what it is according to their own definition), the problem is dependability, I would say that in the last 2-3 months when looking to fly to London 10 times, on 6 of those dates they have been running 1 flight, on the others they have simply cancelled their flights. While once they were a serious carrier at IST, they are now an unreliable carrier, with an unreliable schedule, with an inferior product and have shown utter contempt for their passengers in every possible way. As for RJ, they fly regional jets most of the time, so they mean nothing. As I mentioned above QR will increase frequencies, to what though? 3x? 5x? MH is NOT coming back, forgetting their own problems, TK has flooded the route (one they had contempt for anyway with a technical stop in DXB for many years), IB is NOT coming back, there is almost as much chance of Malev coming back to IST as IB. I have heard that Cathay is actually looking at coming back (you all may recall that CX stopped flying after 9/11, kept their office open for a number of years, but never came back).
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Old Feb 10, 2019, 8:25 pm
  #352  
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While we were discussing about OW operations in IST/ISL;

Qatar Airways had announced that all their flights on 1MAR & 2MAR to/from Atatürk Airport would be merged to the flights to/from Sabiha Gökçen Airport.
https://qatarairways.zendesk.com/hc/...anbul-Airport-

On these dates QR would operate 3x 777-300ER service from/to SAW.
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Last edited by ISTFlyer; Feb 10, 2019 at 8:52 pm Reason: additional info
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Old Feb 11, 2019, 12:39 am
  #353  
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Just a reminder that this is the TK forum. Feel free to discuss other airlines and their operations in their respective forums, or general Istanbul airport issues in the Europe forum. @:-)

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Old Feb 11, 2019, 2:36 am
  #354  
 
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Originally Posted by starflyergold
Just a reminder that this is the TK forum. Feel free to discuss other airlines and their operations in their respective forums, or general Istanbul airport issues in the Europe forum. @:-)

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Agreed but: there's only one (New) Istanbul Airpot thread in the Europe Forum; afaik. And that thread's heading is something like "Pictures from Istanbul Airport" is primarily dominated by a single person who is busy posting images smuggled out of Instagram or similar sources. I think I cannot start up a new thread in the Europe Forum. If someone can and will, I will be more than happy to contribute there...
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Old Feb 11, 2019, 1:47 pm
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Interesting review of the new airport

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Old Feb 11, 2019, 2:03 pm
  #356  
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Originally Posted by MixalisK.
Interesting review of the new airport
Thanks for sharing but I had already shared the same video few posts ago and another contributor had shared the article related to the video.

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By the way, I have created a thread at the Europe forum for Istanbul Airport. Please feel free to continue any discussions not directly related to TK and related to Istanbul Airport in the thread linked below.
Istanbul 'New' Airport ( IST/ISL ) - Master Thread ✈️
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Last edited by ISTFlyer; Feb 11, 2019 at 2:28 pm
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Old Feb 12, 2019, 2:07 am
  #357  
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Originally Posted by mafaky
Agreed but: there's only one (New) Istanbul Airpot thread in the Europe Forum; afaik. And that thread's heading is something like "Pictures from Istanbul Airport" is primarily dominated by a single person who is busy posting images smuggled out of Instagram or similar sources. I think I cannot start up a new thread in the Europe Forum. If someone can and will, I will be more than happy to contribute there...
Anybody can start a new thread in any forum (except Coupon Connection).
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Old Feb 12, 2019, 8:36 am
  #358  
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And there it is: a thread for non TK related issues of ISL/IST: Istanbul 'New' Airport ( IST/ISL ) - Master Thread ✈️
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Old Feb 12, 2019, 8:46 am
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The official airport transfer programme is attached. Whether this holds remains still to be seen.
Attached Images
File Type: pdf
PROGRAMME.PDF (746.7 KB, 226 views)
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Old Feb 12, 2019, 6:22 pm
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Hello All! I have been followimg this forum as I”m flying TK soon. I still see TK selling flights deaprting Asian cities on the evening 1 March and arriving IST in the morning of 2 March. If they do go ahead with this move, and do not cancel these flights by 15 Feb 2019, won’t TK have to pay EU compensation for all those booked passengers and reaccomadate them? I just hope this doesn’t get push back to my travel dates on TK in April! Safe Travels To All!

Last edited by northsideguy; Feb 12, 2019 at 6:32 pm
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