Review of Pegasus Airlines flight from Frankfurt to Istanbul in Economy

Report No: 2019-504E

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to this new short series which would contain two flights onboard Pegasus Airlines for a short trip to Germany. The main purpose of this trip was to reclaim my carry-on bag that I've forgotten back in Frankfurt in March 2019 after this flight. So, I have combined the opportunity to visit some friends in Germany and stay a night over there. The cheapest airline for this route was Pegasus Airlines and the price was €129 for a round-trip ticket which is not that bad where Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines was around €200-€300. The purpose of this trip was pleasure so I took the cheapest option. This series would contain a general overview of Pegasus Airlines, the Turkish low-cost carrier.

The second flight of this series would be the report of the Boeing 737-800 of Pegasus Airlines onboard a flight from Frankfurt to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen. On this report, I would also cover one of the hot meal options of the BoB menu of Pegasus Airlines.

The uneventful routing for this trip would look like this;

Pax for this flight:

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ONLINE CHECK-IN

I have completed the online check-in process via the Pegasus mobile application 7 days before departure.

This time, I was assigned seat 28F which I was happy to keep as it was a window seat.

As I haven't selected a seat, pre-order a meal or buy checked baggage allowance, I didn't need to pay for OLCI.

The day of the flight, I have realized that TC-IZG would be the aircraft that would take me back to Istanbul. It would be my second time on TC-IZG as my first time was back in July 2018 and you could find the report of that flight here.

The day of the flight, I have decided to use the S-Bahn to access Frankfurt Airport. It takes around 10 minutes from the city center to the airport which is a quite short ride.

FRANKFURT AIRPORT - FRA

As the S-Bahn station is located at Terminal 1,

And the Skyline is closed, I have used the intra-terminal transfer bus to access Terminal 2.

Pegasus Airlines operates from Terminal 2E.

As I had time and the counters were empty, I've stopped by for a paper issued boarding pass as sometimes at outstations, mobile boarding passes doesn't work efficiently. The Pegasus counters were the same counters that American Airlines uses. After the last AA flight departs from FRA, for the rest of the day, the counters are allocated for PC flights.

Boarding pass. Gate D14, never heard where it is before this flight, I've thought it would probably be a bus gate.

Later on, I have headed to passport control which took less than 5 minutes. FIDS

As I had no lounge access and dining in FRA is expensive than onboard, I have headed to my gate. While walking, I have noticed the ad that they were "Building the Future" in FRA which I think that would open before Brandenburg Airport.

While on the way, JA862J had just arrived from Tokyo-Narita.

While I approached the gate area, there was a centralized security point for gates D13-D20. As there were nobody in front of me, this checkpoint was a breeze.

GATE AREA & BOARDING

Wait a second. Gate D14 was the same gate as gate C14 and I had noticed at that moment.

And it was not a bus gate, it was one of the A380 gates of Lufthansa that has direct lounge boarding. However, as FRA does not have centralized security throughout the airport, LH prefers operating their A380 from Terminal 1Z.

A Lufthansa A330 passing by. As expected, there were enough seats for everyone at the gate area as the gate was originally designed for an A380 flight.

The gate desk was also Lufthansa branded. Boarding had started 30 minutes with families with children boarding first after all others. A pre-recorded boarding announcement was made in German, English and Turkish when boarding had started. E-boarding-gates was not active. By the way, mobile boarding passes worked without an issue at FRA for PC flights.

D-AIDK was our neighbor. He was going to fly to Tel Aviv that afternoon.

PC 996 FRANKFURT AIRPORT TO ISTANBUL SABİHA GÖKÇEN AIRPORT

In the first plan, I've taken my original seat 28F. The Pegasus 737-800 aircraft have slightly less legroom than the A320neo's, however, still it had a decent legroom for a LCC.

Most of the seats onboard the aircraft was empty that afternoon; many passengers including myself have asked the crew if we could move to another seat as the aircraft was empty. They have simply asked not to move more than 5 rows as the seating plan was allocated according to fuel plans. For the comfort of the passenger in 28D, I have moved to seat 32F, which is in the last row of the aircraft.

Our neighbor A7-APH was getting ready for his flight to Doha.

The seat pocket containing the Pegasus Cafe menu and the Pegasus Magazine. You could find the content of the menu here in my previous report.

After doors were closed, the safety demo was done manually by the crew. After that, the captain had announced that we would wait at our parking position for a bit because of the air traffic.

At that time, this Korean Air 747-8I had arrived from Seoul as KE905.

As you could see, most seats were empty which maximized the comfort.

As this was an ex-Ryanair aircraft, life vests were located in the overhead panel rather than under the seat. However, the strange thing was that the pre-recorded safety announcement told that "Your life vest is located under your seat." At least, I know it's not under my seat.

While we were waiting, G-EUYX had pushed back for his flight to Heathrow.

At that time, our friend TC-JOK had arrived from Istanbul Airport.

D-AINJ was going to the runway for his flight to Birmingham.

TC-JOK passing by

And 15 minutes after our scheduled departure time, it was our turn to push-back.

Terminal 2 including the QR A380 parked at Terminal 1C.

Etihad A330-200 waiting for the evening for his flight to Abu Dhabi.

Once again, the terminal

The ground control center

D-AIDK, for the second time, before his flight to Tel Aviv.

Condor aircraft parked at Terminal 1C.

D-AIDK for the third time.

Condor 767 in the retro livery and ANA 777-300ER in the Star Wars livery

HL7626 would operate OZ542 to Seoul, that afternoon.

D-ABOI had arrived from Lanzarote and being towed to Terminal 1C:

LATAM A350, getting ready for his flight to Sao Paulo

B-1086 was going to fly to Shanghai that day

TC-JOK parked at Terminal 1B.

Terminal 1A/Z

D-AIFD had just arrived from Qingdao.

D-AINM, one of the A320neo's of Lufthansa, would operate LH1078 to Lyon that day.

SX-DGA, at a remote stand, would return back to Athens soon.

Another shot of that bird

D-ABUZ had arrived from Seattle that afternoon

Lufthansa Cargo MD-11's parked near the cargo terminal

This A320neo was also ready to go to the runway

D-ACNB was going to operate LH1226 to Geneva.

EC-MNR was going to operate LH396 to Luxembourg. Lufthansa had leased this aircraft from Air Nostrum.

And after 15-20 minutes of taxiing and waiting for our turn, we were taking off.

Some aircraft parked near the Terminal 3 site

Terminal 3 construction site

An ICE high speed train heading southward.

We had made a turn and FRA was visible

In a few minutes, we had reached our cruising altitude.

As there were 60-70 passengers onboard, the crew individually asked everyone if they wanted something from the Pegasus Cafe menu. As I didn't have lunch that day, I have opted for the Chicken Schnitzel option. The tray also contained a salad, a chocolate pudding, lemon, olive oil, butter, and bread. I had paid €13 for this meal including a bottle of ice-tea, however, the same meal could be order for a cheaper price online in advance. 

The portion of the schnitzel is not that small but not that big.

Inflight shopping was also offered throughout the flight but the options were limited.

Before starting our descent, the crew arrived one more time to ask if passengers would like something from the Pegasus Cafe and then I have visited one of the lavatories, which was clean at that time.

As we're arriving the Tuzla Shipyard

D-100 highway

And we had landed on time.

The terminal

After a short taxi, we had parked to a remote stand. Both front and rear doors would been used for disembarkation.

ISTANBUL SABİHA GÖKÇEN AIRPORT - SAW

As I was sitting at the last row, I had left the aircraft from the rear door after saying goodbye to the crew.

TC-NBM was our neighbor, next morning he was going to fly to Denizli. As we were only 60-70 passengers onboard, one bus took all passengers to the terminal.

The last shot of our aircraft.

When I arrived at the terminal, the passport control booths were empty so I didn't use the fast-track lane. Later on, when leaving the baggage claim hall, all bags ( including carry-on's ) were scanned by customs officers so after a 1-2 minute wait over there, I have headed to the bus stops to go back to my address.

So, this report has come to an end.  
Thanks for reading and hope to see you in another report.