Review of Turkish Airlines flight from Ankara to Istanbul in Economy

Report No: 2022-808

Dear folks,

Welcome to this brand new series which would be another Turkish domestic flight series, this time to Ankara which I preferred to fly rather than taking the train on this occasion. One of the reasons for this was that I was able to spot the ex-Aeroflot A350's on this route on both directions while I was booking this trip so I was excited to try this exotic aircraft which also has a Premium Economy cabin, which is something that Turkish Airlines doesn't offer, and sells as Economy Class.

For the return journey, similar to the outbound, I have chosen a flight that had the ex-Aeroflot A350 assigned but the morning of the flight, there was an equipment change and our flight would have been operated by an A321neo instead which was a significant decrease in capacity for that specific flight. Thus this report would cover the A321neo of Turkish Airlines alongside with a review of the Turkish Airlines Domestic Lounge in Ankara.

This series would contain two reports as below;

Loads for this flight:

Business Class: 100%
Economy Class: 100% 

The flight was fully booked 

ANKARA ESENBOĞA AIRPORT

About 1h15mins before scheduled departure time, I have arrived at the airport via taxi and the taxi driver dropped me at the dedicated CIP entrance upon my request.

As a Miles&Smiles Elite Plus member, I am eligible to use this dedicated entrance which has a dedicated check-in area, security checkpoint, and the passageway to the lounge. The domestic lounge is completely isolated from the regular passenger terminal and lounge eligible passengers should use this entrance in order to benefit from the facilities.

Check-in was pretty smooth and I was quickly handed a boarding pass. Due to the aircraft change, my seat was also changed because of operational reasons but I was still assigned a window seat.

After a smooth security process, I headed to the Elite Plus & Business section of the lounge. The other section is for Miles&Smiles Classic Plus, Elite and partner *G's traveling in Economy

TURKISH AIRLINES LOUNGE - ANKARA ESENBOĞA AIRPORT

The lounge has a buffet which has pastries, fruits, vegetables, cheese, cereal, mini sandwiches and drinks. There was also hot börek and soup available at that time.

Here is my selection for the day

The lounge was not crowded during my visit and plenty of seating was available

Our aircraft for today, TC-LSJ, was also visible from the lounge.

One of the benefits of using the domestic lounge is that, passengers are transported directly from the lounge to the aircraft with dedicated lounge boarding. Since there were many elites on this flight, a larger bus was assigned for this flight.

After a very short bus ride, we were at gate 107 which our aircraft was parked at.

Fuselage shot

TK 2109 ANKARA ESENBOĞA AIRPORT TO ISTANBUL AIRPORT

After being welcomed by the crew, I took my seat 16A for this flight.

The new Turkish Airlines short-haul seats are pretty decent in terms of comfort and has adequate legroom. I have inquired about an extra legroom seat at check-in but they all occupied at the time I was at the desk.

Overhead panel.

Each seat onboard this aircraft is equipped with a Panasonic branded IFE screen which has USB ports. Unfortunately, TK didn't install power outlets in the Economy cabin of their A321neo aircraft but they are available in the Business Cabin

IFE Menu - On domestic flights the content is not broad as international flights, however, select Turkish movies and both Turkish and international TV shows and documentaries are available through the platform.

Here is our route map for the 237 miles flight

The only negative thing about this aircraft that the seatbelt was dirty on a quite new aircraft

Our neighbor that day was an AnadoluJet 737-800

When boarding was completed, the safety video was monitored from the personal screens

Which was followed by some advertisements

We did push back a couple of minutes ahead of schedule

The terminal that day was full of Boeing 737's

However, the A340-500 of the Turkish government was there

Another Boeing 737-800, this time for Pegasus, operating PC 1724 service to Bucharest from Türkiye's capital

After a short taxi we were already on the runway

And we took off towards the north

Some photos after takeoff

After reaching our cruising altitude, the meal service has started. The option was the usual cheese panini that is served on domestic flights in Economy Class

Despite there were three trolleys serving drinks, it took time for drinks to arrive and I opted for a tea.
Since the duration of the flight is short and the flight was full, the crew wasn't able to serve drinks to some rows as during the service, the captain has asked the crew to prepare for landing. 

Photos of the route map during our descent into Istanbul

Photos before landing

The depot for the Istanbul Airport metro lines.
For reference, the first part of the airport metro opened in January 2023 but was not operational once this flight was taken

The airport became visible

We were going to land at runway 36.

And we have touched down 25 minutes before scheduled arrival time

The first visible aircraft was this ex-Aeroflot Turkish Airlines A350-900

Some interesting aircraft were also visible, such as this Tassili Airlines 737-800

As well as this Mahan Air A310

Albeit it's pretty usual to see Turkish Airlines aircaft here at IST

A Turkish Airlines A321ceo

Another TK A321ceo

This time, it's a Turkish 737-MAX-8

And we were going to park at gate F6a which is an international gate, since our aircrafts next flight was going to be to Dublin.

Our next door neighbor was TC-JTN

Pulling into our parking position

And we have parked

Buses immediately arrived, two for Economy Class passengers ( one for the front stairs and one for the back stairs ) and one bus for the Business Class cabin

ISTANBUL AIRPORT - IST

After saying goodbye to the crew, I have left the airport from the front stairs

Last photo of TC-LSJ before boarding the bus.

The advantage of a remote stand on arrival at Istanbul for domestic flights is that the bus would drop passengers at the baggage hall which eliminates long walks.

I was already at the exit 5 minutes later than our scheduled arrival time

And made my way downstairs to the public transportation level

After that, I was waiting for the bus to arrive and after it arrived, I have left the airport.

So, this is the end of this short domestic series.
I hope you did enjoy reading this series.
Please feel free to leave a comment below; thanks again and hope to see you in another Flight-Report.