leftyboarder wrote:

TK top guy Bilal Ekşi reports significant drop in TK forward bookings to USA. 45% for Turkey to USA and 61% for USA to Turkey.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/vize-krizi-thyyi-vurdu-4061463

http://atwonline.com/security/turkish-us-turkey-bookings-drop-transfer-business-after-visa-row

That is a big drop. I'll let you know about the loads, I have US-Turkey flights coming up.

TK787 wrote:

airporthaber.com suggests, they had an article in late July that this might happen: (in Turkish). I assume it was expected in some circles.

"AIRPORTHABER TEMMUZ'DA DUYURMUŞTU
Geçtiğimiz Temmuz ayı sonunda AirportHaber olarak okuyucularımıza, THY Yönetim Kurulu Başkanı İlker Aycı ve Do&Co Yönetim Kurulu Başkanı Atilla Doğudan'ın, 3. Havalimanı'na yatırım yapılması konusunda anlaşamadığını ve THY'nin SATS ile görüşmelere başladığını duyurmuştuk."

I know about this rumors.
As said in my previous post this pressure is ongoing for a long time. Do&Co will not be the first Austrian Company to leave Turkey.
Austria is a small country, smear-campaigns are more effective than in bigger and heterogeneous countries.
I am sure, soon Attila Doğudan will be celebrated as victim and hero.

https://mobil.derstandard.at/2000066234 ... n-Istanbul

Turkish Airlines will hire 106 Flight Attendants from Morocco.
https://m.dunya.com/sirketler/thyden-fa ... eri-386941

Very nice move from TK. I hope other countries/nationalities will follow.
Back in the 90ies/2000s TK had Japanese F/A and it had positive effects on its Japan flights.

CanadaFair wrote:

Why do TK avoid Israeli space when doing Amman? https://i.gyazo.com/47b237abd206cedb301 ... 43e08c.png

Probably the same reason.
I just watched AMM for a while; Royal Jordanian flight from FRA flies over Israel, but Royal Jordanian flight from AMM to Beirut flies around Israel:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/RJA405
and MEA flies AMM-Beirut flies around Israel from the East !!!
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/MEA3 ... /OJAI/OLBA

Lebanon is a foe.

English story regarding TK-SATS catering.

If an agreement is finalized, SATS say it expects to invest USD$120 million in the new airport facility.

https://www.dailysabah.com/business/201 ... o-catering

I suspect in longer term a 3rd player be it LSG or Gate Group will also set up at the 3rd airport.

While leaving Do&Co at TKs main hub might be sad, unless is they dissolve the entire relationship Do&Co would still have the opportunity to service TK at multiple other stations including at SAW hub.

Also lets remember those award-winning TK meals are prepared by host of global 3rd party vendors, so just because catering is changed at a carriers home base does not mean the menu, or quality of preparation of meals across the system will become worse.

TK787 wrote:

leftyboarder wrote:

TK top guy Bilal Ekşi reports significant drop in TK forward bookings to USA. 45% for Turkey to USA and 61% for USA to Turkey.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/vize-krizi-thyyi-vurdu-4061463

http://atwonline.com/security/turkish-us-turkey-bookings-drop-transfer-business-after-visa-row

That is a big drop. I'll let you know about the loads, I have US-Turkey flights coming up.

Currently North America makes up 14.7% of TK RPK (first 9 months). They've carried 1.6m pax in this period. A 40-50% drop is disastrous. Hopefully it recovers.

LAXintl wrote:

Also lets remember those award-winning TK meals are prepared by host of global 3rd party vendors, so just because catering is changed at a carriers home base does not mean the menu, or quality of preparation of meals across the system will become worse.

Perhaps not across the system, but how about on individual flights? For example, I have flown BOS-IST-BOS 3 times now, and every time, the meal offerings on IST-BOS were much, much better than on BOS-IST.

Another question is, I have also flown LHR/LGW-IST-LHR/LGW a few times, and on both outbound and inbound legs, the meals are catered by Do&Co, complete with Hamidiye mineral water... so are those meals really catered from the UK on the LHR/LGW-IST leg, or are they sent out from IST on the outbound portion--seems odd to me that they would put Hamidiye on a meal assembled in the UK? The same applies to the IST-DEL/BOM-IST flights.

Do&Co has operated inflight catering kitchen in London since 2003. They service many airlines at LHR especially.

Also its very common in airline industry for products to be sourced from a single vendor (such as your water example) and to be shipped and stocked at kitchens globally. Air France for instance has standard specifications which include many items which are sourced and sent from France to be stocked by overseas kitchens and used as part of their setup for return flights.

mercure1 wrote:

Do&Co has operated inflight catering kitchen in London since 2003. They service many airlines at LHR especially.

Also its very common in airline industry for products to be sourced from a single vendor (such as your water example) and to be shipped and stocked at kitchens globally. Air France for instance has standard specifications which include many items which are sourced and sent from France to be stocked by overseas kitchens and used as part of their setup for return flights.

Okay, I see. Was not known to me--seems like a massive logistical operation for something as simple as water.

Keep in mind airlines often enter into exclusive procurement agreements including ones with a branding component.

For instance in the US, AA has an agreement with Coca-Cola to uplift Dasani water and another agreement with Danone Group to use Evian water on select premium cabin flights.

There is an entire world of its own involved with catering and onboard supplies. From selection process to logistics.

Not sure if this is old news, but pretty new and good news to me:
Citi ThankYou adds TK Miles and Smiles as a points transfer partner:
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/ ... u-turkish/
Here is how it works; you apply for a Citi ThankYou Card (there are 3 levels), I opted for the middle one; the Premier Card. ($95 annual fee/first year no fee, and no foreign transaction fees) For every $1 you spend you get one point and at the end you transfer the points into your Miles and Smiles account as miles.
Here is the deal;
-You get 3 x points for travel related purchases like airplane tickets, hotels, car rental, public transportation, cruises, taxis, parking, gas....
-You get 2 x points for dining out and entertainment
-You get 1 x points for everything else.

Citi became a Miles&Smiles transfer partner in August.

Reporting on board TK4 JFK-IST. Brand new -LNE Göbeklitepe, A333; 21J/211Y. 10 FAs including the Flying Chef.

Well, this is a first for me. One of the captains actually visiting and talking to pax in Business Class. I had a nice conversation with him. He is one of the pilots trained in FL for TK. Nice touch

TK787 wrote:

Reporting on board TK4 JFK-IST. Brand new -LNE Göbeklitepe, A333; 21J/211Y. 10 FAs including the Flying Chef.

Conf. C28Y261
LF 80.3%

Not bad have a nice flight!

You learn something new everyday. Out Flying Chef; "Simay", is awesome and told me she has 3 Chef outfits every flight when I mentioned she spilt some food on her uniform

Just got back from a 2 day ESB-GZT-ESB trip on Anadolujet. Both flights had 100% loads. On the way back, all folks had a few kg of Baklava as hand luggage. In fact there is a significant Baklava Tourism there as it is the world capital of Baklava. You also notice a modern bourgeoisie in the city with its own character, thanks to strong industrial base. A nice weekend escape.

TK787 wrote:

Reporting on board TK4 JFK-IST. Brand new -LNE Göbeklitepe, A333; 21J/211Y. 10 FAs including the Flying Chef.

Good to hear that the name "Göbeklitepe" is being reused.

globetrotter94 wrote:

TK787 wrote:

Reporting on board TK4 JFK-IST. Brand new -LNE Göbeklitepe, A333; 21J/211Y. 10 FAs including the Flying Chef.

Good to hear that the name "Göbeklitepe" is being reused.

Likewise. It is a great name.

I must confess, this flight was probably one of the best flights I've ever had. ( close to 600 flights, mostly international, average flight length 4 hours)
I can not find anything to complain. Nothing. Not even the cabin temperature
The Business Class had 3 dedicated FA's, purser and the Flying Chef. With that much service, nothing to complain.
Out of 21 pax, only 5 were transfer pax and to my surprise many native English speakers were on board. I would say, majority.

TK787 wrote:

.....
Out of 21 pax, only 5 were transfer pax and to my surprise many native English speakers were on board. I would say, majority.

Very interesting observation.
Were these native English speakers US citizens?? Afaik the visa issue isn't solved so far.

Tkfan wrote:

TK787 wrote:

.....
Out of 21 pax, only 5 were transfer pax and to my surprise many native English speakers were on board. I would say, majority.

Very interesting observation.
Were these native English speakers US citizens?? Afaik the visa issue isn't solved so far.

Yes, most J pax were Americans.
Not sure about their situation. I could only hope that hey had previous tourist visas, or different types of visas. They did not look concerned.
Istanbul at 5am looked incredibly busy, even at 5am JFK-IST had to park at a remote stand

boefan wrote:

Yakamoz wrote:

boefan wrote:

Funny the only reason i have posted the B1/Delivery dates for THY 77F is because im reading this thread

Glad to know someone is viewing my spreadsheet

Didn't know it's your spreadsheet but nice work. But the dates are official I think?

That is correct i only put dates that are verified but remember during post assembly/testing/customer inspection dates might slip if something needs to be sorted out

Thanks, great work, really. I have a look on it every week.

ist2014 wrote:

Is there any news about 787 wetlease

Not a sound, or even any whisper; YET!...

ist2014 wrote:

Is there any news about 787 wetlease

Not a sound, or even any whisper; YET!...

Just did a quick roundtrip IST-PRG; both on TK A321s.
-On the way to PRG, there were only 4J pax out of 20J seats and 75% Y load.
On the way back there were no J pax and only 26% Y load.
-On the first leg, a big majority of pax were Asian customers connecting from the early morning transfer bank; Chinese, Malaysians, Indonesians but on the way back most pax were Czechs.
And what a difference between PRG and IST. Looking only at pax numbers PRG seems to be 1/5th of IST. But actually seeing it, it almost feels deserted. Most gates empty, terminals empty, no wide-body aircraft to speak of. I become so used to flying mostly to big airports like; JFK, IST, SFO, LAX, DEN... PRG seemed so dreamy. I liked it.

just booked a BOG-MUC-BOG trip in Dec in Business Class - so lets see if with the 3rd attempt all will go smoothly. Any idea how big is the chance to get already the 332 with new seats?

cheers
Avianca

TK787 wrote:

Just did a quick roundtrip IST-PRG; both on TK A321s.
-On the way to PRG, there were only 4J pax out of 20J seats and 75% Y load.
On the way back there were no J pax and only 26% Y load.
-On the first leg, a big majority of pax were Asian customers connecting from the early morning transfer bank; Chinese, Malaysians, Indonesians but on the way back most pax were Czechs.
And what a difference between PRG and IST. Looking only at pax numbers PRG seems to be 1/5th of IST. But actually seeing it, it almost feels deserted. Most gates empty, terminals empty, no wide-body aircraft to speak of. I become so used to flying mostly to big airports like; JFK, IST, SFO, LAX, DEN... PRG seemed so dreamy. I liked it.

Yeah I flew PRG-IST in August and it was pretty empty with about 50 pax on the A321. Every other TK flight I took that trip (IAD-IST IST-BUD and IST-IAD) were completely full. I wondered why PRG-IST was so empty in peak tourist season in a huge tourist city. PRG was bustling when I went there and all the gates except ours were packed. PRG was a nice airport though.

TK787 wrote:

Just did a quick roundtrip IST-PRG; both on TK A321s.
-On the way to PRG, there were only 4J pax out of 20J seats and 75% Y load.
On the way back there were no J pax and only 26% Y load.
-On the first leg, a big majority of pax were Asian customers connecting from the early morning transfer bank; Chinese, Malaysians, Indonesians but on the way back most pax were Czechs.
And what a difference between PRG and IST. Looking only at pax numbers PRG seems to be 1/5th of IST. But actually seeing it, it almost feels deserted. Most gates empty, terminals empty, no wide-body aircraft to speak of. I become so used to flying mostly to big airports like; JFK, IST, SFO, LAX, DEN... PRG seemed so dreamy. I liked it.

Yeah I flew PRG-IST in August and it was pretty empty with about 50 pax on the A321 and most of whom seemed to be Turkish businessmen and a few Turkish tourists. Every other TK flight I took that trip (IAD-IST IST-BUD and IST-IAD) were completely full. I wondered why PRG-IST was so empty in peak tourist season in a huge tourist city. PRG was bustling when I went there and all the gates except ours were packed. There were several widebodies to the Middle East (EK A380) and Asia (MU A330-200 and CA A330-300) but I definitely felt that there is the demand for more service to the US and Canada from PRG. It was a very nice airport though.

Next round of negotiations between Turkey and Canada to amend the air service agreement will take place in Canada in December. Let's hope IST YVR IST will be agreed this time. Canadians are ready to give 3 weekly slots but TK insisted on minimum 6 that is why the negotiations collapsed earlier this year. Let's hope THY will make up their mind and not insist on this. 3 weekly is a great starting frequency for YVR...

ankaraflyjet wrote:

Next round of negotiations between Turkey and Canada to amend the air service agreement will take place in Canada in December. Let's hope IST YVR IST will be agreed this time. Canadians are ready to give 3 weekly slots but TK insisted on minimum 6 that is why the negotiations collapsed earlier this year. Let's hope THY will make up their mind and not insist on this. 3 weekly is a great starting frequency for YVR...

Fingers crosssed, that would be nice. What do you guys think? 3 x Weekly with 332 to start with if it happens?

In fact 787 is the best a/c for that route but I think TK will launch it with 777, if by that time Qatari Dreamliners will be leased may be they can launch with 787 right away, I think West Coast is pushing the limits of 332

If all goes well I expect IST YVR to start as of April 1st 2018

TK787 wrote:

ankaraflyjet wrote:

Next round of negotiations between Turkey and Canada to amend the air service agreement will take place in Canada in December. Let's hope IST YVR IST will be agreed this time. Canadians are ready to give 3 weekly slots but TK insisted on minimum 6 that is why the negotiations collapsed earlier this year. Let's hope THY will make up their mind and not insist on this. 3 weekly is a great starting frequency for YVR...

Fingers crosssed, that would be nice. What do you guys think? 3 x Weekly with 332 to start with if it happens?

ankaraflyjet wrote:

I think West Coast is pushing the limits of 332

Are you sure?
Both TK332 routes; IST-BOG and PTY-IST are 700miles longer than IST-YVR.

Here is a new aerial video of 3rd Airport Project.

It starts from southern parts of 2nd runway and goes all the way to north of it. Then it goes to north-west wing of terminal and finally exit airport from south-west wing of terminal.

They work very hard and you can see the Mad Max type crazy driving of those 80T trucks all around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_conti ... AEHknkKigs

TK never utilized A332 for LAX or SFO so if they launch YVR with 332 West Coast will see it for the first time. LH does seasonal YVR MUC with 332 but AF and KL uses 777 for YVR and BA 747 and 380. With three flights pw 777 is a better option for TK in my opinion...Either would work, let's hope the service will be started, that is the most important thing at present. The expected flight time will be 10 hours 20 minutes from YVR to IST with a Northern route and this is cutting travel time by 6 hours if you fly via YYZ or YUL or 5 hours if you fly via LHR or AMS. This service is going to be very popular.

TK787 wrote:

ankaraflyjet wrote:

I think West Coast is pushing the limits of 332

Are you sure?
Both TK332 routes; IST-BOG and PTY-IST are 700miles longer than IST-YVR.

ankaraflyjet wrote:

Next round of negotiations between Turkey and Canada to amend the air service agreement will take place in Canada in December. Let's hope IST YVR IST will be agreed this time. Canadians are ready to give 3 weekly slots but TK insisted on minimum 6 that is why the negotiations collapsed earlier this year. Let's hope THY will make up their mind and not insist on this. 3 weekly is a great starting frequency for YVR...

I can hardly wait for this to happen. Fingers crossed one more time.

Avianca wrote:

just booked a BOG-MUC-BOG trip in Dec in Business Class - so lets see if with the 3rd attempt all will go smoothly. Any idea how big is the chance to get already the 332 with new seats?

cheers
Avianca

Looks like you are going to get your wish. From today's airporthaber.com TK says it will start sending refurbished 332s to PTY and BOG.
http://www.airporthaber.com/thy-haberle ... -ucak.html

There was some awful congestion at IST yesterday. TK322 to Ashgabat had a taxi of 1 hour and 22 minutes. TK680 was supposed to be operated by TC-JMJ but that went tech (I assume) so it had to be replaced by TC-JRP. It was parked at the southern apron and pushed back with a delay of 53 minutes. The ATC was smart and decided to allow TK680 to use RWY 23 for take off rather than RWY 17L/R, where it would’ve joined the MASSIVE queue. I didn’t know using the parallel runways the other direction would cause such a big mess! I’m sure there have been planes that have taxied longer than TK322, I didn’t research since I was already watching that flight anyway. Believe me the queue was 30 planes long on average! The landing delays were pretty bad too with a prime example being TK1864 which left Rome with a delay of 1hr7mins but arrived at IST with a delay of 1hr19. It did some “circling” pretty far away from the airport and entered the very long arrivals queue. You would think now that it’s the winter season, traffic would simmer down a bit! Funnily, that’s the worst I personally have seen at IST. I’ve seen and experienced 30+ minute taxis at IST during the summer last year but not something almost triple that length.

TK787 wrote:

Avianca wrote:

just booked a BOG-MUC-BOG trip in Dec in Business Class - so lets see if with the 3rd attempt all will go smoothly. Any idea how big is the chance to get already the 332 with new seats?

cheers
Avianca

Looks like you are going to get your wish. From today's airporthaber.com TK says it will start sending refurbished 332s to PTY and BOG.
http://www.airporthaber.com/thy-haberle ... -ucak.html

thanks!

sounds fantastic, so I will try to make this time a trip report.

regards
Avianca

AirbusA343 wrote:

There was some awful congestion at IST yesterday. TK322 to Ashgabat had a taxi of 1 hour and 22 minutes. TK680 was supposed to be operated by TC-JMJ but that went tech (I assume) so it had to be replaced by TC-JRP. It was parked at the southern apron and pushed back with a delay of 53 minutes. The ATC was smart and decided to allow TK680 to use RWY 23 for take off rather than RWY 17L/R, where it would’ve joined the MASSIVE queue. I didn’t know using the parallel runways the other direction would cause such a big mess! I’m sure there have been planes that have taxied longer than TK322, I didn’t research since I was already watching that flight anyway. Believe me the queue was 30 planes long on average! The landing delays were pretty bad too with a prime example being TK1864 which left Rome with a delay of 1hr7mins but arrived at IST with a delay of 1hr19. It did some “circling” pretty far away from the airport and entered the very long arrivals queue. You would think now that it’s the winter season, traffic would simmer down a bit! Funnily, that’s the worst I personally have seen at IST. I’ve seen and experienced 30+ minute taxis at IST during the summer last year but not something almost triple that length.

Did they close a runway or was it simply a wind issue?

Just read in Turkish press that SunExpress is launching Ankara London (ESB LTN) as of June 17th, 2018. Schedules to be announced. We still need a ESB LHR connection either by BA or TK please....

Please continue here :
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1377613

Moderators, please archive this thread, since I've started the November thread above. Thank you.