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Turkish Airlines
IATA/ICAO code: Account / TRY
Type of airline: Full service carrier
Stroke(s): Istanbul Airport
Founding year: 1933
Alliance: star alliance
CHAIRMAN: Bilal Sour
Country: Turkey
Living in Vilnius, Lithuania has its pros and cons. Although it is a beautiful city, a major disadvantage is that the airport does not have regular long-haul connections. As a result, Lithuania-based travelers will need to transfer via another hub airport to access long-haul flights. One airline stepping in to meet the need is Turkish Airlines, which connects the world through its Istanbul hub. In this review, we go into the Economy Class flight experience, traveling in a Boeing 737 MAX 8 from Vilnius to Istanbul. So let’s get started.
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Background and basics of the trip
This flight was recorded on August 30 as flight TK1410. This is a service that is scheduled to depart from Vilnius (VNO) at 12:30 PM and arrive at New Istanbul Airport (IST) at 3:35 PM local time. Our entire journey from Vilnius would take us to Bodrum with a connection in Istanbul. The prices were quite high but given the origin and destination location there were few single itinerary alternatives.
Turkish Airlines can operate up to two daily flights to Vilnius. But regardless of the frequency, the type of aircraft connecting the two cities is always a Boeing 737. However, this can vary between a Boeing 737-800, -900ER or MAX 8 (and presumably MAX 9). The aircraft that was the focus of this review was a Boeing 737 MAX 8 registered as TC-LCU. Data from Planespotters.net shows this aircraft is one of the airline’s latest MAX 8s, having been delivered in September 2021.
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Everything in front of the plane
Arriving at Vilnius Airport was quick and easy. It’s a relatively small city when it comes to population and its airport is relatively close to the city center. The airport is well connected to the main bus and train stations via public buses, airport shuttle buses, an irregular train service, taxis and car-sharing services. If you don’t mind a slightly longer and less comfortable journey by public transport, you can pay less than one euro for the trip to the airport. For us living out of town we could have taken that option but decided to get there faster with an electric carsharing service.
We received our boarding passes the day before as online check-in opens 24 hours before the flight. With no checked baggage, we entered the airport terminal building and went straight to security. Passenger screening seemed fairly standard and required passengers to separate liquids and laptops from luggage. With only one checkpoint open, things seemed slow and inefficient, but in reality we were through security in less than 20 minutes.
The non-Schengen area of the airport is quite small but has a few shops. Photo: Chris Loh | Easy flying
As the country of Türkiye is outside the EU and Schengen zone, we had to go through passport control to get to our gate. When we arrived (well ahead of our boarding time) there were no lineups. However, another traveler had some paperwork problems and kept a border guard busy for much longer than usual.
As we got through passport control, we reached the few gates reserved for non-EU flights. Since most flights from Vilnius serve destinations within the Schengen area, this non-Schengen leg was quite small. In fact, these days you’ll mostly see flights to London and Istanbul – especially since flights to Moscow and Minsk are no longer operating.
The departure area is similar to many modern airports, but much, much smaller. The terminal has high ceilings in most places. Large windows also let in plenty of daylight and at the same time offer a great view of the apron. Vilnius Airport has a few things to make travelers feel comfortable:
- WiFi is fast with limited registration
- A water fountain for filling water bottles is located outside of all or most toilet facilities
- There are a handful of cafes and restaurants that offer the basics (although this is more limited in the non-Schengen area).
- iQOS lounges in Schengen and non-Schengen areas allow people to use their vape devices (although I’m not sure if cigarettes are allowed in these fully enclosed spaces.
All in all the airport is small but quite modern and comfortable for those on the way out.
cabin and seat
Since I hadn’t checked out the aircraft in question beforehand, it wasn’t until I looked out the terminal window and saw those distinctive winglets that I realized I was going to be making my first ever flight on a 737 MAX. Having written for Simple Flying since 2019, the internal reaction has been mixed: Knowing all the details about the 2018 and 2019 crashes prompted a brief moment of dread. However, this is contradicted by the fact that the aircraft has been in scheduled service worldwide for over a year and has accumulated over one million safe flight hours.
While consciously assuring myself of the safety of the type and trusting the revised regulatory process, I moved on the positive side: We were on a fairly new aircraft with a new and comfortable cabin.
Boarding went relatively quickly via the jet bridge and we took our seats at 23A and 23B. As someone who is about 180cm tall, I didn’t have any legroom issues. I like to travel with my laptop and accessories close at hand, so I had my somewhat large backpack under the seat in front of me. While it certainly ate up most of my available legroom, the bag (a 30L Peak Design everyday backpack) easily fit under the seat.
The seats, while a bit narrow, are comfortable and come with highly adjustable headrests. While these headrests cannot be tilted, they can slide up and down. The side “wings” of the headrests were adjustable to provide additional lateral support at the sides. Some other small details and features worth mentioning are:
- Both large (main) and smaller seat-back pockets. The smaller pockets were a nice touch and allowed for easy phone access and storage.
- A small metal nub on the side of the front seat for hanging coats and other clothing
- And a pretty standard amount of recline
entertainment on board
The inflight entertainment was new, fast and modern. The screens can be tilted back and forth, allowing for a better view for passengers of different sizes – or if the person in front decides to recline their seat.
The audio of the system is delivered via a two-pin audio jack, with Turkish Airlines providing earphones. However, as I’ve found with these new systems, you can still use your own wired single-pin earbuds/earbuds and get sound in both ears. The only other port passengers will find is a USB-A port for charging devices.
The content available on these systems appeared to be quite robust and diverse. From the latest movies and TV shows to music and games, passengers should be easily entertained on long and short flights. It was also fun to play around with the airline’s moving map application.
The IFE includes a robust moving map application. Photo: Chris Loh | Easy flying
What I found annoying as a passenger were the many disturbances after the start of a film. Not only does the ad pause for announcements from pilots and flight attendants, but it seems every Turkish Airlines flight also appears to have two commercials running at the start of each flight. One of them is called “#HelloTürkiye” and seems to inform travelers that the country now wants to be called Türkiye instead of Turkey. The video below is a commercial narrated by Morgan Freeman to inspire travelers about how Turkish Airlines connects the world. For a new traveler these might be interesting. However, for someone who has found a good film to engage with on a 2 or 3 hour flight, these videos eat up precious time!
food and beverages
The food and drinks for this short flight were fantastic and I feel the airline is doing an excellent job with the meals and catering on board. With two options available, my wife and I agreed to get different dishes so we could both try. On this flight, the airline’s economy meals were:
- Pasta with a creamy mushroom sauce and cherry tomatoes
- A beef patty over rice with bean stew
All meals included standard (or offered) items as follows:
- An appetizer that looked like some kind of eggplant dish with sour cream on top.
- A dessert. This was a mango mousse with chocolate shavings.
- A warm bun.
- Your choice of drinks (soda, juice, beer or wine)
I have to say that both main courses tasted great, as did the starter and dessert. Utensils were metal which was also a nice touch.
Finally, it should be mentioned that after the meals were finished and the trays cleared away, the flight attendants came through the cabin with a coffee/tea service.
A few small quirks
While the overall flying experience was mostly positive, there were a few quirks that we noticed.
Towards the end of the flight, a message will appear on the screen informing passengers that gate and connecting flight information is available. However, checking this section on the system showed that this was not working quite as it should. I’ve found this to be the case with other airlines as well, and it seems like something that could be abandoned (unless they can get it to work properly).
In addition, the moving map also contains information about the aircraft. In this case, however, it was clear that the 737 variant listed was wrong (picture below). This particular point is, of course, insignificant and likely to go unnoticed by many travelers.
The connecting flight information was not displayed while other information appeared inaccurate. Photo: Chris Loh | Easy flying
Final Thoughts
All in all, the experience of flying a short international flight on a Turkish Airlines narrowbody aircraft was fantastic – even in economy class. In fact, this experience puts other airlines to shame – particularly European airlines operating longer narrowbody sectors and North American airlines flying from the US to Canada and vice versa.
So if you are traveling to Türkiye from Europe and ticket prices are similar on other full-service airlines, then it seems like the clear choice is Turkish Airlines. Next week I will review the experience of the second leg of the journey – the flight from Istanbul to Bodrum in a Turkish Airlines Boeing 777-300ER. Stay tuned!
Have you flown a Turkish Airlines 737 MAX before? Share your own experience by leaving a comment.
Sources: Planespotters.net
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