Long Istanbul self-connect
It was around 0745 when I left the hotel after breakfast, walking to the taxi stand outside the hotel to find a cab to Travzon airport. The journey was quick on the highway which kinda followed the shore of the Black Seat. It’s a pity that the city didn’t have any kind of walkable waterfront.
Trabzon airport is small and I had allowed too much time to be safe, despite the usual two sets of security to get airside in Turkiye. I killed over an hour before boarding the B737-800 to Istanbul for a long self-connect.
I landed from Trabzon at 1200 and departure wasn’t 2140 tonight on Fly Baghdad airlines which didn’t have an online/mobile check-in facility. This meant that I couldn’t get airside till their check-in open at 1840.
I explored the arrival floor briefly and noted a whole row of hospital offices presumably for the medical tourism market. One of them had signs regarding organ transplant. I really wonder where their organs had come from and whether they have been sourced legitimately.
Then, I made my way to the departures level without having to clear any security as one is already screened from the previous destination.
Between the two levels of the airport, I somehow passed over six hours by sitting, walking and snacking on the various things I had brought along: a hard-boiled egg, then a sandwich, then some nuts and finally cookies, with time in between each “course”.
The cheapest fast-food meal or a sandwich started at around TRY350 (NZD17) and a proper coffee about TRY200 but one can get a small one from a fast food outlet for around TRY90.
Having been fleeced yesterday for coffee at Uzungol, I decided to break out my tin cup and instant coffee and use the hot water dispensers to make my own drinks to wash down my snacks.
Sandwich assembled from hotel breakfast and instant coffee.
I joined the check-in queue before the counter numbers were made public, by asking people who were in an unmarked queue. Not sure how they knew but it turned out to be the correct one.
I got to the counter after 20 mins after it opened and the staff weren’t sure of my eligibility for Visa on Arrival. They don’t appear to consult the TIMATIC database here but the young local manager (in T-shirt and jeans) WhatsApp’ed a photo of my passport away for approval.
What a relief! The approval came through after about 30 mins with me waiting at the counter. While the staff had been strict on check-in and carry-on luggage, the complications with my visa situation made less vigilant about me carrying on two pieces.
It took about 30 mins for me to get airside and I rushed to the lounge to grab a very quick bite before heading to the gate. My boarding pass had indicated a boarding time of 1h20 before the flight, which was actually the case a few days ago with a remote gate boarding.
It really shows that checking-in 3h prior to departure at a large airport isn’t oodles of time when there are hiccups along the way.
Switching over from Turkish Airlines
I had originally booked on Turkish Airlines for this route at a similar time. But with Iraqi airspace concerns (exchange of missiles between Iran and Israel through Iraq) that airline had suspended flights.
Fly Baghdad was operating normally and had flights at very good prices and I used Turkish’s schedule change to an ungodly hour to get a full refund.
With the hassles today, I was partly wishing I was still on Turkish as it would have allowed me to go airside earlier but lounge access is still capped at 3h if the staff were strict. And then, there was the ungodly departure time of 0440 instead of 2140.
Finally, to Baghdad
The old B737-900 departed about 10 mins late despite boarding really early. Surprisingly for Istanbul, we had a very short taxi to the runway.
The airline doesn’t work this aircraft very hard and I had noticed that it flies from Baghdad to Istanbul and back daily only! Very little chance of knock-on delays from previous flights.
The plane seemed pretty full midship but fortunately I was able to move forward after take-off, as I had been seated next to an obese man who spilt into my seat.
The crew were very good at asserting themselves in a pleasant way, with all the Arabic hand gestures, against these young men who wanted to push the boundaries with seating, meal boxes etc.
I did notice that the safety information card for the aircraft did not depict ditching situations, perhaps because it doesn’t fly anywhere close to water?