[Anonymous]

[Age_of_Reason]

A much prized medium haul feeder from Edinburgh EDI, launched last month (July 2012) this is a mixed-market route dependent on tourism at present, so a full load was reassuring for the future of the sector, but the A319 was taxed to capacity.

The crew coped admirably with the various demands of the mixed load, with seemingly equal proportions of turkish and scottish travellers. So a cosmopolitan crowd, lots of babies and probably a high proportion paying their own way, so maximising the service demands and enjoying the superior offering to the lowcost competitors.

Checkin was excellent, with the under-utilised ‘business’ desk calling the economy queue forward without prompt or hint. Possible the ‘route-launch crew’ is still in place, al the same full marks. Nice banter with the THY boys about getting Lufty Miles&More rather than the TY in-house Smiles, hopefully he message will get upstairs that if THY grow the route they’ll see more usage of the IST hub, which is the eastern most now served from EDI.

Early inbound arrival and pretty smooth loading (esp considering the high proportion of holidaymakers) and apparent tolerance of enormous hand luggage.

Minor ATC delay driven by lateruning competitor flights and bad weather up north giving FlyBe cancellations and out-of sequence, and the inevitable delayed BA from LHR compressing the turnarounds.

TK1344 had no trouble making up the deficit and getting down early at IST for a reasonable visa/passport process (maybe 25 minutes) and nice hotel checkin with time for unrushed dinner.

Onboard the limitations of the A319 show – 5h is quite a haul for a wee plane and the seats really aren’t comfy enough for much more. Legroom is minimised, but these are the prices we suffer for a point-to-point flight. It’ll be interesting to see how the route sustains its loadings, whether increased capacity on the launch 1246 schedule, which would surely be justified if full loads routinely checkin, are met by aircraft size increase or frequency increase

The IFE really isn’t that great, clearly showing the normal allocation on internal turkish flights, but these days with music on everyone’s personal device, this cannot be a ‘killer’. But I would guess that a better international selection could be provided which may be appreciated by the turkish market too.

Food/wine nothing short of excellent. Tea with fresh lemon as would be expected from such a tea-drinker’s heaven.

So lets hope the bodies continue to hit the seats for THY at Edinburgh.

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