Budget airline Easyjet will launch flights from London Luton to Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport on August 1. Initially there will be three services a week (every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) but this will rise to a daily service from September 4.
Flight time is four hours making it the longest route on the Easyjet network. Services depart Luton at 0615 arriving in Istanbul at 1210 with the return service leaving at 1235 to arrive back in Luton at 1435.
Istanbul's main Ataturk airport is 24 km from the city centre. This is where almost all other scheduled carriers land including flights by BA and Turkish Airlines from London. But Sabiha Gokcen is less convenient being across the Bosphorus (on the Asian side of the city) and 45 km away although there are bus links with the city centre.
Flights are filling fast. When Business Traveller checked the cost of a return flight travelling out on August 15 and returning four days later we were quoted £187 by easyjet.com. The same flight timings on ba.com were priced at £265.
For more information go to easyjet.com, sgairport.com.
Report by Alex McWhirter
