Turkish Airlines has announced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the first half of April due to the transition from the current main Istanbul airport Ataturk to the new Istanbul airport. All Russian routes of Turkish Airlines are seriously affected. In addition, on April 5-6, almost all flights of foreign airlines to Istanbul were cancelled, reminds our own correspondent Travel.ru.
Let us recall that the transfer of all flights from the current Ataturk airport to the new one, which will be called simply Istanbul, is scheduled for April 5-7. Unlike previous deadlines (the transition has already been postponed three times), the April one will probably be met, and the mass cancellation of flights by the base carrier to ensure this transition confirms this.
On April 5, almost all Turkish Airlines flights will be carried out as scheduled, but the following week will be very problematic for flights to or via Istanbul. On the Moscow route, where Turkish Airlines currently makes up to 5 flights a day, only one flight is scheduled for April 6, 7 and 9, and on a narrow-body Airbus A321. On April 8, two flights are planned, on April 10 three, from April 11 - four, and from April 29 there will be five flights.
Turkish Airlines flights to St. Petersburg and Kazan have been cancelled from April 6 to 8, to Sochi from April 6 to 9, to Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar from April 6 to 10, to Ufa and Voronezh from April 6 to 11, to Samara from April 6 to 14, and to Yekaterinburg from April 3 to 12. Flights will then resume as usual (the company serves most of these routes daily).
Tickets previously purchased for cancelled flights have been automatically rebooked for the next available dates. This, among other things, has led to the fact that there may be no tickets at all for adjacent dates (mainly 4-5 and 9-12 April), or they may only be available in business class or at expensive economy class rates.
However, passengers affected by these cancellations have the option to reschedule their trip for free. They can also ask Turkish Airlines to transfer them to another carrier (but keep in mind that on April 5-6, all foreign airline flights to Istanbul are cancelled – with the exception of those to Sabiha Gokcen Airport – and their Istanbul flights on adjacent dates may already be full). It is also possible to cancel your ticket without penalty.
Aeroflot has also already cancelled all flights to and from Istanbul on April 5-6. From April 7, flights will resume at the usual frequency of five times a day to a new airport. Its subsidiary carrier Pobeda took other measures, back in March leaving only flights to Sabiha Gokcen Airport in the Asian part of the city. Pobeda tickets for the problematic April dates have, of course, already become significantly more expensive.
Therefore, flights to or via Istanbul will be quite problematic and expensive during the period from April 4 to April 11. Passengers who need to get to the city on these days should look for alternative routes in advance, including flights to Sabiha Gokcen, other Turkish cities (or even Bulgarian airports). In addition, passengers whose Istanbul flights are still scheduled in early April should regularly check the status of their flights.
It should be recalled that such problems with the transition to the new airport arose not only due to concerns about how it will cope with the large volume of flights, but also because the air routes of the old and new airports intersect, and simultaneous full-fledged operation of both is impossible, and partial operation is permissible with major restrictions. On Friday, April 5, from 3:00 to 19:00, flights to the old Ataturk airport will be available only to Turkish carriers (Turkish Airlines, Atlas Global, Onur Air). From 19:00 on April 5 to 3:00 on Saturday, April 6, only Turkish Airlines flights will be allowed - this will allow most long-haul flights to be sent, the last of which will be a flight to Singapore. After this, Ataturk will be completely closed to commercial flights.
Istanbul's new airport will not operate passenger flights at all on April 5 (until April 4, it handled a couple dozen Turkish Airlines flights a day, including flights to Moscow five times a week). Starting at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, it will resume accepting flights — first, only Turkish Airlines, then Onur Air and Atlas Global will join from 7:00 p.m., and all foreign airlines from midnight. In addition, both airports will operate on March 5-6 to ferry Turkish airlines' planes without passengers from the old airport to the new one.
Let us recall that at first the full operation of the new airport was planned from October 29, then from January 1, then from March 3. However, there were still many unfinished business for each of these dates. The October and December detailed photo reports from the new airport are available on Travel.ru.
Source: travel.ru
