British Airways launches flights to second Istanbul airport

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• MT says:

  5 Apr5 April 04:56

  While I would assume most HfP readers are savvy enough to be aware I think its important that in articles about the new restrictions it mention there is still a 2 litre limit, otherwise it could still cause delays with people trying to take more than this thorugh. I know it sounds a lot, but there are plenty out there that may think taking a bottle or two of wine and water through security maybe a great way to avoid the charges on the other wise!

  • Pbdj says:

    5 Apr5 April 08:48

    Two litres *per container*, not total. Maybe not all readers are as savvy as you think 😉

    • MT says:

      5 Apr5 April 09:14

      This is interesting as in most news reports I have read is says specifically 2 litres per passenger, so if it is as many containers as you want as long as they are not greater than 2 litres each that is even better.

      Thanks for pointing it out and maybe worth an update to the article to make others aware?

    • Bagoly says:

      5 Apr5 April 12:45

      Indeed: “Only liquids and gels in containers of up to 2 litres are allowed in your hand luggage.”
      Even 2 litres in total would allow two bottles of wine – at last the days of being able to take a precious bottle for a particular dinner are in sight again.
      For most people more important to be able to do that from the other end!

• johnny_c-l says:

  5 Apr5 April 05:41

  Great news BA adding SAW as an option, I’ve always found it more convenient and a quicker option than the new airport.

  I think they’ll pick up some of the hudget conscious holiday market who can connect to the coastal cities cheaply and it opens up their market to Anatolian passangers, those coming from Bursa etc.

  • Michael Jennings says:

    5 Apr5 April 08:36

    There’s a huge number of domestic flights out of SAW. It’s a good place to connect to go to somewhere else in Turkey. It’s easy to get there on Pegasus already, but I can imagine quite a few people will prefer to get there from Heathrow rather than Stansted.

    Istanbul is a huge city, and at 5 million people find it easier to get to SAW than IST. So serving that market makes sense to me.

  • can2 says:

    5 Apr5 April 12:44

    BA also cut the daily flights to IST from 3 to 2 for this summer. This may have been the reason.

  • JumpingJames says:

    5 Apr5 April 17:12

    Yes, I think that HFP have underestimated the increase in demand from the British public for mid-haul destinations which are not within the Schengen area. This is due to the restrictions the EU placed on the British following Brexit and leads people who would otherwise spend more holidays / trips in Europe than they are now allowed to, having to look elsewhere for some of their holidays / trips.

    • Richie says:

      5 Apr5 April 18:14

      Yes 180 days in the EU isn’t enough for some.

• David says:

  5 Apr5 April 06:35

  The metro is now connected to this airport with connection to downtown taking around 30-40 minutes
  Also perhaps like LGW it’s cheaper for BA to fly to

  • Benilyn says:

    5 Apr5 April 11:05

    Is it open and running now?

    • David says:

      6 Apr6 April 11:24

      Yes, I travelled on it last month and you can use your Istanbul kart on it and if you don’t have one you can buy one at the airport

• The Original David says:

  5 Apr5 April 06:44

  Maybe not “all” liquid restrictions – I hope you still can’t carry a can of petrol through…

  • Dubious says:

    5 Apr5 April 14:59

    That’s a general restriction on flammable items whether liquid, solid or gas.

  • Alexandra says:

    5 Apr5 April 17:20

    It’s running. But to get to Taksim you would have to change 2 times. Google,pull up the Istanbul public transport network map and you will see.

• Paul says:

  5 Apr5 April 07:02

  I think that advertising the LCY move is a mistake. I’d rather the restriction on size was retained but that to begin with at least, you just don’t take anything out of you bag.
  Glasgow has had at least one of these machines and AMS transfer security uses theses. Neither trumpets this as it’s not all the machines anc it’s not universal. There is a real risk that passengers will become confused by the differing arrangements at different airports and it would have been simpler just to maintain the restriction but keep bags closed!
  It’s not as though I am going to switch to LCY as a result of this change

  • Kowalski says:

    5 Apr5 April 07:20

    I don’t agree. There’s nothing wrong with LCY letting people know about this! If some customers get confused and think they can suddenly take any size liquids through any airport then more fool them.

  • TimM says:

    5 Apr5 April 07:49

    I would switch airports to end this routine harassment and enforced airside purchases at hugely inflated prices.

  • Novice says:

    5 Apr5 April 08:51

    AMS is still a nightmare tho… went through a few weeks ago and despite using the scanners the security ppl were telling everyone to open luggage cases. It took more time than it used to without scanners. I don’t like the scanners because I am yet to see the benefit of them.

    I absolutely love security in African/Asian airports; always smooth. They don’t ever bother to open my luggage or anything. I understand why airports are vigilant but some places are borderline taking the piss in Europe and Americas.

    • Doomster says:

      5 Apr5 April 12:24

      Language Timothy

      • Alexandra says:

        5 Apr5 April 17:23

        Thank you, Doomster. Makes me cringe. A

    • DaveJ says:

      5 Apr5 April 20:39

      To be America probably has to be seen to be over cautious given that they used to let people with knives get on planes.

      • DaveJ says:

        5 Apr5 April 21:58

        *to be fair

• Jeremy says:

  5 Apr5 April 07:04

  From which airport do the flights depart to Turkey? It’s missing from your article (I would guess LHR because you generally forget there are other departure points in the UK)…

  • planeconcorde says:

    5 Apr5 April 09:44

    +1
    I am guessing LHR or LGW based on aircraft type.

    • vlcnc says:

      5 Apr5 April 11:07

      It’s LHR from checking wikipedia for SAW which is generally pretty accurate for this.

• Richie says:

  5 Apr5 April 07:21

  BA flying to SAW is a bit odd, Bodrum needs more BA summer flights.

  • CamFlyer says:

    5 Apr5 April 08:02

    I’m not sure about passenger volumes in J, but there are a lot of corporates based as close or closer to SAW than IST. There is also no competition from LHR; other flights are all from STN (PS and AnadoluJet), and none offers J. Presumably someone at BA route management ran the numbers on yield, and determined this was better than other options.

    • Nick says:

      5 Apr5 April 08:19

      I don’t know for sure but suspect it’s mainly because the new airport is so far from the city and the authorities haven’t been bothered to build the long-promised train link. It’s a great airport for connections, absolutely atrocious for accessing Istanbul.

      That and a couple of other things too, the government’s pivot to east rather than west means there’s huge development on the Asian side, plus there was always demand anyway that’s not being met. Similar to how pre-covid SVO was introduced to complement DME, the city is huge and people tend to live on both sides.

      • CamFlyer says:

        5 Apr5 April 08:28

        Exactly – and no competition from LHR, or with J.

        Though with Moscow, note that until 2004 or 2005 BA served SVO exclusively!

      • Michael Jennings says:

        5 Apr5 April 08:40

        The metro link to IST opened earlier this year, as did the one to SAW. A friend caught it recently and said that it was good, so that is an improvement. (Having taken two hour on a bus shortly after the airport opened, I say than the lord for that)

      • Alexandra says:

        5 Apr5 April 17:27

        They built the train link in record time. It’s operational.

• G says:

  5 Apr5 April 07:21

  Or the subsidies from this individual Airport are too attractive to not do it.

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