Turkish Airlines TK1346 Edinburgh to Istanbul Airbus A321neo Flight Review

Turkish Airlines TK1346 is the afternoon flight from Edinburgh to Istanbul, departing 4 times weekly, with flights on the other 3 days in the week being a morning flight. This flight from Edinburgh to Istanbul was one of my key considerations when booking my ticket to the UK, as flying with Turkish Airlines will allow me to fly out from Edinburgh, without the need to backtrack to London first before starting my flying journey back to Singapore.

However, heading back to Singapore, I encountered a series of schedule changes with Turkish Airlines, which resulted in my original Stopover in Istanbul plan being scrapped as my original flight did not exist any more, but I was allowed to change my flight and travel date free of charge. As the connections at Istanbul will not fit well for an attractive Touristanbul either, I decided to just get a shorter transit at Istanbul for my free date and flight change, which means I will be taking the TK1346 and TK54 combination back to Singapore.

Edinburgh Airport

Edinburgh Airport is undergoing some works on the façade by the bus driveway.

Heading into the Edinburgh Airport terminal building.

Check-in

Edinburgh Airport is nice and compact, with the check-in rows immediately there upon entering the terminal building. Turkish Airline check-in is at Zone B.

A tad different from most other airport check-in rows, the counters are compact with the staff checking you in and tagging your bags as usual, but after check-in is completed, you have to put your own bags onto the main conveyor belt behind the counter by yourself.

My boarding pass for my Turkish Airlines TK1346 flight from Edinburgh to Istanbul.

My boarding pass for my Turkish Airlines TK54 flight from Istanbul to Singapore.

Both boarding passes were issued in Edinburgh, and my baggage was checked through to Singapore.

Once done, I headed up the escalator to the departures level.

Continue straight to departures.

Departures & Security Screening

Boarding passes are scanned when entering the security area. Security screening follows.

World Duty Free

Once done, the path leads out to the long duty free shop.

Head through the duty free shop to get to the gates.

Transit Area

Once out of the duty free area, screens show where flights are departing from.

Do note that the screen only shows the exact gate about 1 hour before departure, so just roam around the middle area if your flight details are not displayed yet as you don’t want to wander too far and then have to backtrack to go to the other end of the terminal if the screen shows as such.

There are a variety of shops and dining options in Edinburgh Airport, including a last chance to get a pint of BrewDog on Scottish soil.

Gate 11

While my gate was not shown on the screens yet, since there is only 1 Turkish Airlines flight today, and I am seeing it at Gate 11, my departure should thus be at Gate 11.

TC-LTA will be flying me from Edinburgh to Istanbul today.

Gate 11 is a very convenient gate in the middle part of the terminal just opposite The Sir Walter Scott Wetherspoon pub, so not much walking needs to be done. Passengers can also use The Sir Walter Scott and grab a pint while waiting for the plane.

There are also ample seating at the gate. This is also used by many other passengers waiting for many other flights, as this is one of the few large seating areas in the middle of terminal, with a departures screen to check the gate as well.

Turkish Airlines TK1346

Boarding

There was a slight delay in boarding due to “operational reasons”, and boarding was called just around actual departure time.

Heading down the aerobridge.

Business Class

Heading past the Business Class section. There are 20 Business Class seats in this narrowbody aircraft, which are recliner seats.

Economy Class

Heading into the Economy Class section. There are 162 Economy Class seats in this narrowbody aircraft.

Seats are laid out in a 3-3 configuration.

Earphones are laid out on every seat prior to boarding.

The legroom available on board the Turkish Airlines Airbus A321neo.

The in-flight entertainment (IFE) screen was big, taking up almost the entire width of the seat back in front. Headphone jacks and a USB power socket is also available on the bottom left. Notably, there are no physical buttons to adjust the volume, reading light, and call button, with controls in the IFE screen interface itself instead.

To start, tap the language you want the IFE to be in.

The headset handed out was a simple 1-jack earbud.

The main menu of the Turkish Airlines IFE screen on board the Airbus A321neo.

The movie selection on board is quite up to date.

There are also a variety of TV programmes.

Cabin lights were dimmed with Airbus Airspace Cabin for takeoff.

Complimentary WiFi is available for Business Class passengers and Miles&Smiles program members, even when on the ground. However, I was unable to log in to the WiFi on all my Turkish Airlines flight be it via my Miles&Smiles membership number or e-ticket number. Perhaps it’s because I linked my itinerary to my KrisFlyer account instead.

The safety video is played during pushback. The Turkish version is played first, followed by the English version.

Türk Hava Yolları Uçuş Emniyet Videosu

Turkish Airlines Safety Video

My Turkish Airlines TK1346 flight departed from Edinburgh at 5.13pm – 23 minutes delayed.

The Turkish Airlines Airbus A321neo toilets are basic with no amenities aside from soap from the in-built dispenser and paper towels. This is effectively the same as a Jetstar Asia toilet. There are 3 toilets are the rear of the aircraft for Economy Class passengers.

In contrast, my previous TK55 flight from Singapore had a separate bottle of soap and a cologne spray.

Once cruising, the curtains to Business Class were shut, and the cabin lights remained dimmed.

To start my flight, I requested for a can of beer, which the stewardess kindly brought for me before the meal service. Turkish Airlines serves the local Efes Pilsener, a European Pale Lager style beer brewed by Anadolu Efes Brewery in Istanbul.

About 1 hour into the flight, the dinner service commenced.

Pasta (?)

There was just 1 choice of dinner, with no menu card provided. As such, service was quite fast.

Dinner looks like a vegetarian pasta dish with a tomato base and lentils. This comes with a side yoghurt, hard roll, chocolate mousse, and a pre-cupped water. For drinks, I ordered a white wine and sour cherry juice.

The pasta dish filled up the whole casserole which was good for visuals, but there were not many ziti pieces, with more sauce instead, making this dish not very filling, even if it was a carb dish. But even with the lesser quantity, the taste was pretty good, and I enjoyed this light dinner (to me).

Coffee, tea, and water are offered as the crew came around to clear the trays after the meal service.

Before arrival into Istanbul, the cabin lights were slowly lit with Airbus Airspace Cabin.

Connecting gate information was available, but only for 4 destinations. I’ll need to check at the airport for my onward TK54 flight to Singapore.

Approaching Istanbul on the map.

Istanbul Airport

My Turkish Airlines TK1346 landed at Istanbul at 11.06pm – 4 minutes early.

Heading past the Business Class section.

My Turkish Airlines TK1346 arrived at remote gate, which has pros and cons.

On one hand, it means a bus ride to the terminal building. On the other hand, there is lesser walking to do.

Istanbul Airport Apron Bus

2 COBUS 3000s were waiting in front of the plane.

Thank you, TC-LTJ.

I was one of the last few people to get on the first bus, but this also means a quick departure from the plane.

Heading up the escalator after arriving at the terminal building from the apron bus.

International Transfers

The escalator from the bus drop-off point leads directly to an express lane for international transfers.

While this would have be useful for my transfer, I wanted to go out to the public area for a while to check out however close as I could get to the M11 Gayrettepe–Istanbul Airport–Halkalı Metro Line of the Istanbul Metro.

As such, despite the “good luck” of an express path to the departures level, I continued on to immigration.

Wayfinding signs are very clear here.

Arrival Immigration

There were not too many people at passport control. The queue snakes before entering the individual counter area, which speeds up the queuing process.

Immigration was very easy, with no questions asked, and I was stamped into Türkiye. Hello, Türkiye for the first time! Even if it’s just a short 1-hour visit to the public area of the airport.

İGA İstanbul Havalimanı is very big, and the path continues with travellators to the baggage reclaim area.

Heading down to the baggage reclaim area.

Is it just me, or does this view remind me of KLIA Terminal 2 arrivals?

Baggage Reclaim

The baggage reclaim area is huge. However, as my bags are checked through to Singapore, I could simply walk out here without dealing with my luggage.

Customs & Exit

Heading out through customs to the exit.

Arrival Hall

My first view of Türkiye.

Is it me again, or does this view remind me of the arrival hall at KLIA Terminal 1?

With just about 1 hour to spare, I quickly followed the signs pointing to the Metro. I noticed the 11-12 minute walk warning as well, and made haste to get to the station.

Exit 13 seems to be the main exit from the arrival hall.

The outside area was 21° and I still had my jacket on, so I started to change for the hot weather ahead.

Arrival screens are also displayed at the outdoor area.

Annoyingly, the path to the Metro requires me to backtrack to the middle of the terminal where I already was, but with no exit door.

Istanbul Metro M11 Gayrettepe–Istanbul Airport–Halkalı Metro Line

After so much walking, there is still a 9-10 minute walk to the Metro.

There is an extremely long travellator path to the Istanbul Airport Metro station. It seems like the Metro was built as an afterthought, with no good integration with the terminal building, especially for passengers with luggage.

This path is also between 2 huge multi-storey car park buildings.

Skirting around the sheltered travellator path, there are open air areas forming a long garden.

Finally at the junction to the Metro station.

The Istanbul Railway Network Map.

There are many escalators to take to the concourse level in the basement. The time estimate on the signs is probably also factoring this in. I got too happy for a little bit when I was approaching the end of the travellator.

There are seats around the concourse level of the İstanbul Havalimanı (Istanbul Airport) Metro Station.

I had wanted to buy a single-trip ticket or even a stored value card as a souvenir and to access the platform to see the CRRC Zhuzhou automated trains operating on the M11 Line, but unfortunately, both types of ticket machines did not accept my Singapore credit card for payment.

On one hand, it was annoying that my Singapore credit card wasn’t accepted and I was unable to buy tickets, since there was no manned ticket counters, or any staff around for that matter, but also, it was quite lucky in a way, as I was not able to proceed with my Stopover in Istanbul plan, and while this was a simply annoyance of not being able to buy a “souvenir”, it wasn’t a full-blown problem as I did not actually need to travel to the city.

This would be quite a major issue for actual train passengers, especially for those on a short layover without any Turkish lira on hand.

As such, the fare gate and sounds of tunnel wind is as close as I can get to the Istanbul Metro CRRC Zhuzhou EMU.

From here, I walked back to the terminal building to continue my journey to Singapore.

Conclusion

As compared with my previous flight on TK55 from Singapore, this narrow-body shorter hop feels rather basic with just 1 vegetarian meal option, a lower standard of headphones, and no amenities in the toilets aside from soap. However, I was going to continue back to Singapore after this short stop, so I am looking forward to the long-haul product of Turkish Airlines coming my way shortly.