Istanbul's BRAND NEW AIRPORT (2019) - my Turkish flight to Baku, Azerbaijan

Hello and welcome to another trip report. I'm Paul Lucas and I'm in Istanbul at

Sakichi station which was actually built as the eastern terminus of the Orient

Express way back in 1890. I've not seen any trains like that for quite some time

and now it's just a small station serving suburban trains here in Istanbul

But fast forward to the present and I'm here to take Turkish Airlines out of

Istanbul's new airport. This is going to be the first fully fledged trip report on

on YouTube from this particular airport. I'm excited to find out what all the fuss is about

Let's go. Istanbul is where East meets West and it's one of my favourite cities in Europe

It's so fantastically photogenic, the hotels are great quality and really cheap and it's only about

four hours from London. I've been a few times now and I've enjoyed it more and more every time

I've gone back. If you're interested in following me in real time, you should definitely follow me

on Instagram or Twitter, where I live blog all of my trips as they happen. I've also got a new

website. You should check that out too. If you're into your transport, well, Istanbul has a lot of it

One of my favourite things to do is to take the Bosphorus ferries from one side of Istanbul to

the other. There are some fascinating heritage trams, light rail, funicular railways, subways

light rail and even cable cars. Istanbul's current airport, named after Kamal Ataturk

is located some distance from the city. It usually takes around about 45 minutes to get anywhere

central in Istanbul. However, the new airport is some distance to the north, and at the moment

there are only road links to the new airport. A new metro line will connect the airport with the

city, but it certainly won't be open by March 1st, which is when Turkish Airlines turns this new

airport into their hub. The airport is over an hour's drive from the centre of Istanbul and

on approach it's clear this airport is not finished. The airport has ambitions to be the

world's busiest airport in the next 25 years. It'll be interesting to see if they pull that off

When I arrive it's clear that there's still a lot of construction work still taking place

Domestic Turkish departures have their own entrance on the east side of the terminal although

it is still physically the same terminal building. International departures will take up the middle

and the west. Upon entering it's clear that this is an expensive airport and it's beautifully

engineered. I travelled during the interim opening phase of this airport and there were just four

international flights leaving between half past five in the evening and midnight. It was a very

eerie experience walking around an almost empty airport terminal. It looks like an airport but

it just doesn't feel like one. It's only when you walk around an empty husk of an airport terminal

that you realise that it doesn't feel like an airport because it looks like one. That airport feeling comes from seeing all of the different people from all corners of the world

in one place, going about their business and going to different places. It's a people-watching thing

for me I hadn seen many pictures of this new airport before I visited and I was quite surprised at how bland and utilitarian a lot of the architecture was New airports are vanity projects for governments and no less so for turkeys I was struggling to think about what

this airport's architecture was trying to say to me. It certainly didn't feel like it was located

in Turkey or anywhere in the Middle East. If it reminded me of anywhere I'd say it was Central

Europe, possibly Germany. It is nonetheless an impressive piece of civil engineering

During this interim opening phase most of the shops are not open but it's evident that nearly

all of the retail units have been sold to tenants. There are some pretty high-end ones too like Emporia

Armani here. As soon as you clear security of course you find yourself in the duty-free and

shopping area. It's a very pleasant space to be. I can't really convey enough how weird it was to

be walking around an airport that was pretty much empty. This duty-free shop in a few months will be

completely teeming with people. There's also an upstairs lounge which appears to be some sort of

publicly accessible quiet room however it's at the top of these escalators and it looks like the

Mezzanine level here where it should be is definitely nowhere near finished. I love the

design of this little area it's going to be full of cafes and restaurants. Elsewhere in the shopping

area there's more evidence that this airport is not finished. This tree thing I think is supposed

to be a light sculpture but on closer inspection we can see that it's not plugged in yet

Just a word of warning if like me you're going to be coming through Istanbul new airport

in the interim phase before it fully opens there's nowhere here actually open that actually serves a

full meal there's no proper restaurants open yet. I guess there are just so few flights going through

here that it doesn't make any sense for restaurants to be open. So yeah, I've just got a couple of

drinks to tide me over. If you are going to come through here before it's fully open, I recommend

you grab something to eat in Istanbul itself, or make sure you like plane food. As well as there

being no restaurants, the lounges are also not yet open. IGA Lounge, that would be the Istanbul

Grand Airport Lounge. I expect this to be available on Priority Pass when this airport fully opens in

in March. Down the escalators is the gate area. I must say I was very impressed by the amount of

space there was down here. I'm curious as to what these rooms actually are going to be. They don't

appear to be lounges but more dedicated waiting areas but the signage implies that you need to be

Star Alliance Gold or with Turkish Airlines to access them. I'm curious as to what they are so

if you do know the answer leave me a comment in the comment section below this video. Something

that will please a lot of economy class travelers. Every single seating area in the gate area has a

multitude of power sockets. Elsewhere airside there's also a mosque which has full ritual

washing facilities and this multi-faith prayer room. So that is Istanbul's new airport for you

in a nutshell. If you've been through Istanbul new airport please leave me a comment in the

comment section below. I'd love to hear your experiences if you've been one of the few people to already pass Through this place as for me my flight is an hour and 15 minutes delayed nothing to do with this airport actually The inbound aircraft is coming from Paris where there been some pretty bad weather today with snow and ice and I suspect that the reason for the delay

So I've had an hour and 15 minutes extra hanging around this place. This is my first time trying Turkish Airlines

Hoping it goes well. We're off to Baku. Today's flight will be operated by one of Turkish's Airbus A321 aircraft

a staple of their short-haul fleet. Turkish are renowned for operating within Europe with a full 2 plus 2 business class

layout instead of the convertible economy seating found on most European airlines

This is the business class cabin. And here's my seat, 6F in economy class right at the front up against the bulkhead

Something I noticed as soon as I sat down, the seats have within them a remote control

for the in-flight entertainment. More about the in-flight entertainment later on. The

legroom in this bulkhead seat is more than acceptable, but you should be aware that if

you select a window seat then the in-flight entertainment screen is going to be mounted

slightly off-center because of the curvature of the fuselage. Please see seatbelts, please see seatbelts

I knew it. The seatbelt sign is on. Please fasten your seatbelt. Keep it fastened and visible

We'll be right back

After a smooth and uneventful takeoff we shortly turn east to head towards Baku in Azerbaijan

As we do so, we get a fine view of the airport, its terminal and the gate complex we left from

Let's take a quick look at today's route. Istanbul to Baku is 1 miles It take us 2 hours and 15 minutes flying time and we be flying at 36 feet Something I noticed shortly after takeoff the in entertainment also includes a do not

disturb function. Now quite what that does in terms of instructing the crew that you don't

want to be disturbed, I'm not sure. In terms of the actual screen itself, it was quite unresponsive

at times and I would recommend using the remote where possible. If you've watched my videos before

you'll know that one of the things I like the most about in-flight entertainment is the option

to look at the moving map. Turkish's is no exception, there's quite a colourful moving map on display

In terms of the actual movies and TV, there's a very wide selection indeed, especially for such a

short flight between Istanbul and Baku. Turkish also provide complimentary earphones which are

left on your seat as you board. I find it hard to concentrate on movies when I'm flying so I

usually select a children's film, I watched Peter Rabbit with James Corden. I didn't think it was

that good. Trey tables in these bulkhead seats are stored in the armrest and fold out pretty nicely

indeed. The surface was very sturdy, no problems here. Another thing Turkish are renowned for is

providing full catering even in economy class and even on short flights like this. This meal was

served with a couple of soft drinks and I was pleased to see that they're still using Do & Co

my favourite airline caterers. Now don't laugh but the choice was between chicken or beef so I've no

idea what this beef option actually was but it was absolutely gorgeous. It came with a cool yoghurt

dip, a strawberry mousse dessert and a small pot of water. My first time flying Turkish Airlines I

was very impressed with the catering and I would definitely consider flying economy again just for

the food. The meal service is finished with coffee or tea. This coffee was one of the smoothest I've

ever drunk anywhere on an aeroplane in any class. Approaching 2am Azerbaijan time, we're

descending into Baku from the south, and despite the early hour, I'm really looking forward

to exploring my first country in the Caucasus region. I paid 583 Turkish lira for this flight

That's about 85 pounds or 110 US dollars. My main goals for this trip were, one, to get to Azerbaijan, somewhere I'd never been before

and secondly to try out Istanbul's new airport so I could bring that experience to you here on YouTube

However, I thought the flight with Turkish Airlines was of a very high standard

and that's good because I've got a couple more trips built with them in business class

and you'll see that on the channel very soon, including their 777-300ER product

There will of course be an Azerbaijan Airlines review coming very soon

but for now, thanks for coming with me on this trip and I will see you next time

Don't forget to subscribe