Awarded by Skytrax for Best Business Class Lounge Dining and Best Business Class catering in 2015, Turkish Airlines Business Class is an opulent world up in the skies, unique with its own Flying Chefs By Steena Joy
Despite the turbulence in the wake of the failed coup attempt in July, Turkey’s national carrier Turkish Airlines has bounced back, not surprisingly, given its past laurels. According to the IATA Wats 2016 global rankings, Turkish Airlines is the sixth largest carrier in terms of international passenger numbers, ninth largest in terms of operating revenue and 11th largest in operating profit. As for network, Turkish flies to more countries than any other other airline in the world – a total of 116 countries and 243 international destinations, based on April 2016 OAG data, with plans to fly to seven more destinations in Africa, five in Europe, three in America, one in Middle East and four in the Far East.
Having its headquarters in Istanbul is a great geographical advantage as the city is the only city in the world connecting two continents, Asia and Europe. Istanbul is located in the heart of the Europe, Middle East and Asia regions which have a high volume of traffic and growth rate.
The new airport (in addition to the Ataturk International Airport and Sabiha Gokcen Airport), coming up in Istanbul will have six runways, four terminals and a 150 million passenger capacity (after Phase 4). By 2023, the airline is poised to fly 120 million passengers
on a fleet of more than 500 aircraft, earning revenues of US$ 30 billion.
Lounge in luxury
Turkish Airlines has 17 lounges – 12 located in domestic terminals and four in the international terminals in Turkey. In addition, there is a Turkish Airlines Lounge in Moscow. The Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge in Istanbul covers a huge area of 6000 sq m with an interior design reflecting Turkey’s rich cultural heritage. A spiral staircase connects the two sections of the lounge and its design represents the connectivity that Turkish Airlines provides to its global customer base. The Lounge is state-of-the-art with its own cinema, library, food stations, kids’ corner, locker room, billiard table, showers and suites, a golf simulation area, Carrera racing/ undulation massage beds and masseurs. Passengers can watch TV news channels with headsets in different languages. The lounge has a capacity to service 1,240 passengers at the same time.
The Lounge also serves a wide variety of international and Turkish cuisines such as Turkish kebap, pide (Turkish Pizza)/ köfte (meatballs), pasta/ tortellini, freshly cooked pide, and fresh pasta, Chinese noodle confectionery pastry shop including fresh juices, soft drinks and alcohol. In the Lounge, passengers can enjoy live piano performances while sipping a drink at the olive garden area with 150 years old real olive trees. The Lounge is operated by gourmet entertainment company, Turkish DO & CO.
Flight Training Center
Turkish Airlines has its own Flight Training Center for training commercial pilots and other categories. The Centre is located in Istanbul with a total area of 15,600 sq m (8,420 sq m of it is a closed area) with 21 high-tech simulators. Providing training with more than 60 classrooms and one conference room, the Flight Training Center has the capacity to train approximately 1500 people at the same time. The Centre also hires out the simulators for training crews of other international airlines like Lufthansa, KLM, Saudi Arabia, etc, since the cost of a simulator is very high, as much as an aircraft.
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Taking inflight dining to new heights
The Flying Chef – a DO & CO chef who is part of the airline crew – is responsible for the perfect meal presentation in Business Class on board. He attends to the preparation of the meals in the galley as well as to the passengers in the cabin. He provides advice to the guests on the selection of dishes, assists the flight attendants during and after the service and thus receives direct feedback of the dining experience. The Flying Chef is in service in Business Class only on Turkish Airlines long-distance flights around the globe. Speaking to Express TravelWorld, Flying Chef Yigit Ulas Kelav said, “We customise the menus according to the destination. Like we have lots of vegetarian food for the Indian route. We source most of the ingredients locally. We also service special meal requests for those with seafood or nuts allergies.” Turkish Airlines has around 281 Flying Chefs as of December 2014.
Istanbul
The city was originally known as Constantinople after Constantine the Great who dedicated the city as his capital, calling it New Rome, as it had seven hills. Some of the original fortification walls built by the Emperor within the city to keep out invaders still remain standing. A river cruise on the Bosphorus, a strait that connects Istanbul to Europe is a great way to see the various mosques, luxury hotels and restaurants dotting the shoreline while passing under the three suspension bridges that span the strait.
A visit to the Spice Bazaar and the iconic Blue Mosque is a must for any visitor. Topkapi (‘top’ meaning cannon and ‘kapi’ meaning gate) Palace, which was home to the Sultans of the Ottoman empire, is now a museum and is well worth a visit especially for the incredible clock collection on display. End the day by browsing through the alleys of the Grand Bazaar to see a wide array of ceramic wares, the famed confectionary – Turkish Delight and the hanging colour mosaic glass lamps.