TRIP REPORT: Turkish Airlines, Riyadh - Skopje via Istanbul

TRIP REPORT

Written by Atanas Alkov

Saudi Arabia? Sure, why not. But it was never even close to the top of my wish list up until last year when the first edition of the tennis tournament Six Kings Slam, featuring the world best tennis players, was held in Riyadh. Enough reason for me to plan a family trip to the Saudi capital Riyadh, for the second edition of the tournament.

In the first week of September, we got our visas, and I immediately bought tickets with AJet via Sabiha Gokcen Airport. Travel times were OK, 320 euros per ticket was the cheapest. Even from an aviation point I was happy to try a new airline.

Two weeks later AJet sent me information that my return flight on October 18 was cancelled, so I changed my return for a day later. Another two weeks later AJet cancelled my outbound flight on October 14th. That was a no go for me, so I cancelled the booking and bought tickets with Turkish Airlines. A hefty 735 euros per ticket was the new price tag.

I will be reviewing my return flights TK141 Riyadh - Istanbul and TK1003 Istanbul - Skopje.

Turkish Airlines is operating from terminal 1 at Riyadh King Khalid International Airport. The terminal building certainly is not the most modern one, but the desert sand interior colour gives an Arabic vibe that I liked a lot.

All airport formalities were done in no time, and we made a visit to the Plaza Premium Lounge using our last lounge admissions for the year from the credit card program. The lounge offered very little privacy and extensive catering with good quality.

Boarding for TK141 started on time. This flight number is operated by a mix of wide and narrowbody aircraft. Our plane for that night was Airbus A321neo.

After push back, the aircraft stood in place for quite some time making some high pitch sound. Later I found out it was fuel pump self-test. We were seated in a unique row with airbag seatbelts. All other rows had standard seatbelts. Is it some kind of trial, I don’t know?

After departure we took a northwestern course towards the north part of the Red Sea, then over Nile River Delta and across the Mediterranean Sea to Anatolia.

We were served dinner at 3am. Last March, I was flying TK from Abu Dhabi with similar time of departure, we were served breakfast, and it made more sense. Just to note, on flights to Saudi Arabia, Turkish is a dry airline. During the approach to Istanbul, we were treated to some spectacular night-time views of the Bosphorus Strait and the megalopolis on its shores.

During transit, crowds at security control were massive but everything was at full capacity, so the line moved very quickly. Our flight on an Airbus A321 to SKP departed with a 50-minute delay. We entered Macedonian airspace just north of Lake Dojran. At an altitude of 4.000 feet on the ILS. Pilots performed a missed approach due to runway inspection after a bird-strike from the previous aircraft that landed.

Now a few words about Skopje and something that I have mentioned about in my previous trip reports. I have flown through 59 airports, and I can say that only at Skopje there are lines for customs control. More than half of the passengers from my flight were sent for X-ray screening, causing chaos in a narrow side corridor where the machine is located. They don’t even care if the luggage is picked up after the control, they just keep it moving. I couldn’t access my bag because it was crowded so it fell on the floor with a loud noise. I reacted but they didn’t seem to bother. And please don’t tell me, I have no right to tell them how to do their job, because my country is full of smuggled phones they are apparently searching in the luggage of ordinary travellers. In my opinion they are just showing their power and pretend they do something while the real smugglers are their partners in crime.

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