Turkish Airlines to Manila.

[Cymmon]

In the current situation what do people think of the safety of using Manchester-Istanbul-Manila with Turkish Airlines? What is the service like onboard etc?

My other options are Qatar, Emirates, Cathay Pacific or Abu Dhabi based airline.

Any thoughts respectfully received.

[Johnny F@rt Pants]

Notwithstanding the current level of threat in Turkey, which if I were transiting wouldn't bother me one bit, I would still avoid Turkish Airlines and pay more if necessary to go on one of your alternatives.

Turkish have had a poor safety record over the past few years, I'm afraid they are amongst many on my personal no fly list.

Use any of the ME3, or if someone like KLM or Lufthansa operate there then try one of those, beware though that LH have an ongoing issue with crew and have been plagued by strike action over the last couple of years.

This is all personal opinion, but you asked for thoughts, those are mine.

[ExXB]

Out of principle*, I'd avoid that ABU based airline.



*As they don't like PPRuNe, I don't like them.

[Andy_S]

I've never flown Turkish, so I can't speak from personal experience. They do seem to get good reviews for onboard service.

Poor safety record? There have been two landing incidents this year; no casualties. You have to go back to 2009 for their last accident with fatalities. I'm not saying that's good, but in the airline industry these things are all relative.

You might also want to think about the ease of transfer at the intermediate airport.

[Hotel Tango]

Out of principle*, I'd avoid that ABU based airline.

*As they don't like PPRuNe, I don't like them.

Yep, I'll support that.

As for THY, their cabin service is good. They have, however, expanded rapidly the past years. Then again so have the major ME airlines. I'm always skeptical that rapid expansion might lead to short-cuts in training and thus, potentially, safety. That's a personal opinion and it's not based on any factual information concerning those airlines, but merely from experience in my own aviation related occupation prior to retirement.

[Cymmon]

Thanks for all the comments. It's good to hear personal thoughts.

I've erred (is that a word) on the side of caution and gone with my airline of choice Qatar. Good flight times , routing interesting but surely all the ME airlines will take precautions on the routes flown around Turkey and Syria.

My preferred route would have been Cathay Pacific based on flight time arrivals and departures, but the business class fares were prohibitive.

So thanks again for all the comments, maybe we can now use this thread for route changes due to what or may not happen in the Turkish/Syrian airspace region.

[Johnny F@rt Pants]

Quite right with your assumption of the routing. Overflight of Syria, much of Iraq and Ukraine is now routine.

[Cymmon]

This is my 15th return flight. Seen Baghdad many times late at night as we approach Doha, normally completely asleep on the return flight after a 10 hour flight from Manila......

I'm sure they all know the risk, and won't put the passengers, crew, aircraft (not necessarily in that order) at risk.

It's just Sod's law if anything happens....

Thanks again for the thoughts.

My thoughts are, I'm going to Manila to see the birth of my first child, getting married and hopeful christening. Not bad in just over 3 weeks.

Thanks everyone.