TURKEY: Onur Air Resumes Domestic Flights June 26, July 15th For International Flights

The low-cost Turkish airline Onur Air will resume domestic flights on June 26 and international flights on July 15, the company announced Tuesday.

Onur Air said in a statement that it will resume operations with new safety and health measures implemented following more than two months of suspension of flights as part of the restrictions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Flights were suspended on March 28 amid worldwide coronavirus restrictions.

The airline will operate one daily round trip between Istanbul and the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya and the Black Sea city of Trabzon and a trip to the Aegean resort town of Bodrum four days a week, starting from July 26.

Onur Air CEO Teoman Tosun said the company’s priority is to ensure maximum security for the passengers and to offer the cheapest prices available.

Our aircraft are being disinfected in line with national and international health standards to prevent the spread of the virus, Tosun said.

The spread of the virus suspended touristic activity from March as Turkey was quick to close its borders and halt flights and other modes of transportation.

Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines, SunExpress its joint venture with Lufthansa and major budget airline Pegasus have already resumed domestic flights between major routes in the first week of June, after the lifting of travel restrictions due to the pandemic.

The airlines had been scheduled to resume limited international travel from mid-June and are waiting for permission to fly from national and international authorities.

The Low Cost Airlines Market report provides a detailed analysis of global market size, regional and country-level market size, segmentation market growth, market share, competitive Landscape, sales analysis, impact of domestic and global market players, value chain optimization, trade regulations, recent developments, opportunities analysis, strategic market growth analysis, product launches, area marketplace expanding, and new innovations.

Top Companies in the Global Low Cost Airlines Market are Fastjet, Mango, Fly540, Dana Air, JamboJet, Skywise, Onur Air, Bahrain Air, Airblue, Air Arabia, Flydubai, Air Asia X, FlySafair, Sama, Nas Air, Ease On Air, Jazeera Airways and Others.

Onur Air is a low-cost airline with its headquarters in the Technical Hangar B at Istanbul Ataturk Airport in Yeşilköy, Istanbul, Turkey.

It operates mostly domestic scheduled services, as well as a wide range of charter flights out of its base at Istanbul Airport. Its aircraft and crews also operate for its partly owned leisure subsidiary Holiday Europe.

Onur Air was established on 14 April 1992 and started revenue operations using a wet-leased Airbus A320 with a flight to Ercan in North Cyprus on 14 May of that year.

Onur means proud, self-esteem in Turkish. Over the next years, the Onurair fleet grew, so that by the end of 1995, it included nine aircraft.

Previously its head office was in Florya, Bakırköy, Istanbul.

In 1996, Ten Tour acquired ownership of the airline. By 1997 McDonnell Douglas MD-80 twin-jet airliners had been added to the fleet. Due to a recession, Onur Air had to reduce the size of its fleet to 13 in 1998, and then to 9 in 1999. Since then the airline has expanded again.

As of 6 April 2019 all of Onur Air's flights from their former base at Ataturk Airport have been relocated to the new Istanbul Airport.[

In August 2019, Onur Air established a new, partly-owned subsidiary named Holiday Europe for leisure flights between Europe and destinations around the Mediterranean. Onur Air provides aircraft and crews for the new brand.

On 17 June 2003, Onur Air Flight 2263, a McDonnell Douglas MD-88 registration TC-ONP overshot the runway at Groningen Airport Eelde following an aborted take-off. There were no injuries, but the airline was accused of security breaches.

On 12 May 2005, Onur Air was denied access to Dutch airspace for a month. Several incidents were the cause of the suspension of the airline. Negotiations took place between the Dutch authorities and Onur Air and on 24 May 2005 Onur Air had permission to fly from and to the Netherlands again.

On 1 January 2007, the cargo hold of a McDonnell Douglas MD-88 aircraft burst open upon landing at Ataturk International Airport, spilling luggage onto the runway.

On 7 September 2007, an Airbus A321 aircraft lost cabin pressure on a charter flight from Dalaman Airport to Birmingham Airport, resulting in an emergency landing at Atatürk International Airport. Passenger reports included a smoking engine and broken down oxygen masks.

On 20 August 2011, an Onur Air pilot forgot to contact Munich Air Traffic Control and caused the quick reaction air defence of both Germany and Austria to send four Eurofighter Typhoons to intercept the company's A321.

QATAR: Qatar Airways Introduces Flights To Bodrum

Qatar Airways has inaugurated their brand new Bodrum, service. This is the airline’s sixth gateway in Turkey and the third Turkish route in just nine months.

The carrier will launch services to Antalya on a seasonal basis on June 13.

The twice-weekly flights, operating on Tuesdays and Fridays, will run until September 28 this year and will be operated by an Airbus A320, which will have a 2-class configuration, offering 12 seats in Business and 132 in Economy Class.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said: Today’s inaugural flight to Bodrum, our third new Turkish route in just nine months, demonstrates our commitment to Turkey.

We have seen very high demand for services to Turkey, as both business and leisure travelers show great interest in experiencing all this country has to offer.

We are tremendously excited to be able to provide passengers with the opportunity to visit the beautiful resort city of Bodrum, just in time for the summer holiday season.

Passengers from Bodrum now be able to travel seamlessly through our award-winning Doha Hub, Hamad International Airport (HIA), to any destination in our rapidly-expanding network.

QR317 will depart Bodrum at 0715 local and will arrive in Bodrum for 1155 local. The return, QR318, will depart Bodrum one hour later at 1255 local and arrive into Doha at 1720 local.

This route will connect Turkey with up to more than 150 destinations via Hamad International.

Within Turkey, Qatar operates twice daily services to Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport, 10 weekly flights to Istanbul Ataturk, three weekly flights to Adana, three weekly flights to Hatay as well as daily flights to Ankara.

The carrier’s Turkish expansion ultimately pushes forward with the overall strategy of expanding further into the middle-east, as well as in the less-contested destinations by other Middle-Eastern carriers such as Emirates and Etihad.

With the carrier also likely to be publishing losses following the political blockade, the airline will be wanting to expand into as many markets as possible in order to boost revenues and ultimately profitability in the wake of the situation.


Tourism Observer

Common Scams To Be Carefull About When In Turkey

One of the hottest destinations in the world, Turkey is where the world meets. Since the ancient times, we have the Trojans, the Mongols, Romans, Greeks, Ottomans and many others who have traversed these plains. Today, it sits right at the cross section between Asia and Europe and the resulting cultural experience is fascinatingly unique.

However, despite being known as a friendly bunch, there is still a very intense bunch of crooks out to fleece you of your money. Getting recourse is difficult as well, as the police does not have a good command of English and from most anecdotes, are not readily willing to help. So what better way to protect yourself than to learn the most common scams in Turkey?

Be wary of hearing such a phrase. Though commonly used, you never know if it’s a friend or foe. The scam is wickedly simple. A stranger (could be a well dress man fluent in English, or a pair of random dudes, etc) comes up to you (usually against single travellers) and ask if you would have a lighter/know the way/help take a photo or what have you to establish innocence and to build rapport. Eventually, he will ask if you would like to grab a drink with him.

Should you take up the stranger’s offer, you will be brought to a highly recommended restaurant or bar. You will girls joining you, and you will be coerced into buying drinks. These few drinks will easily rack up a thousand dollar bill. If you have not passed out, be prepared to be escorted to the nearby ATM machine by a group of hooligans to make payment.

Another possibility is a spiked drink, this could happen anywhere, such as when a stranger such as a cab driver offers you a drink.

But I can hear ya, what if I really want to make friends with the locals? Well there are a few steps you can take:

- Does the restaurant/bar seem legit? i.e. are there customers?
- Is the stranger reading from a script? Evasive about things?
- Is he/she only bringing you to a particular restaurant or bar?
- Pretend that you have company by suggesting to go another place where you have a few friends at
- Only drink what your waiter or you have poured
- Take a photograph together
- Still, beware, this is such a common scam that in 2008, when police raided 6 nightclubs, they arrested over 100 people accused of this scam. These scammers include bar owners, bar girls, employees and sometimes even the police! Weapons and drugs were seized as well.

Be especially wary of “helpful” souls wandering around in Sultanahment and the Grand Bazaar who offer to guide you around the shops.

To protect yourself, learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff, or only visit licensed, experienced dealers with a good reputation. There are many “quality” fake goods out there, so if you don’t how to differentiate them, play it safe and not buy. Carpets especially are a hot seller, so please learn how to differentiate rugs of real quality versus Chinese fakes made of synthetic materials.

Another common fake would be coins and artefacts claimed to be from the Byzantine or Roman eras sold at historical sites such as in the town of Selcuk.

Some shady shops found online: Benny’s Shop/Benny’s Leather in the Kusadasi Bazaar,

Some stall owners/service providers are highly opportunistic. Should you not enquire about the price first before purchasing (it can be anything, such as a souvenir, a taxi ride or even a shoe shine service), be prepared to be hit with an astronomical bill after.

Even worse, there are restaurants who might charge you for items that you did not order. Always check your receipt before you leave.

Also, always negotiate the price before and check your bill after. Besides that, always negotiate in Lira, the local currency (and keep local petty cash with you) as a foreign currency will often be charged a higher price.

Just like the over-priced scam, always make sure of the currency that you are quoted! There’s a huge difference between Euro and Lira, so besides checking verbally with the stall owner, check your credit card bill as well should you use it.

One common trick these scammers use is to drop their shoe shine equipment beside you. Should you help, they will offer to provide shoe shine services to you for free.

Should you accept, two things will happen. First, the scammer will strike up a conversation during the service, and casually mention add on services he is providing you. Alternatively, he may began telling you about his sad life story, making you feel bad for him.

At the end of it all, you will be charged with a hefty bill. Argue, and you will suddenly find many shoe shiners surround you.

As the name suggests, some stall owners/service providers/taxi drivers will suddenly “forget” to pass you your change. This is done by distracting you and engaging you in a conversation.

A reverse of this situation is for the stall owners/service providers/taxi drivers to pretend to have received less than what you have paid. They do this by quickly hiding the cash that you have paid them and claim to have received less.

And the next thing that happens, is that your credit card is charged twice.

Not a scam technically, but if you were to take a free sunbed at resorts (especially those in Bodrum), be prepared to face a barrage of touts asking you to buy overpriced food, drinks and items.

There are the common ones such as those who rig their meters, insist on not using their meters or insist that they have no change. Some may even swap your notes, e.g. you pass them a 50 Lira note, and it becomes a 5 Lira note suddenly (sleight of hand) and the driver shouts at you to pay more. In the past, some switched the meter to a nighttime charge (2x more) in the day, but this charge no longer exists! So do not be scammed if the driver tells you of this charge when you take a cab at night!

The sly ones will meddle with the meters while you are not looking. Others may even grab your luggage, lock it in the boot, and drive you to a bar and get you into the whole bar scam.

One tip is to avoid taking taxis at tourist spots, such as at the Sultanahmet area (Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar). Or simply use the metro system – it is convenient and good. If you really insist on taking a cab, pay using small, local currency and take a photo of the car number first. Also, before paying, hold a note and ask the driver what the value of the note is so that you can both agree on it and prevent the swapping trick.

Happens on the road, where a driver will signal certain parts of your car (wheels are the easiest) that is damaged. This helpful driver will claim to be mechanic, and help you replace the spare part by heading to a workshop nearby.

Apparently, there is nothing wrong with your car. What happens is that either the original part is taken away, repainted and returned, or it will be swopped with a part that is of lousier quality. Further, the mechanic will demand a huge fee for his service.

Surprise surprise, some scammers might come up to you, strike a conversation and be a companion on the trip since you both are conveniently on the same way. Next, they might offer your food or drinks laced with a fast acting sedative (it is colorless, odourless, tasteless) and rob you of your belongings once you pass out.

The boat trips they sell are way overpriced. Look instead, for reputable ones online or simply head to the Galata Bridge for a local ferry.

Not exactly a scam technically, but because of the Turkish law where you cannot make a claim while drunk, you will become a prime target of robbers when you drink in public.

This is practically present around the world, be especially careful around crowded spots such as tourist spots – Sultanhamet Square, Taksim Square, Cumhurriyet Caddesi, Istiklal Caddesi, etc – or on crowded transportation.

Some of the methods which they use include slashing your bag, snatching your bag, distracting you and even by conning you (e.g. asking if you could show a dollar in your country’s currency so that he will know where you keep your money).

There are many other methods pickpockets can use – learn more on these techniques by checking out the list of scams in Spain, home to the pickpocketing capital of world (Barcelona).

Istanbul Tourism Police Hotline

Contact: +90 212 527 45 03

Address: Emniyet Müdürlüğü Turizm Şube Müdürlüğü Yerebatan Cad. No: 6 Sultanahmet, Istanbul

Department of Customer Rights Office

Address: 133 Istiklal Ave

TURKEY: Celebrated Medical Tourism Destination

Turkey is fast becoming the top medical tourism destination in the world for a nip, tuck, laser eye surgery or hair transplant.

According to the Turkey Medical Tourism Outlook for 2017, the country is the preferred destination for hair transplant procedures for Arab nations.

Over the past few years rising costs in healthcare have caused an increase in the medical tourism industry, with patients flocking to parts of Turkey for cosmetic surgery.

According to the Turkey Medical Tourism Outlook for 2017, the country is the preferred destination for hair transplant procedures for Arab nations. The report also highlighted other emerging segments of Turkey’s medical tourism including dentistry, cosmetic surgery, infertility treatment and eye treatment.

“Patients are travelling to Turkey from all over the world, including the Gulf, seeking cosmetic surgery with a quick recovery,” said Mustafa Ozdemir, cultural and information attache from the Cultural and Information Office of the Turkish Consulate-General in Dubai.

“In fact, there are even companies that organise trips to Istanbul or south-western Turkey for procedures and treatments. Patients are looking for geographic proximity and the reputation of the country, when choosing Turkey, which is why medical tourism is increasing in the country and we anticipate significant growth in the near future.”

With Turkey treating nearly a quarter of a million foreign patients each year, the country boasts certified doctors in all fields and more Joint Commission International-accredited hospitals than anywhere outside the United States. According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Turkey ranks ninth in the world for its number of plastic surgeons with 700 registered as practising in the country.

“People want to make the trip part of a tourism experience, so after their procedures they choose to stay in some of the most scenic cities in Turkey to make quick recoveries,” Ozdemir said. “These include Fethiye, Istanbul, Antalya, Marmaris, Bodrum and Kusadasi.”

TURKEY: Airlines To Receive Fuel Subsidies

Turkey will offer jet fuel subsidies for flights to five of its tourist hot spots as part of its efforts to safeguard tourism revenue.

Airlines will receive $6,000 per flight to Antalya, Alanya, Dalaman, Bodrum and İzmir during the start of the tourism season in April and May, Turkey's tourism minister, Mahir Ünal, said.

Following the suicide bombing in Istanbul, which killed 10 German citizens, the country's tourism might be affected negatively, according to experts, for which the government is trying to take precautionary measures. The tourism industry in the country accounts for about 4.5 percent of the $800 billion economy.

"The only problem is with the Syrian border area," Ünal said. "Istanbul is one of the safest places in the world... The tourist areas are safe... We have taken all the measures necessary," Ünal said.

Turkey offered similar fuel subsidies for flights from Russia last year, after a slump in the value of the rouble prompted consumers to hold off spending money on travel abroad.

Russians accounted for about 10 percent of foreigners arriving in Turkey in January through November last year, making Russia the country's second-biggest source country after Germany with 5.4 million travelers or 15.5 percent of arrivals.

In addition to the new fuel subsidy unveiled on Wednesday, which could be extended beyond May, Turkey has tripled its security measures in tourist areas, according to Ünal.

He was speaking in Frankfurt, where he was meeting with German tour operators to discuss joint measures to prop up tourist demand, such as promotional campaigns that would be half paid for by Turkey and half by the tourism companies.

He said he was also meeting with tour operators in Spain and Switzerland.

TURKEY: LUX* To Open Five-star Hotel In Turkey

LUX* Resorts & Hotels has announced its plans to build a 60 room five-star hotel in the city of Bodrum, which is set to open in May 2017.

The property will also comprise 75 residences of which 25 will be branded and operated by LUX*.

Bodrum has a luxury marina - the Yalihavak, as well as brand new golf courses, which are currently being designed and built on the peninsula. There is also a large section of unspoilt nature in the area.

Paul Jones, group ceo of LUX* commented: “For us, this is a major step in our global expansion plans. We are proud to establish the LUX* brand in Europe after the Indian Ocean islands, China and UAE.”