Cappadocia, as I learned is not a City but a region of Anatolia that consists of several small and one mid-sized (Nevsehir) and one large (Kayseri) town. Both of them have an airport that serves the region, and the distance between the two, some 80 km. I was booked on Turkish Airlines on BOM-IST(x)-LHR-IST-BOM, (IST = Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport, which is the main hub for the airline too).
I tried booking IST-NEV/ASR-IST (where NEV = Nevsehir and ASR = Kayseri) on Turkish Airlines, but the fares were prohibitive. My search threw up cheaper fares on the Low-Cost Pegasus Airlines. The fares were low, but the airline uses the Sabiha Gokcen (SAW) airport on the Asian fringe of Istanbul some 75kms away from IST for almost all of its domestic operations. My flight from London LHR was to reach IST at about 5 pm and given the possibilities of airline delays, airport formalities, and Istanbul's crazy traffic, decided to stay overnight in Istanbul at a midpoint location.
Booking the ticket. The Pegasus website has been designed more for the locals and booking on their English page was not the easiest. It is not made apparent that providing a contact number will cause the site to seek Pegasus loyalty membership, as a result the booking was hard to complete. Second, for some strange reason, if it detects an overseas IP address for the device being used, the drop down menus misbehave. It is here I learned that Pegasus flies to a very few destination from IST. But all this became unimportant have secured a return fare of Euro 75 pp for SAW-NEV-SAW. I could not understand, why the website refused to throw up fares from SAW-ASR-SAW? Please note that there are only 2 flights a day to NEV (morning and evening) and several throughout the day to ASR. The learning always happens after the flights are booked, sadly.
It took me exactly 20 mins by taxi from Besiktas (where I was staying) to reach SAW some 35 km away at 5 am. Cost - some 80TL, but the driver insisted I give him 10TL more for toll. Much better than the 90 minutes it took from IST to Besiktas the previous evening (about the same distance). But then, I was way too early for my flight.
SAW is a large no frill modern airport serving International and Domestic flights but does not match up to the buzz of IST. Not that IST is much better as compared to the fine airports in the Asian region, and I can proudly add Mumbai to that list too. It does have a lounge that accepts Priority Pass. (Discovered after finishing my breakfast. Hey! it was still my bed time). Check-in was polite and efficient, took less than 2 minutes to process 2 passengers including baggage tagging and identity check. Adequate seating at the assigned gate and clean toilets, at least until 7 am. Boarding announcements loud and clear. Departure display clear. Boarding efficient, though Turkish people, just like all Asians, always assume that they have to rush and catch seats (even though assigned) or that the flight may depart leaving them behind. Essentially queue breakers.
Aircraft - 737-800. Looked clean and well maintained. Faux leather seats. Width 17 inches. Legroom 29 inches. In-flight Entertainment - Overhead display but no IFE on domestic flights from what I could tell. Crew - Cockpit 2 Cabin 4 for serving 189 passengers. Flight take off and landing (SAW-NEV) on time. Food for purchase trolley circulated. Menu - looked decent, but did not buy anything as had just finished breakfast. Cockpit announcements in English. Clear and functional. Cabin announcements in Turkish followed by English. Cabin pressure and temperature, comfortable. Toilets, clean. Crew well groomed, efficient and polite Lacked friendliness. Maybe it's a situation with most airlines today, given the pressure under which the crew has to operate.
NEV is a very small airport, designed to handle not more than 6 to 8 flights a day. One baggage carousel, guess that says it all. The airport is some 15 minutes from Nevsehir itself and 30 - 40 minutes away from the smaller but more popular towns of Goreme and Urgup.
Thanks to the weather, my hot air balloon ride, the main reason for my visit, was rescheduled and I had to rebook a later flight, from ASR. Kayseri is an hour plus away from Goreme. The airport serves both military and civilian planes and also welcomes direct international flights. It is much larger than Nevsehir, but not that much larger either.
The flight was late by 20 minutes. I did try a sandwich combo this time around and the food was quite alright. The seats on row 26 had decent legroom as well. At 3 pm, the time taken from SAW to Besiktas area of Istanbul took me well over an hour and some 95TL. There was no demand for extra money for toll, but I did tip him 10TL for being a happy driver as well as good at avoiding jams wherever possible.
NEV is a very small airport, designed to handle not more than 6 to 8 flights a day. One baggage carousel, guess that says it all. The airport is some 15 minutes from Nevsehir itself and 30 - 40 minutes away from the smaller but more popular towns of Goreme and Urgup.
Thanks to the weather, my hot air balloon ride, the main reason for my visit, was rescheduled and I had to rebook a later flight, from ASR. Kayseri is an hour plus away from Goreme. The airport serves both military and civilian planes and also welcomes direct international flights. It is much larger than Nevsehir, but not that much larger either.
The flight was late by 20 minutes. I did try a sandwich combo this time around and the food was quite alright. The seats on row 26 had decent legroom as well. At 3 pm, the time taken from SAW to Besiktas area of Istanbul took me well over an hour and some 95TL. There was no demand for extra money for toll, but I did tip him 10TL for being a happy driver as well as good at avoiding jams wherever possible.
