Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

We are coming to the TRNC on the 26th June from Manchester. We are worried that we might miss our connection in Istanbul due to the problems at our airport. Has anyone done this route recently who can give a rough idea how long we might need from landing at Istanbul to get to the Ercan gate?
At the moment the flight appears to be taking off 45 mins to an hour late.
Thanks

It really depends on whether it can make up time en route. Sometimes leaving an hour late results in only 15 minutes late arriving. You'd need minimum of an hour but comfortably 2 hours to transit the new Istanbul Airport.

A good website to check is flightradar24, you put in the flight number and can see the history of the flight over the last 7 days. In the first column it shows flight duration and landed time GMT (add 3 hours to get Turkish time). STD = Scheduled time of Departure, ATD = Actual time of departure and STA = Scheduled time of arrival. Below is the link to info for TK1994 Manchester to Istanbul for the last week.
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/tk1994

We have flown this route many times in the past 18 years, it almost always leaves late from Manchester but seems to make up some time en route.

You need a minimum of 1 hour after landing at Istanbul, it takes for ever to get to the terminal from the runway, then despite what others say we always have to go through security there unless we are really late then sometimes we get fast tracked.

When booking now we always choose a minimum 2 hour break between the flights. Good luck!

In February we used the airport transport to get from arrival to departure gate as it was a very long walk, we hadn’t booked assistance you don’t need to be disabled to use this just show your boarding pass, we are elderly and at the Ercan gate our boarding pass and NHS covid were checked and we were then sent straight through without going through security. Manchester flight left on time and we had 2hrs 15 mins at Istanbul.

If you are flying Pegasus from Manchester you will land at the much smaller Sabiha Gokan airport and an hour is usually enough time.

Thanks everyone. Using Turkish Airlines. Time frame seems ok. First visit for 3 years so do not want any hitches

TA are very good at escorting you through if connections are tight.

My hubby arrived this morning flying from Manchester to Ercan, using Pegasus.

They boarded the plane with a slight delay (40mins) only to be stuck on the plane for over 2 hours waiting to take off. He had a 5-hour-transit in İstanbul Gökçen, so the substantial delay wasn't an issue for him, but it was for some. My message is just a word of warning that anything can happen these days with airports and airlines finding it rather difficult to cope.

By the way, they were never told the reason for the delay.

His journey from Istanbul to Ercan was straight forward. He says he needed around 30 mins after landing in Istanbul to go through passport check, security and finding his international connection flight to Ercan.

I hope you find his experiences useful.

looked at booking Manchester to Ercan Turkish Air for September and are now being charged for luggage.

Wow!
We are going out next week and luggage included. Must be a very new change

choices now with costs on Turkish Air copied off the page with prices BHX ECN
EcoFly
P-Y class
GBP213.91
1 piece X 8 kg cabin baggage
Meal service
Baggage allowance
Standard seat selection
Change right

Refund right
Select this flight
ExtraFly
P-Y class


GBP228.91
Recommended
1 piece X 8 kg cabin baggage
Meal service
23 kg baggage allowance
Standard seat selection
Change with fee

Refund right
%25 Extra Miles
Select this flight
PrimeFly
P-Y class
GBP258.91
1 piece X 8 kg cabin baggage
Meal service
30 kg baggage allowance
Standard seat selection
Free change
Refund with deduction
Fast Track (If available)

Same-day Change to An Earlier Flight

%50 Extra Miles