Onur Air Review

I flew Turkish discount airline Onur Air (Review) last week. The segment was short - just 200 miles from Istanbul to Izmir - the airplane basically does not even reach cruising altitude for such a short distance.

Onur Air sold tickets for just about $32 for the one-way - this was on a very busy travel weekend (think Turkish Thanksgiving) for this route. Off-season prices are as low as $10 for this route many times of the year tough.

Check-in had a huge line at the Domestic Terminal at Istanbul Ataturk at 5 AM but the line moved very quickly. We were checked in just 15 minutes later. The airline allows for 15kg of free check-in luggage at no extra costs. Awesome!

The check-in agent actually smiled and spoke a few words of English - how much better can it get in Turkey?

There is a brand-new Priority Pass lounge at the Domestic Terminal. It's past security and had some decent snacks and drinks on offer. The furniture is brand new and it's a nice and bright room.










After a gate change the plane arrived late - about 30 minutes. No announcement was made or did the screens show anything in this regard. Since you want to make sure you do not miss boarding you have to hang out in gate area and wait.

Eventually the plane would show up and we boarded about 45 minutes late. The plane had a VERY narrow seat pitch - nothing to worry about for a 45 minutes flight - but for a 3 hour flight this would really bother me.



Food and drinks are for purchase and it better be - given the odd 10 minutes or less we spent above 10,000 feet. Landing in Izmir was just 20 minutes late and the well designed, not crowded airport greeted us with the bags coming out.

What's the verdict on the Onur Air Review? For such a low price (other carriers were 2-3 times as much) I'd be happy to fly them again - especially for such a short route. For 2 hours+ the price difference would need to be more marked to go with Onur Air.