On January 24, Istanbul International Airport, one of the first in terms of the number of passengers in Europe, was forced to suspend all flights due to abnormal snowfall. Planes do not fly for the second day, and tourists cannot leave the air harbor and check into hotels.
Istanbul Airport. Photo: social networks
Snow curtain
Ivan L., who flew to Moscow the day before from Zagreb with a transfer in Istanbul, shared with Novaya Gazeta the details of what was happening at the Turkish airport. According to Ivan, his plane could not land in Istanbul for a long time, and because of this, he missed his flight to Moscow and had to wait for the next one.
It soon became clear that the new flight to the capital would not go either because of the snow. As a result, the Russians were returned to the airport and offered to wait. The matter was complicated by the fact that all local hotels were full at that time, and there was no longer an opportunity to spend the night in comfortable conditions. It was also impossible to go to the city: there was an accident on the highway, and it was blocked at least until the morning.
«Just found out that our night flight was canceled again, I will change the ticket in fourth time, I don't know when I'll get out. The airlines did not offer hotel accommodations, only issued vouchers for fast food restaurants. Also at the airport handed out free food — hot lunches. Now the roads are already open, but accommodation in a hotel with a transfer is still impossible, the reasons are still unknown to me, ”Ivan said.
At the same time, according to Reuters, some roads in Istanbul are still blocked. Municipal services of the city can not cope with the consequences of snowfall.
«Stop bullying Russians»
The day before, passengers of the Russian airline Pobeda, after landing in Istanbul, spent more than seven hours on the plane due to the fact that it was impossible to adjust the gangway to it. In their statement, representatives of the air carrier demanded that the administration of the Turkish airport «stop mockery of the Russians.» A few hours later, a message appeared on the airport's Twitter that all passengers had been evacuated from the planes.
According to the press secretary of the airline, Elena Selivanova, 370 Pobeda customers are now waiting for departure in the «sterile» zone of the airport. She added that because of the blocked roads, it is not possible to take them to hotels.
Blogger Alexander Rakhmanov on Instagram says that during his flight with the Pobeda airline to Istanbul, the flight was redirected to another Turkish city — Bodrum. » class=»SingleImage_image__3qIDn» alt=»» />
Bodrum Airport. Photo: instagram/rkhmanov
According to Rakhmanov, he could not leave the Bodrum airport for several hours. The terminal did not have heating, and most of the shops were closed, the blogger clarifies. After a long wait, the airline arranged transfer and hotel accommodation for the passengers of the flight.
Passenger riot
Today alone over 200 flights from Istanbul Airport, the time of tomorrow's flights has also been postponed indefinitely, follows from the data of the online scoreboard.< /p>
A day later, spent on the territory of the airport without the opportunity to leave it, the passengers staged a demonstration. They walked around the terminal building and chanted the words “We need a hotel!”, thus demanding that they be given the opportunity to comfortably stay in hotels while waiting for flights. Some social media users report that the police rushed to the place of the demonstration.
«Passengers marched through the airport to the Turkish Airlines information desk, demanding to be placed in hotels. After that, the employees left the airline’s counter,” the interlocutor of Novaya Gazeta said.
According to Ivan, due to the size of the airport, its halls do not look crowded, but “huge queues” still gather in front of the counters to change tickets. He himself stood in such a queue for about two hours, some waited up to five.
“Of course, all the hotels, lounges, lounges and waiting areas inside the airport are overcrowded, many were sleeping on the floor”,
he added.
Other passengers stranded at the airport are also sharing their impressions of the situation on social media. Some families and groups of friends are forced to wait for flights separately, as they were separated at passport control. Those who have already passed the document check remain in a separate area of the airport.