Flying Through Istanbul In A Wheelchair: A Firsthand Account Of Chaos

First of all, I’d like to apologize for my poor English. I asked Ben about this in the Daily Discussion, and he replied: Could you explain a bit more about what made it so bad? Or any interest in writing a Community Stories post about this? So I’ll try my best to describe our experience. This is our experience flying with Turkish Airlines through Istanbul Airport in early August. There were two of us traveling together. My travel companion has been suffering from osteoarthritis of the knee for many years and needs a wheelchair at the airport. The outbound leg Our outbound leg involves a 1 hour and 45 minute layover at IST. After the plane arrived at IST, the staff used an electric wheelchair to take the wheelchair passenger through the jet bridge, then they dropped us at a bench at the jet bridge door and told us to wait. There’s a bench like this at almost every arrival gate. No one told us what to wait for — another wheelchair or something. I did go ask him what we needed to wait for when that staff was helping another wheelchair passenger out. The answer was: next staff. Thirty minutes later, a buggy that could seat 8 to 9 people arrived. But the problem was after picking up wheelchair passengers from two or three gates, there were no seats left on the buggy for companions like me. The employee driving the buggy told us to go to the end of the corridor and meet them there. I basically jogged with my luggage to the end of the corridor, where the transfer security checkpoint was. All wheelchair passengers need to get off here, go up a ramp by themselves, and then go through security. The employee driving the buggy told us that his colleague would be waiting on the other side. I have to say that these employees are all very helpful. The driver helped one of those wheelchair passengers walk up the ramp, and the employee at the security checkpoint helped her with her luggage. But this also gives you a picture of what that situation was like. Once we passed through security, we were in the departure hall; no one was waiting for us at the security checkpoint. Then we saw a counter about 50 meters away, and the employees there were waving at us. All the wheelchair passengers need to get there on their own. Fifty meters doesn’t sound like much, but the slowest person on the same buggy arrived at this counter nearly 10 minutes after us. We call this place the wheelchair passengers transfer area. (You’ll see this term used frequently later on.) The wheelchair passengers handed their boarding passes to the counter staff here and then sat on the benches waiting. Finally, a buggy showed up. The counter staff started calling out names, and the wheelchair passengers traveling with me were among them. Once again, the buggy was full. All the companions had to walk to the gate on their own. I knew where the boarding gate was so I hurried toward the escalator. But at the same time, I saw an elderly gentleman who was also accompanying a wheelchair passenger call over a passing airport employee to show him his boarding pass. By the time we all got to the boarding gate, boarding was just starting. Once again, wheelchair passengers need to walk over the jet bridge to board on their own. Arriving on the return leg We were going to spend four days in Istanbul on the return leg, so we thought things would be a little better. Well, the only improvement was that I was able to ride in the buggy. The plane landed at IST, the electric wheelchair transported the wheelchair passenger through the jet bridge, dropped us at a bench, and we waited — exactly the same. This time, the buggy arrived after about 20 minutes, and we both got on. The buggy then began picking up wheelchair passengers and their companions from different gates until it was full. Then we began our long journey through the arrivals level. The first to get off were international transfer passengers at the transfer security checkpoint. Next, passengers transferring to domestic flights got off at a passport control. After that, the buggy stopped at a wheelchair passenger transfer area, and everyone got off. At this point, an elderly woman refused to get off because she thought this was another transfer area and that the buggy was supposed to take her to immigration passport control. After another wait, an employee came with a wheelchair to push my companion and guiding us through passport control all the way to the taxi stand. The day of departure On the day of departure, we checked in at the dedicated business class area. After waiting about 10 minutes, a staff member arrived with a wheelchair to escort my traveling companion and me through security and passport control all the way to the business class lounge. This seemed no different from other airports. But the interesting part began when it was time to board. A staff member came to find us and asked us to follow her out of the lounge. It turned out there was a small wheelchair passenger transfer area just outside the lounge. We waited there for a while until another staff member came and asked some wheelchair passengers and their companions to follow him. We took the elevator down to the departure level, got on a buggy, and started a long ride around the departures level. After dropping off a few groups of passengers, he left us at another wheelchair passenger transfer area. More waiting. Our plane was at a remote stand. A staff member pushed my companion in a wheelchair to the boarding gate for the remote stand and left us there. More waiting. Until boarding started, no one told us what we should do. I had no choice but to ask the boarding agent what wheelchair passengers were supposed to do. “The bus for wheelchair will come,” he said. After two buses had departed with the passengers of our flight, the disabled and incapacitated passenger boarding vehicle finally arrived. While other passengers boarded via the stairs, we entered the plane through the opposite door from them. After this experience, we think that if you’re a wheelchair passenger or traveling with someone in a wheelchair, you should do your best to avoid connecting through IST.