Chișinău to Istanbul – Turkish Airlines in Economy

Airline:  Turkish Airlines

Flight #: TK270

Route:    RMO-IST

Class:    Economy

Seat:     24F

Date:     Sunday 11^th January 2026

With my Meander To Moldova having successfully brought me to Moldova and its capital Chișinău, I had enjoyed a couple of days exploring the city but it was now time to head home. With my leisurely journey east from England taking me a week, I needed to head home a bit quicker, however still wanted to make the journey interesting. As such, rather than jump on a direct flight with FlyOne, HiFly or Wizz Air, I had decided to try out Turkish Airlines and fly via Istanbul. Whilst Istanbul was technically in the wrong direction, being in south-eastern Europe meant it was only a small diversion and a great opportunity to check out an airline I’ve wanted to for a while.

Having got a taxi from my hotel in central Chișinău, I arrived at the airport just over two hours before my flight was due to depart and, having already checked in on the Turkish Airlines app, just needed to drop off my checked bag before heading to security. Finding and sorting bag drop took me around five minutes and just after 0800 I joined what was possibly the longest security queue I’ve ever seen, with it running the full length of the terminal building, through check in and into arrivals! Around 45 minutes after joining the queue I finally reached the actually queuing system and I eventually made it through security nearly an hour after joining the queue. Being quite a small airport there are only three security lanes available and when seemingly half of Moldova are wanting to fly, these can quickly get overwhelmed.

After security, border control was nice and quick, and I was through into the departure lounge just after 0900. With the airport being quite small, the gate areas are part of the main departure lounge and seemingly I was departing in the middle of peak time, with there being absolute chaos and so much noise. Thankfully I did manage to find a seat in a corner and stuck my headphones on, but I was almost glad that security had delayed me and I didn’t have to wait as long. As I was waiting, my aircraft arrived on its inbound flight from Istanbul around 25 minutes late, with boarding for my flight starting around 10 minutes before we were due to depart.

All the gates at the airport appeared to be bus gates and so a few minutes after boarding had started, I was onboard an unheated bus in minus temperatures waiting for us to start heading to the aircraft. Unfortunately, it took almost 15 minutes for the bus to depart, but we eventually arrived at the aircraft at 1005, 10 minutes after we were due to depart. The aircraft for my flight to Turkish Airlines’ home base was TC-JVO, an almost 10-year-old Boeing 737-800 that had been delivered to Turkish back in April 2016. Onboard it was laid out in the standard 3-3 configuration, and I was impressed that even on its short-haul fleet, Turkish has IFE screens installed in Economy along with basic WiFi being free throughout for Miles & Smiles members (which you can sign up to for free).

After waiting for the second bus to arrive, we began our taxi to the runway at 1027 and, just under 10 minutes later, took off from Chișinău’s runway 08 at 1036. After departure, a right turn had us heading south-west towards Romania, with a dog leg necessary to avoid Ukrainian airspace. Service began pretty quickly after the seat belts sign went off and once again I was impressed as Turkish still offer a free meal in short-haul economy, unlike most European ‘full service’ airlines these days. Whilst the meal wasn’t huge, it was very much welcome, with a chicken salad, bread roll with jam, slice of almond cake and a choice of drinks being provided.

Just after we flew over the Romanian town of Brăila, a left turn took us towards the Black Sea and Bulgarian border, with us crossing the latter just before we then crossed the Bulgarian Black Sea coast north of the town of Kariya. As we reached a point directly east of Varna, we made another slight turn to have us heading directly south over the Black Sea, before crossing into Turkish airspace around 55 minutes after departing Chișinău. With Istanbul Airport operating northerly approaches, we crossed over the isthmus of Turkey to the west of the airport, before looping round over the Sea of Marmara to land on runway 35R at 1253 local time after a flight time of 1 hour and 17 minutes.

As we landed, I was able to see TC-JND, a Turkish Airlines Airbus A330-200 taxiing in, having landed ahead of us on a flight from Kabul, whilst following us on arrivals was TC-JTR, a Turkish Airlines Airbus A321-200 arriving from Barcelona. I did have plenty of time for more plane spotting from our aircraft, as we seemingly taxied across half of the width of the airport, almost reaching the easterly runways before making our way along most of the terminal to what seemed like the furthest gate possible. 15 minutes after we landed, we parked at gate G10L, with the usual chaos unfolding as everyone tries to leave before the doors are open. With it being a bus to arrivals, the bus waited a while before departing as some people were very much taking their time and an argument ended breaking out in Romanian between some other passengers. We reached the terminal over half an hour after landing, and I was soon on my way to the transfers area for my flight to London.

All in all, I was pretty impressed by Turkish Airlines on this short flight from Chișinău to Istanbul. Whilst the airport at Chișinău was a bit horrible, I can’t really blame Turkish for that and whilst there was a small delay, it wasn’t too excessive. The onboard offering in short-haul economy is far and away the best I’ve experienced on my travels, with IFE and WiFi available and a meal being provided even on a short flight. The crew were great, being able to provide a full service really quickly and all were friendly and helpful during my interactions with them. Overall, the only negative point I’d make towards Turkish was the length of time it took us to taxi in and reach the terminal, with Istanbul’s new airport being expansive and taking a while to taxi around. However, in conclusion, a very good experience!

Lounge              0*

Seat/Facilities     5*

Food                4*

Service             5*

Punctuality         3*

Overall Rating      17/25 (read about my rating system here!)