It was a bit of a blow when British Airways pulled out of the Gatwick Izmir route at the end of the last summer season, not least because I had racked up a serious number of BA air miles (grinds teeth, has minor tantrum, thinks happy memories of the BA lounge with really nice sarnies).
But, as happened in Dalaman a few years ago, Easyjet has picked up the route and will be flying direct to Izmir from Gatwick from May 14th 2011. So we finally have a budget airline operating a direct route into the northern Aegean.
Easyjet started their Gatwick to Bodrum route last year and it was very successful but Bodrum is an irritating if spectacular two hour drive for me whilst Izmir is a quick 40 minutes zip up the motorway. Easyjet are the least offensive of the budget airlines and with prices from £80 return it does make keeping in touch with the family cheaper and easier.
Rumours out of Izmir’s ridiculously underused and very swish Adnan Menderes airport suggest they are working hard to entice new carriers to the route and as Aer Lingus this week also announced they will from May start flying from Dublin to Izmir direct it looks like they speak truly!
Check out the Easyjet website here, flights are available from May, just scroll through the calendar to find the cheapest fares but hurry, the very low summer fares are bound to go fast – Easyjet Gatwick Izmir Flights
Aer Lingus flights can be booked here – Aer Lingus Dublin Izmir Flights
Hurray for Easyjet and hurray for Aer Lingus, long may they fly into Izmir.
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Well, that’s good news. We don’t mind travelling times and it means we have another option (and there’s more competition for hopefully lower prices) for travelling to and from Turkey. Flying back to different Turkish airports means we can explore a bit more of that area too before making our way back to Fethiye. 🙂