Hi Glasgow Girl,

H4U would not be going via Istanbul, they fly from Manchester and Gatwick on a Friday direct to Dalaman.

The other company that is flying direct is Cyprus Turkish Airlines from Stanstead on a Sunday.

Jo

Thanks for your help jo, will look into that xx

it was great to see a petition for the winter flights to turkey. I have noticed though and checked out holidays for u, and they are now doing winter flights to Dalaman, and also a few hotels are available for the winter holidays.

http://www.h4u.co.uk is the website address.

Turkey in winter is quiet, but still a beautiful place to visit. I hope the petition encourages other airlines to see that there is a need for flights in winter

I have been a member of this forum for a few months now and sorry to say i totally overlooked this thread .
Jo2beans you deserve a medal for all the time and effort you have put into this.
We have visited Turkey for the last 14 years and always accepted the fact that there are no flights direct to the resorts in winter. Quite a few Turkish people have queried us as to why there are very few British tourists in the winter but Scandanavian tourists visit, we explained it's because there are no flights unless via Istanbul and left it at that.
We would definately consider going in the winter month's but not this year as we didn't know about the flights so thinking of going to Goa in India.
Will keep a watchful eye on this thread from now on, THANKS

Congratulations on thinking about the topic and doing something about it.This is the tip of an iceberg .There are thousands of holiday home owners in Turkey and the one thing that is missing are winter flights. Its convincing the airlines that is the problem.I recently contacted Easyjet on this very topic but got no reply.Perhaps they are unaware of this forum as are the majority of Turkish property owners.Also the the number of owners are growing rapidly.Keep it up.

Hi

You can get winter flights to Izmir via Turkish Airlines, just do a web search, and you will get their site easily. I know they run from some London airports and Manchester.

Yes I understand there are flights to Turkey during the winter with Turkish airlines and others but they are mainly to Istanbil or airports that are too far away from Bodrum to be a finacial option, after all i could get a package to the canaries for around £200. It needs Easyjet or Thomas cook to put a service on to compete with the aforementioned airlines and therefore create competion and bring down fares with the added bonus of holidaying in Turkey during the winter monthes. This would have a knock on effect in improving the revenue from foreign expenditure and investment. Also property prices would go through the roof.:cry:

Fireman,

If you read back through the full thread, you will see Jo (Jo2beans) contacted Easyjet ad they replied that Turkey is a destination that they are not currently considering.
Also, as a result of her petition one company laid on weekly direct flights to dalaman throughout the winter season. However due to lack of interest some of these flights were cancelled

Hopefully this hasnt put the airline off Dalaman as a winter destination, and they will give it another go next year. Jo, has H4U indicated that they will try again in winter 06/07?? fingers crossed they do

Cheers

LA

Hi all,i have just purchased a place in Altinkum, and while i was there i spoke to a resident who said that he had read in the Gaurdian that Easy jet and Ryan air had been given the ok to look into opening a regular service to Bodrum from May/June 2006.
Has any body heard about this?

leighanne
It seems i put fingers to keyboard without reading all the threads and after doing so can only reiterate my admiration for the people researching this subject and doing something about it.

Hopefully h4u will not be put off for next winter, because some of the dates this winter had a low demand.

A lot of people have emailed me and said that they had planned to book on the cancelled dates, but had not gotten around to it. There is also the fact that some people are not aware that these flights exist, even though the information has been posted on several forums, advertised in the Turkish and English Newspapers in many of the resorts, and the National Papers in Turkey.

Eventually one of the bigger operators will realise the huge potential they are missing out on. But lets not forget that H4U have taken the inititive, and try to support them.

Their web site is http://www.h4u.co.uk and I just checked prices for someone and this friday there are flights from Gatwick from £64 before taxes, so even with taxes the total flight comes to £90 for a return.

I dont think even Easyjet and Ryanair could do much better than that.

Thats really good news i have several friends who have properties in and around Bodrum, ours is in Konacik, Bodrum. Whilst between now and christmas a holiday is out of the question for us, i will definately try H4U for January and pass on your advise to others who have already been informed of the forum.

Fireman - note that Holidays4U aren't doing flights in January. Their last flight is on 30 December and they start again on 10 February. If you want to go in January, your best bet is Cyprus Turkish from Stansted.

I agree with jo2beans, I really hope that H4U aren't put off by the slow response for this year. People nowadays don't book in advance, they like to think about it and wait for prices to fall nearer the time. Unfortunately, airlines need to make decisions in advance about schedules. If anyone else joins in with flights next winter, I would guess it would be Thomas Cook as they have a really big Turkish flight programme.

I think part of the problem with the winter flight schedule is the lack of advertising. I wouldnt have known about the winter flights if it hadn't have been for this website and forum and I only discovered that recently

I agree with Glasgow Girl, it's a shame that many of the original flights have been cancelled and it is probably due to lack of advertising. Unless you're a regular on sites like this you wouldn't know that you could fly direct to Dalaman in the winter.

I had never heard of h4u until I saw the posting about them doing winter flights here. And not every travel agent has a contract with Custom Flights (the first agent I tried didn't).

Anyway I for one am very grateful to Jo2beans for the hard work that's been put into getting the direct flights up and running.
If you have to change planes half way it makes it such a long journey, especially, if like me, you have a 4 hour journey to get to a London airport before you start flying!!

Hopefully it won't be long before other tour operators realise what potential there is there for all year round flights, maybe even using local airports as well as Gatwick and Manchester.

I've managed to book myself a seat on the December 30 flight from Gatwick...... New Year in Icmeler! WOW I'm counting the days!

Mazz

on the positive side-Thomas Cook have flights to Bodrum from Manchester beginning April 1st. Goldtrail are advertising their flights from March28th from Manchester, so although they aren't available ALL year, they are more available than last year.

Charter flights from the UK actually started before 28th March last year as Easter was earlier.

John

If you are thinking of going to Dalaman this Christmas, book quickly as the seats are virtually all gone.

Flights still available from Gatwick and Manchester on 16 December, but availability getting tight for 30 December return. no seats left to Manchester on 6 January and a few left to Gatwick on 6 January. However outbound flights from the UK on 30 December and 6 January are fine but the next return flight is on 10 February. Great if you want to spend the winter away from the cold and damp here!

Stansted flights - fully booked on 18 December and 1 January outbound.

It is a shame that the flights didnt fill for january too - however I think Mazz and Glasgow Girl are right part of the problem is advertising many people we spoke to didnt know about the flights or the web adress until we told them. Lets hope word spreads more and H4U are not put off continuing the winter service