"Ask the pilot
What's more enjoyable than flying? A ride on a Turkish bus, of course.
By Patrick Smith
As elsewhere around the globe, air travel within Turkey is expanding rapidly. Turkish Airlines, the government-controlled national carrier, founded in 1933, is a highly respected operator with an ultramodern fleet and reasonable fares, but a growing number of upstarts are putting the pressure on. More than a dozen carriers -- Atlasjet, Onur Air, Pegasus, SunExpress -- have sprung up over the past 15 years, catering both to the local population and to the approximately 18 million vacationers, most of them European, who flock to the country's beaches and historical sites. What this means for the bus lines isn't really known, though effects are likely to be minimal. But strange as it might sound, it's the buses whose example the airlines ought to be striving to emulate, and not vice versa. The bus companies are clean, cheap, cordial and punctual. How many airlines nowadays can lay claim to all four of those adjectives? At Istanbul's Büyük otogar, settling into my Bulgaria-bound coach, noting its spotless decor and the many useful accouterments of my seat, the question that rushed to mind was: Why can't more airplanes be like this?"
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