Hi from a beautiful, sunny and smoggy istanbul. Very little ice remains from the earlier bad weather and the streets are bustling with people.

This morning I flew AtlasJet from Adana.

AtlasJet, along with Onur Air and Pegasus Airlines are the three private discount airlines competing with government-owned full-service carrier Turkish Airlines on the Adana-Istanbul route.

I chose to fly with AtlasJet as they have a very convenient free airport transfer service to and from Mersin.

When I first came to Turkey in 2001 Turkish Airlines was the only choice. Its only only competitor Istanbul Airways bankrupted when Turkey’s economy collapsed at the end of last century.

Most of the 200 or so other passengers were army conscripts on their way from serving in the army in Antakya to Istanbul for a week’s holiday. Adana Airport was chaotic and needs to be extended and renovated to cater for the increasing passenger numbers.

Adelaide and Adana not only are close together in the dictionary but they also have similar tinshed airports. I hope Adelaide Airport’s new terminal is ready before I depart the city in early March.

Although AtlasJet is a discounted airline, the hostesses still served a cheese roll and a drink, reminding me of Turkish intercity buses. The irony of this is when I first came to Turkey, the service provided by Turkish intercity bus service reminded me of flying!

Snow was visible on the ground most of the way, reflecting the past couple of months’ cold weather.

Cold weather will be just a memory as my next destination is the Persian Gulf country, the United Arab Emirates.