Jan 3rd 2002 TK102 B737-400 TC-JBU Seat 17A I had to be in Ankara (the capital) that day to do a check flight on a Cessna 402 so that I can finally get my CPL/IR license. The weather was not that good in Istanbul and to the east so I decided to take the plane for $80 one-way. Arrived at the airport at 5:20 am purchased my ticket and did a check in 10 minutes. As the plane was only 50% full I got permission to take my duffle bag with me on the plane. The monitors showed the boarding gate as 103A which meant taking the bus to plane. The 737 was sitting just before the THY Teknik (maintenance) hangars. Next to us Air Alfa's A300-600s were parked. I was also able to get a clear and close look at ex-Premair soon to be Bosphorus A300-B4s but it was still dark outside :( Looks like Turkish did not discover the boarding according to zones or seat numbers. They do not board the planes that way even the boarding takes place at a jetway. So needless to say the boarding was a bit messy. Captain made an announcement in Turkish and what I call "Turk-English" and informed us that we would be flying at 23000 feet. We started engines at 6:15 am took off at 6:22 am about 17 minutes later than the scheduled departure time. After take off on runway 36 we did a right 180 degree turn and proceeded on course direct to Yalova VOR. During the very short flight the food service consisted of only a soft drinks cart. I am wondering if Turkish has decided to get rid of the small snack service or was this because of the early morning flight. When I took the same flight last April the service included a small box a-la Sky Deli. We landed on runway 2R and taxied to the main terminal. I noticed that there were 2 C130s and 2 C160s of Turkish Air Force sitting at the ramp. During the day I was informed that they were diverted to ESB because of icing conditions at Etimesgut AirBase. Overall, the flight was not too bad even though too short to judge. The fact that THY doesn't have a competitor in domestic routes shows from the lack of attention to on time departures. I guess I would rate THY's domestic service better than US domestic service but not at par with the European's major airline service. BAHA