Old Airplanes Don't Die, They Become Restaurants

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper,19 January 2016)


How would you like your eggs?  Over easy?

An Airbus A340-type passenger jet that has been at Atatürk
Airport in Istanbul for some time because its usefulness has
expired, has been cut up into 8 separate pieces and transported
via 7 tractor-trailers to Balıkesir, where it will serve as a restaurant.

Security vehicles escorted the trucks when then left Atatürk
Airport during the night. When the trucks reach Balikesir in 3
days the pieces will be reassembled for use as a restaurant at
the entrance to Edremit Kocaseyit Airport there.


Only turbulence might come from an earthquake.

Emin Ertemel of the firm that cuts up the planes said that "we
take planes whose lifespan has expired and have our 6-man crew
cut them up in 27 days.  We make sure that there's no damage
done to the plane's spine. The reassembly process takes 2.5 months.
We did one in Kayseri and now they want another one done."

Balıkesir businessman Ali Akbulut (59), who bought the plane,
explained that "I've been outside the country for 39 years. I
have restaurants abroad, too.  For the past three years I've been
in Turkey and I've had an idea to own a restaurant near an airport.
I have an interest in airplanes and the name I came up with is
'It flew, It flew Restaurant'. Hopefully, it will open in May."


Chicken wings the menu favorite for some reason.

As to the price he paid for the airplane, Akbulut declined to say.
There are other airplane restaurants in Kayseri and Tekirdağ.
The one in Kayseri is on the slopes of Ali Mountain in Talas
district. In Çankırı province, the municipality has converted
an Airbus 300 into a library to encourage reading among
children.


Edremit district is in extreme western Balıkesir province.