Since Dalaman opened in the 1980s, any vehicular traffic seeking entry has routinely been stopped and questioned as to their business and who they were picking up or setting down before being allowed to pass the checkpoint. As the new summer season gets into full swing, a reputed “crackdown” on private cars entering Dalaman is alarming local residents, many of whom want to pick up family or friends flying into Dalaman on international or domestic flights. There have been reports in local media sources of independent travelers being left outside the airport and having to walk to the terminal building because their vehicle was not officially registered as transport with permission to enter airport premises. Some arriving passengers, too, have reputedly found that private cars coming to collect them could not come to the terminal building.
Not only foreign residents, but also Turkish registered vehicles are under scrutiny. However, it seems that the latest target may be foreigners who drive the conspicuously licensed MA and MB plated vehicles.
Local residents whose tempers have long been tested by this cavalier position now find their patience wearing thin. Pensions who advertise on the Internet openly advise people not to take taxis from Dalaman because, they claim, drivers do not know the area and will frequently run fares to the wrong address. Others recommend that people resist pressure from drivers who vigorously insist that passengers take a long-distance ride when a local bus or dolmuş is more economical.
A local paper, the Fethiye Times, gave extraordinary advice to people wishing to access Dalaman. They say that anybody picking up people should not do so often enough that they are recognized by the gate personnel. Also they should take their driving license, passport and car papers (are they exiting Turkey?). They should answer security questions honestly in their best British accent, the newspaper counsels.
Travelers coming to Dalaman with any tour operators except the most prominent brand names are being advised to contact their travel agent before they leave for their holiday to ensure that they will be collected at the arrivals terminal. Taxi drivers from surrounding areas have always been wary about entering Dalaman territory. Several years ago, entrepreneurial drivers took to switching license plates from the 07 of the neighboring Antalya province to a 48 license, representing the Muğla province. For this they could expect, at the very least, a smashed windscreen or a slashed tire as an initial warning.
When asked about a fare to Dalaman, a Kaş taxi driver tossed his head and raised his eyebrows in the classic Turkish negative. Most Fethiye taxi drivers will no longer consider a fare to Dalaman. “I am married now and have a young son. I can’t risk a Dalaman run these days,” a long-standing taxi driver acquaintance who once took passengers into Dalaman stated.
Some local residents are bewildered. “Who has the authority to dictate who enters the airport or not?” a Kaş native and frequent flier, queried. Other travelers are indignant that an airport should operate this way.
“Passengers are the ones who pay airline fares, travel insurance, airport taxes and fuel surcharges. We are the ones contributing to airport revenue.”
Residents of Kaş or Kalkan are midway between Dalaman and Antalya and have a choice of airports. Dalaman is marginally closer but many opt for Antalya’s Bayındır Airport. This airport has, up until now, had a more mature attitude to taxis entering and collecting known acquaintances. However recently taxi drivers at this airport have begun keeping out “foreign” taxi drivers. A driver sent 180 kilometers by a Kaş family to collect a German musician friend late on Thursday night was told by the Antalya airport taxi syndicate that he could not take his fare out of the airport. The message is loud and clean, “Don’t send taxis anywhere from outside of Antalya.”
One taxi driver interviewed was frankly embarrassed by the hostile first impression a visitor may form from his first encounter with Turkey. He commented bitterly that there is now another kind of terror in Turkey -- syndicated taxi terror.
For beleaguered, weary passengers, customs, visas, passport control and luggage retrieval seem painless compared to running the gauntlet of airport custodians. Is it any wonder than many coastal residents refer to Dalaman Airport as Checkpoint Charlie, comparing it to the infamous border crossing between east and west Germany during the Cold War era?
