In August, Turkish Airlines unveiled new expansion plans following positive earnings, including adding six cities in Europe, three in Africa, two in Asia, two in North America and one in the Middle East. In a new report in September, the company revealed fourteen additional destinations it is looking to add in the medium term.
See also: Turkish Airlines adds 14 destinations in four regions after profitable half year
Turkish remains the airline with the most destinations worldwide, connecting 53 Turkish cities and 287 on four continents.
The report also highlights that it is the eighth-largest carrier, with 2.6% of global capacity (measured in offered seat kilometers, ASK) between January and September, when in 2019 it had 1.6%. In terms of passengers mobilized, it is in second position with 51,107,859 travelers.
The expansion will be accompanied by the entry of 196 aircraft over the next five years: 59 wide-body (Airbus A350-900 and Boeing 787-9) and 137 narrow-body (A321neo).
New destinations
In the August report they had revealed that they would fly to Aswan in Egypt; Hargeisa in Somalia; Port Sudan in Sudan; Detroit and Denver in the United States; Abha in Saudi Arabia; Lankaran in Azerbaijan; La Coruña in Spain; Nantes in France; Palermo in Italy; Krakow in Poland; Makhachkala in Russia; Atyrau in Kazakhstan and Sialkot in Pakistan.
Orlando (MCO), United States.
In the last year, the company added three destinations in the United States: Newark (EWR) in May 2021, Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) in September 2021 and Seattle (SEA) in June 2022.
It also operates at Atlanta (ATL), Boston (BOS), Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO) and Washington/Dulles (IAD), totaling 210 flights per week with 67,000 seats on offer.
In North America, including Canada and Mexico, it accumulated 2,587,116 passengers in the first seven months of 2022.
Europe
Turkish’s main international market is Europe, accounting for 33% of the total with 17,093,745 passengers carried.
In addition to the six announced European destinations, they add:
- Bergen (BGO), Norway.
It would be the company’s second destination in Norway, currently operating two daily flights to Oslo (OSL).
- Newcastle (NCL), United Kingdom.
This would be Turkish Airlines’ seventh destination in the United Kingdom. It currently operates to London/Heathrow (LHR) with 37 weekly flights, London/Gatwick (LGW) with 14 weekly flights and London/Stansted (STD) with 14 weekly flights; Manchester (MAN) with 14 weekly flights; Birmingham (BHX) with 9 weekly flights and Edinburgh (EDI) with seven weekly flights.
- Iași (IAS) and Timișoara (TSR), Romania.
Both destinations play an important economic role for Romania, with growing industrial and technological activity. They are Wizz Air bases and currently have no scheduled flights to Turkey. Iași has an important wine sector and Timișoara accounts for 80% of Romanian tourism.
Turkish Airlines operates three daily flights Bucharest (OTP); one daily to Cluj/Napoca (CLJ) and three weekly flights to Constanta (CND).
Africa, Asia, Middle East and landing in Oceania
In Africa, it will seek to reach two new countries, with Monrovia (ROB), Liberia, in West Africa, and Brazzaville (BZV), Republic of Congo, in Central Africa.
In the Middle East, Turkish Airlines would add a second destination in Oman with the resort city of Salalah (SLL). The company already operates in Muscat with nine weekly flights.
In Asia, the Turkish carrier plans to land a sixth destination in Kazakhstan, with Aktobe (AKX). It currently flies to Nur-Sultan (NQZ), Almaty (ALA), Turkistan (HSA), Aktau (SCO) and, soon, Atyrau (GUW).
In Malaysia they will add a second destination with Penang (PEN) and land in Cambodia with Phnom Penh (PNH).
For the first time in a report, Turkish Airlines showed interest in entering the Australian market with Sydney (SYD). The company does not have aircraft suitable for an ultra long-haul flight, given that between Istanbul and SYD there are 14,967 kilometers, so in case it materializes it would rank as the third longest route in the world.
Two new destinations in South America
The last destination inaugurated in South America was Bogota (BOG), Colombia, in May 2016 triangulating with Panama City (PTY) with three weekly flights on Airbus A330-200 aircraft.
Bogota is currently operated with one daily flight with Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Turkish also operates one daily flight to Caracas (CCS), Venezuela, with Boeing 787-9; four weekly flights to Buenos Aires/Ezeiza (EZE), Argentina, with Airbus A350-900; and São Paulo/Guarulhos (GRU) with eleven weekly flights on Airbus A350-900.
According to the report, they will seek to add a second destination in Brazil with Rio de Janeiro (GIG) and will land in Santiago (SCL), Chile.
South America, together with Central America and the Caribbean, is the region with the lowest passenger movement in Turkish’s network of destinations, representing 1% of the total, with 586,969 travelers.
