Turkish Airlines flies to more countries than any other airline in the world. One major gap in Turkish Airlines’ network is Australia, as the airline doesn’t even fly to the continent. Fortunately that’s going to change in the coming months, and flights are now on sale.
Why Turkish Airlines hasn’t flown to Australia
Turkish Airlines has scaled its network to the point that it can seemingly make just about any route work, offering one-stop connectivity between most major markets around the globe.
However, the airline has never flown to Australia. This ultimately comes down to the distance. The journey from Istanbul to Sydney would cover a distance of 9,300 miles, while the journey from Istanbul to Melbourne would cover a distance of 9,093 miles.
Both of these routes exceed the range of Turkish’s Boeing 787s. For context, Qantas does fly from Perth to London, which covers a distance of 9,009 miles (one of the longest flights in the world). The difference is that Qantas’ 787s are in a much less dense configuration, improving the plane’s range. Qantas’ 787s have just 236 seats, while Turkish’s 787s have 300 seats.
Turkish could fly from Istanbul to Perth, as that’s only a distance of 7,491 miles. However, I imagine the demand just isn’t there for the time being, especially without any Star Alliance airlines in Australia to offer connectivity.
It’s also worth noting that until late 2023, the air services agreement between Turkey and Australia limited Turkish Airlines to operating up to four weekly flights to Australia. However, that changed weeks ago, and the airline can now offer up to 21 flights per week to Australia, and that will increase to 35 flights per week by 2025.
Turkish Airlines’ new Istanbul to Melbourne route (via Singapore)
Turkish Airlines has just put its flights to Australia on sale. As of March 15, 2024, Turkish Airlines will launch 3x weekly flights between Istanbul and Melbourne via Singapore. These flights will operate with the following schedule:
TK168 Istanbul to Singapore departing 5:00PM arriving 8:45AM (+1 day)
TK168 Singapore to Melbourne departing 10:15AM arriving 7:40PM
TK169 Melbourne to Singapore departing 9:20PM arriving 2:50AM (+1 day)
TK169 Singapore to Istanbul departing 4:30AM arriving 10:40AM
To cover some of the basics about this service:
- The flight will depart Istanbul on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and will depart Melbourne on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays
- Turkish Airlines will use a Boeing 787-9 for the route for the first couple of weeks, prior to switching to an Airbus A350-900 as of April 2, 2024
- Turkish Airlines is treating the flight to Australia as a fifth freedom flight, so you can book Turkish Airlines exclusively between Istanbul and Singapore, exclusively between Singapore and Melbourne, or you can book the entire journey as a “direct” flight
- The nonstop distance between Istanbul and Melbourne is 9,093 miles, while this routing covers 5,394 miles between Istanbul and Singapore, and 3,744 miles between Singapore and Melbourne, for a total distance of 9,138 miles, so this routing adds only 45 miles to the direct air distance
- The flight from Istanbul to Singapore takes 10hr20min, the flight from Singapore to Melbourne takes 7hr20min, the flight from Melbourne to Singapore takes 7hr30min, and the flight from Singapore to Istanbul takes 11hr45min
Turkish Airlines has plans to add more Australia flights
It’s great to see Turkish Airlines finally launching service to a sixth continent. Some service is better than no service, but ultimately 3x weekly flights with a stop in Singapore will hardly be competitive to what other airlines can offer, at least for those not originating or terminating in Istanbul. Fortunately Turkish Airlines has ambitious plans.
In the future, Turkish Airlines is hoping to offer nonstop flights from Istanbul to both Melbourne and Sydney, and possibly even other destinations in Australia, like Brisbane and Perth. Furthermore, Turkish Airlines is hoping to increase frequencies to daily.
Turkish Airlines did recently place a massive aircraft order with Airbus, including for A350-900s and A350-1000s. If these jets are configured correctly, they should be able to fly these missions nonstop.
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines is finally adding flights to Australia, as the airline will fly from Istanbul to Melbourne via Singapore as of March 2024. The airline will initially fly 3x weekly, and this will be operated as a fifth freedom flight, meaning you can also fly with the Star Alliance carrier exclusively between Singapore and Melbourne
It’s great to see the world’s most global airline get even more global, though this isn’t exactly the most impressive service, in terms of both frequency and schedule. Here’s to hoping that over time, Turkish Airlines increases its service to Australia.
What do you make of Turkish Airlines’ new Melbourne flights?
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