Turkish Airlines has major growth plans, despite already being huge, and flying to more countries than any other airline in the world.
Continue reading: Turkish Airlines Orders Up To 75 Boeing 787s, Maybe 150 737 MAXs
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Is there any update on TK flying direct to Australia? Or has that been dropped
TK’s growth plans baffle me. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think there is any “single-hub” airline with a fleet of 800+ airplanes. UA, AA, DL, WN are all 800+ aircraft but operate over many large bases. Hell, even the European majors with 200-400 aircraft split their operations (LHR/LGW, CDG/ORY, FRA/MUC).
So how is TK going to operate a fleet of 800+ out of a single airport, or even two? IST is already unbearably large (30-45min walk between gates and no train system, frequent use of remote gates with airstairs, etc.). Where is all of this extra capacity going to go?
Terminal 2 is getting build in the near future as well as a satellite + additional runways. See Google Maps
As someone who has flown in and out of Istabul airport - it is complete rubbish. It is a massive airport that doesn't use its massive footprint very well. I was bussed (?) to and from two of my four flights - despite how massive it is. On top of that - they don't have a great service culture - so unlike Singapore/EK/QR etc, it is very hit and miss. They also don't do alcohol well (banned demostically and also in their domestic lounges) - it is a laboured effort to get a decent drop poured and then re-poured. It feels like they are just trying to push themselves as a hub, whilst the rest of the aviation world has developed the technology to by-pass them... That said SQ is a great reason to fly where-every you go 🙂
They fly via Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. But for the nonstop flights they are waiting for the A350-1000s to be delivered by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
Guessing the 150 Boeing 737 MAX order will be conditional on if or how many F-35s the State Department will allow Türkiye to purchase.
It would be 255 Boeing order logbook vs 265 for Airbus (190 Airbus A321neo, Airbus A350-900/-1000)
Turkiye have a plan to build T2 with 60Mpax? capacity and one satellite as 50Mpax? to eventually handle 200M passengers/year in far future.
I think part of the plans may be to use ADB, ESB, and AYT as minor hubs. They have quite a few direct fights to several European and Middle Eastern destinations on TK or AJet.
Leo, one has to agree with your final sentence. However, the remaining statements could well be taken with a pinch of salt. Istanbul has three major airports: ISL, IST, and SAW. Depending upon which airline you arrived and departed on, will determine if they remote park or go to an airbridge stand. The cheap airlines remote park, hence your bus ride. Hardly the fault of the airport authorities.
Alcohol is not banned in Turkey, wth?!
They just don't serve alcohol on domestic routes due to economics...
Yup, at the moment they don't have anything with the legs to reliably get back to Istanbul non-stop every time. The A35K will fix that.