Turkish Airlines is already an incredibly global airline, and flies to more countries than any other airline in the world. The company has just outlined its strategy and targets for the coming decade, between 2023 and 2033. 2033 is significant, since it will be when Turkish Airlines celebrates its 100th anniversary. While it's anyone's guess…
Continue reading: Turkish Airlines Unveils Massive Growth Plans, Wants To Double In Size
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What ever happened to them flying to Australia? Seems like so much market they could capture for one stop travel between places in Europe or Africa and Australia that ME and Asian carriers can’t do
Pretty cool. I fully agree they should start flying to Australia. Would be great to have more competition down there.
I also would love to see TK invest in offering first class.
As a former top-tier elite on TK, they need to massively fix their frequent flyer program and IT department as well. Customer service too. I’m talking a complete overhaul. Getting upgrades is a huge ordeal involving prayers and extended time on the phone. Then you pray again that there are no schedule changes, as they tend to bump you out of your upgrade and you have to repeat the process all over again. Further, earned points should not expire. (Oh and if you used points for an upgrade on a flight past the point’s expiration, then they “refund” your points to your account due to a schedule change, they instantly expire upon hitting the account. )
All the hassle getting them to honor the terms of their FF program was just too much hassle for me, so I’ve stopped trying for TK status, much as I love the airline itself.
TK announced DEN service ages ago with no actual launch date scheduled. Wonder if they has now been scrapped or just permanent hold. I'd love to have TK as an option out of DEN.
In order to grow that much they're going to have to drastically improve their technology and customer service. The only airline in the industry with worse customer service right now is Avianca
Geographically, Turkey could not be better placed. They're just below Ukraine and nearly their entire route map can be flown without overflying either them or Russia. (even though they overfly Russia anyway).
They can basically fly anywhere (except New Zealand) nonstop, and they're willing to serve markets that aren't 'politically' palatable (like Syria or Somalia). If you're trying to fly from Bishkek or Urumqi to São Paulo or Caracas, Turkish will get you there with one stop. Imagine how many more markets (like Chile or Argentina) they could serve with an expanded fleet.
There's enough competition on that market. Just to name EK, QR, which in my opinion offers a much better Hard and Soft product, not to mention their airports.
The best part about this is, Turkey itself isn't exactly just a stopover destination like the rest of the gulf carrier bases are.. If this massive plan does materialize, there would be lots of more direct international flights from the likes of Antalya, Bodrum and Izmir which are all outstanding cities to visit... You can say as much bad as you want, the reality is.. Consumers will win.. That's why we should all hope this really happens.
TK: the international long haul ULCC par exellence! Service-wise, they are obviously a joke, but competition never hurts, even from bottom feeders.
TK is making an absolute fortune on flying to Russia. Multiple (tens) of widebody flights per day between Turkey and Russia, and fares are very high, since the majority of Western carriers ceded their market share to TK and Gulf carriers.
I fly Turkish Airlines a LOT - mostly in business class and sometimes in economy and while I am glad they are expanding; before they expand I would think they would need to focus on their soft product.
The Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 are aging and they need to update their fleet - their IFE system is extremely lacking and there is not enough content for even a 5hr flight. Their onboard service depends on the staff and their communication skills as not all staff are able to communicate in English or other languages (mostly just Turkish).
The staff on the ground in Istanbul airport also needs work - from the staff who are pushing the wheelchairs to staff in the business class lounge. Just building a lounge and a HUGE airport is not sufficient - investing in people power makes the difference and to me that is what Turkish Airlines lacks
As part of their massive growth plan, I hope Turkish Airlines announce flights to Australia in the near future. That’s the only hole that is left to be filled in their destinations network. On top of that, I hope Turkish Airlines continues to expand to new destinations worldwide.
Turkish flies to Buenos Aires, with a stop in São Paulo.
I hope that in the future they can fly to Rio de Janeiro or Santiago de Chile. Probably both destinations on the same flight, as Emirates already did.
Allegedly they also want to duplicate the new airport in Istanbul as well- basically mirror image!
@ Robert,
No one is geographically better situated than the 3ME Carriers. They can fly non-stop to anywhere in the world with the A/C's today in service.
Türkiye better hope they replace their dumb president with one that understands monetary policy. Double digit inflation of Turkish lira in each of the last 5 years. Nearing 20 percent now. Planes gonna be expensive unless they buy the bootleg ones from China that ripped tech from Boeing and soon, Airbus.
Only took 5 flights with them, 4 business and 1 economy, but that's been my experience as well. The food was just good but nothing ridiculously amazing out of this world that many including Lucky claim, the service was actually average to awful on all five flights. The product needs no comment - we all know 777s and A330s aren't good. The airport is pretty cool, for sure!
While I absolutely love Turkey, I don't really get the hype around Turkish Airlines. I'm yet to take a flight with them that's memorable or even "well, I enjoyed that."
A big question will be how TK's business plan anticipates Gulf hub competition, of which there is a lot. Good news though, have always been a fan of TK as a Star customer. They need to replicate the old Ataturk business lounge!
I just flew Turkish Airlines for my first time last month, a round trip from Washington, DC to Cairo with stop over in Istanbul. My flight was on a 777 and I loved it even if the aircraft is considered "out of date." The lay flat beds with no footwell allowed me to find a comfortable sleep position easily. Sleep is my #1 priority on an overnight flight.
I found the service to be excellent. Enjoyed the pre-flight lemonade. The flight crew came around and proactively offered to make up everyone's bed before the dinner service. People who were dining had the extra padding in place, and those of us electing to go right to sleep could do so. While I skipped dinner, the breakfast the next day was very good, and so was the dinner on our connecting flight from Istanbul to Cairo (though they ran out of the manti entree before they got to our row).
The lounge in the Istanbul Airport was excellent.
The only significant negative we experienced was with the Turkish Airlines check-in personnel at Dulles. There was apparently a problem with our reservation and the agent acted like this was probably our fault. (It was not.) I was definitely stressed thinking they weren't going to let us get on the flight, even though we had a confirmed reservation and seat assignments. The attitude was definitely not "I'm so sorry Mr and Ms BookLvr, but we seem to have a problem with your reservation" but instead "Why did you miss the earlier flight?" US: "We didn't miss the earlier flight. We're booked on the later flight. You can see it right here on your website." But after we cleared that initial hurdle, the journey itself was great.
Overall, I thought it was a terrific experience and hope to be able to fly them again.
Completely agree! One of the worst customer service experiences ever for me. I would add Air Canada to the top 3 list 🙂
This massive an expansion? In the midst of a growing climate emergency? Insane.
Just to give some context: none of this is realistic. This is about the upcoming presidential elections that will take place on May 14. The current dictatorial president is promising the sun and the moon before the elections. This is part of that propaganda.
Very hospitable service, as the Turks are known for. Food is some of the best I have had on any airline (better than Emirates and Etihad, IMO) but they should first look at upgrading their current THY fleet including business class seats. I also wish they brought back their Premier Economy as it was a fantastic value and experience.
Sadly, the current president of Turkiye has made a mess of the economy and the devaluation of their currency plus insane inflation has made it a miserable experience for the kind and hospitable Turkish people. Feel sorry for them.
I would really love to see Turkish Airlines fly to Australia soon.
We have a big Turkish and Cypriot-Turk diaspora who’d definitely take advantage of a direct link to Turkey.
And for Aussies going to Europe and Africa, this would be a perfect alternative to the Gulf Carriers. Istanbul is just a much nicer city to spend time in than Dubai or Doha.
And with a plethora of destinations to Europe and Africa, this would be a great option too.
But it would need to be a direct flight from IST to MEL and/or SYD to make it profitable. A stopover on the way to IST would just ruin the appeal.
And where are the 130 destinations they don't currently fly to that there is demand to TK to launch flights to??
Meh..the new ist airport is perfectly acceptable & no reason to not pick TK. I'm no fan boy but be realistic.
Could not agree with you more. I flew them once from BOS, and will never do it again. Delayed flight, overnighted us over an hour away, no information on what was going on, not enough food vouchers to go around, food on the flight was probably left over from the night before, once there, getting into the lounge with United status was so difficult and the lounge almost SRO, service in the airport was incredibly poor, and on and on. They did have the most direct flight to where I was going, though.
People still need to travel, if you’re worried about the climate emergency…. Sit at home all day and if you need to go somewhere you better walk.
Matt is spot on. Clearly this plans/ambitions are not even close to realistic.
I do understand that Turkish is looking very seriously at expanding their network to Australia and NZ, which would be a very welcome addition in the Pacific, and has great revenue potential for the airlines. The success of Emirates and Qatar suggests that Aussies are happy to skip the traditional stop over in Asia. Combine it with a strong (and justified) anti Qantas sentiment, and a string appetite for travel and I'd say this would be a great time for new airlines to enter the market (yes - I am looking at you El Al. You surely noticed that close to 50% of your Bangkok flights are Australian passengers connecting from Qantas). I
April 14, 2023
Booked tickets last month.
Now they say I have to pay $35 dollars for a seat!!!!
I said I don’t need to pay for a a seat assignment, I take any seat.
Their response was then I have to cancel!!
What the heck???
I understand a charge for requesting a particular seat (aisle or window) but when I don’t care then what the heck????
I already paid for the boarding ticket!!!
Creating more connecting banks allows them to grow using their existing network.
There are plenty long haul markets for TK to expand into but the volume growth has to come from growing the connecting banks. You need to start segmenting those banks rather than over-investing in ne wave.
No way they are going to grow to that size without a meaningful presence in India and that ain’t happening till there is a regime change in Türkiye, given Erdogan’s avowed anti-India stance geopolitically.
Yeah, because global aviation might then jump from 2.4% of worldwide carbon emissions, to 2.400000001%
We all better start living like cavemen to compensate!
Canary Islands for a start. Over 2 million people with European levels of wealth live down here and we have just one decent long haul flight (although whether United flying a 757 to EWR in Summer only called be called 'decent' is debatable).
I don’t know about how realistic those aspirations are but one thing I should say is it’s about time Turkish Airlines update their 777 and A330 business class seat. The inconsistency with the business class seat type in the wide body fleet (and the fact that neither of the two types of seats they primarily use are particularly great for long haul flights) really lets down what is one of the best soft products in the sky. I remember that earlier, they talked about a whole new business class seat to replace both of those seats due to passenger complaints about the newer seats, but I don’t know if anything will still come of that. Economy class on their 777s seems like about as good as you can get on a long haul flight though, especially since all of their 777s still use 9-abreast seating. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that if or when they renovate their 777s, they’re going to convert to 10-abreast.
Agree if they are looking to grow, Australia would be a logical first step as it's a much better stopover destination than the ME3 offer.
AKL - IST would be one of the longest flights in the world. Perhaps an SYD-AKL tag like Emirates used to do.
@ Chris,
IST-AKL wont happen anytime soon. Not one A/C can cross 9216nm non-stop today. Empty it would but surely not with a full payload. Besides, there are enough alternatives.
Matthew, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I can't help but wonder why then you are consuming possibly-not-green electricity reading an aspirational travel blog?
All of these comments indicate the need for jet fuel taxes and frequent flyer levies!
Seems to me the future of flight is longer distances at shorter durations, which would make connections less necessary and less valuable.
The new IST is nice, better then the two it replaced. I love TK lounges and their food. But I only want to transfer in Istanbul if I’m en route to Samarkand or Khartoum (I’ve always wanted to see an airport that torches airliners).
And what's the point of this article? It discusses something that may happen in the future with nothing concrete. Oh - probably paid to promote.