Turkish Airlines flies to more countries than any other airline in the world. Historically, the biggest gap in the carrier’s network has been the South Pacific. Back in March 2024, the airline added its first service to Australia, as it started flying from Istanbul to Melbourne via Singapore. The airline is now adding a second route to Australia…
Turkish Airlines launching flights to Sydney, Australia
As of December 4, 2024, Turkish Airlines will be launching flights from Istanbul (IST) to Sydney (SYD) via Kuala Lumpur (KUL). Specifically, the service will operate 4x weekly with the following schedule:
TK174 Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur departing 3:15PM arriving 6:20AM (+1 day)
TK174 Kuala Lumpur to Sydney departing 7:40AM arriving 6:30PM
TK175 Sydney to Kuala Lumpur departing 8:40PM arriving 1:55AM (+1 day)
TK175 Kuala Lumpur to Istanbul departing 3:55AM arriving 10:15AM
Turkish Airlines will use an Airbus A350-900 for the route. The eastbound journey is blocked at 19hr15min, while the westbound journey is blocked at 21hr35min.
The entire routing covers a distance of 9,301 miles, with the first sector covering a distance of 5,212 miles, and the second sector covering a distance of 4,088 miles. Impressively enough, the stop in Kuala Lumpur adds only a single mile to the direct air distance between Istanbul and Sydney (though it adds around three hours of travel time, give or take).
The airline is using one of its existing Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur services for this new routing, meaning that overall capacity between Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur is remaining unchanged, with 14 weekly flights. The Kuala Lumpur to Sydney flight will be a fifth freedom service, meaning passengers can travel exclusively between Malaysia and Australia on Turkish Airlines.
Sydney is now Turkish Airlines’ furthest destination, in terms of distance from Istanbul. It beats out Melbourne and Santiago, which are the two other longest destinations (both also served via fifth freedom service).
Turkish Airlines aims for nonstop Australia flights in 2026
As you can see, for now Turkish Airlines is serving Australia via two fifth freedom flights. However, the airline has plans to improve the journey in the future. Specifically, Turkish Airlines plans to fly nonstop from Istanbul to Sydney as of 2026, and nonstop to Melbourne as of 2027.
Turkish Airlines has a massive number of new jets on order, and the nonstop service will be possible once the airline takes delivery of Airbus A350-1000s. These planes should be a treat — not only is the A350-1000 an incredibly capable plane, but they’ll also have Turkish Airlines’ new business class product.
It’s an exciting time for ultra long haul flights to and from Australia, given that Qantas is also expected to start its “Project Sunrise” flights, which will see the airline flying nonstop from Sydney and Melbourne to New York and London. These flights will be operated using modified Airbus A350-1000s, with some very comfortable interiors.
Bottom line
As of December 2024, Turkish Airlines will add service to Sydney, as the airline launches 4x weekly flights via Kuala Lumpur. It’s awesome to see Turkish Airlines expanding in the South Pacific, though it’ll be even cooler once the airline is able to operate these flights nonstop.
What do you make of Turkish Airlines adding flights to Sydney?
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