Turkish Airlines, which flies to more countries than any other airline in the world, is on quite the (aircraft) shopping spree at the moment. In September Turkish Airlines announced their intent to order 40 Boeing 787-9 aircraft. That announcement coincided with Turkey’s president visiting the US. I guess they figure that if they’re going to be spending that kind of money (at list prices, the deal is worth about 10 billion USD), they might as well get as much political leverage out of it as possible.
Rendering of the Turkish Airlines 787-9
While Turkish seems committed to the order, they still haven’t finalized it, so we don’t yet know what the delivery schedule looks like, etc.
It looks like this isn’t the only widebody order that Turkish is placing, though.
Turkish Airlines has also announced their intentions to order up to 25 Airbus A350 aircraft — this includes a firm order for 20 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, and then options for a further five aircraft. Much like with the Boeing order, this announcement coincided with a political trip, as Turkey’s president was visiting France’s president.
We’ve known for a while that Turkish was considering ordering A350s, so this order doesn’t come as a surprise. While Turkish’s intent is now official, the order hasn’t yet been finalized (meaning that they’re now in the negotiation stages), so we don’t yet know the timeline with which Turkish will be taking delivery of these planes.
Presently Turkish has a longhaul fleet consisting of A330s and 777s. They have a young average fleet age — their A330s are an average of about five years old, while their 777s are an average of about four years old. Short term there’s not a need to replace either plane type. Therefore it looks like both the 787 and A350 will be used to grow the airline, though my guess is that we’re not going to see Turkish take delivery of all 60-65 aircraft over the next few years. Rather I’d guess that this order will see deliveries over the next decade, meaning that in the short term the planes will be used for modest growth, and long term they’ll be used to replace the A330s and 777s.
While it looks like Turkish is serious about their orders with Airbus and Boeing, do keep in mind that neither order has been finalized, so things are subject to change.
What do you make of Turkish’s decision to order both 787s and A350s?
Istanbul is already logistically at a good place to be, so I can only see this as expanding their networks further to... New Zealand or Hawaii or Pacific-side Americas.
@AJO indeed TK is the airlines that serve flight to destination more than any airlines serve with 106 country in service. 2nd place is Lufthansa with 83 country, and 3rd place is BA with 78 country. A google search wont hurt
Lufthansa is a far behind second, followed by Air France and British
"Turkish Airlines, which flies to more countries than any other airline in the world"
I see you mentioning this very regularly, Lucky. What is the source? And which airlines, if TK is indeed number one, are numbers two and three?
@Martin, they arent competitors in the same market, only by the company that builds them. They cover different market shares. The 787 is closer in capacity to the a330 and the a350 is closer in capacity to the 777. Not direct competitors per say, but they are intended for those markets. The difference is the 787 is out now, and so is the a350, while the a330neo and 777x are still under development. That also...
@Martin, they arent competitors in the same market, only by the company that builds them. They cover different market shares. The 787 is closer in capacity to the a330 and the a350 is closer in capacity to the 777. Not direct competitors per say, but they are intended for those markets. The difference is the 787 is out now, and so is the a350, while the a330neo and 777x are still under development. That also probably explains why they are swapping Airbus and Boeing in these respective markets/capacity (ie: a330 to 787 and 777 to a350). This is why you see airlines operating both types in unison.
There is far behind to feed up new Istanbul airport
Biggest A350 has 10% more seats than the biggest B787, and its furthest range is nearly 1,000km more.
Call me "geek".
George
Aren't the 787 and the A-350 competitors?
In which case why would an airline use both?
Getting ready for expansion when the new airport in IST open October 29 this year?
http://www.aero.de/news-27624/Istanbul-Grand-Airport-oeffnet-im-Oktober-2018.html
The current IST airport is at capacity.
Most probably they are getting ready for the Australian market with the combination of A350/ B787.
For a direct flight.
Good for TK. The 787/A350 combo has proven to work wonderfully for airlines across the globe.