Turkish Airlines is one of my favorite airlines in the world, thanks in particular to their global route network, as the airline flies to more countries than any other airline in the world (which is a pretty cool title to have). Well, the airline has now announced their latest US destination.
This is a destination that has been rumored for a while, but they’ve now finally followed through on it.
Turkish Airlines will launch daily nonstop flights between Istanbul and Newark as of May 25, 2020. Technically this is a service resumption, as the airline operated the route nonstop until 1994, but I’d say a 25+ year service gap is pretty significant.
The airline will operate the flight using an A330-300, with the following schedule:
TK29 Istanbul to Newark departing 6:35PM arriving 10:30PM
TK30 Newark to Istanbul departing 12:25AM arriving 5:10PM
This Newark service is already bookable, though as of the time of this post I don’t see any award seats on the flight (though I imagine they are likely to be loaded soon). The flight will cover a distance of just over 5,000 miles, and is blocked at 9hr45min eastbound and 10hr55min westbound.
The A330 that will be used for this route will feature fully flat beds in business class, in a 2-2-2 configuration. While not the most cutting edge product, I find these seats to be comfortable, and ideal if traveling with a companion.
This new route complements Turkish Airlines’ extensive service to New York JFK, as the airline flies there up to 3x daily. Newark is a logical addition to their route network:
- While both JFK and EWR are convenient enough from Manhattan, a lot of people from outside the city have a strong preference for EWR
- Turkish Airlines is in the Star Alliance, so they’ll have significant connectivity at Newark thanks to United’s hub there (unfortunately the westbound flight isn’t well timed for connections out of Newark)
Turkish Airlines’ other US destinations include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York JFK, San Francisco, and Washington.
It’s expected that Turkish will add at least one other North American route in 2020, as the airline is expected to launch flights between Istanbul and Vancouver.
Anyone excited about Turkish Airlines’ new flight to Newark?
Nothing said about from which terminal the flight will be departed
I really hope Turkish Airlines (THY) can start flying from Newark, NJ (EWR) to Istanbul (IST). It is such an inconvenience to fly out of JFK to IST. There is nothing better than flying non-stop to your destination. Please THY come to Newark soon" 2020' Dont' make us wait any longer.
Not that related tintjes post but just got off the TK flight from Ist-Iah connecting from Beirut and the connection was a nightmare. Way to few lines took over 40 minutes basically had to jog to make the Houston flight. That airport is a mess. It would be very low on my list to ever connect at again.
They probably feel there is enough inbound Destination demand, and there is.
This flight is about India-IST-EWR traffic.
Finally! We Jerseyan flyers have been wanting this for a while. Always wondered why TK only flew from JFK when there is a big Turkish population in NJ especially Passaic + Bergen County).
Its great Turkish is adding another destination. Their service is great and they provide convenient connections to many destinations around the world.
Regarding timings with their Star Alliance partner, I have traveled with Turkish many times out of Houston - which is also their Star Alliance United's hub. The timings for the Turkish flight are well-timed for connections on the outbound (as their flight departs around 9pm so you can easily get to Houston) but...
Its great Turkish is adding another destination. Their service is great and they provide convenient connections to many destinations around the world.
Regarding timings with their Star Alliance partner, I have traveled with Turkish many times out of Houston - which is also their Star Alliance United's hub. The timings for the Turkish flight are well-timed for connections on the outbound (as their flight departs around 9pm so you can easily get to Houston) but on the return there are very few options for connections (especially, as in the case I have always flown them, we are late)
Why aren't Delta/United/American complaining about Turkish and Chinese Carriers for saturating the market in a similar vein to EY/EK/QR?
Yeah, for the 6.5 million plus people in North Jersey and for a lot of people on the west side of Manhattan and Staten Island, EWR is far more convenient to get to than JFK or LGA.
Yes, will add a new one stop option from EWR to TLV
@Matt
I for one really love their late night departures from the US, as it's the only way (for me) to get a good night's rest before landing in Europe. I really hate the standard 2-5 PM departures followed by a quick "redeye".
The timing of this flight is pretty bad for connections. I also noticed that many of TK’s eastbound departures to IST are very late from BOS, IAD, ATL, ORD, etc. I wonder what their strategy is for these late departures. Most of the time you get into IST around rush hour.
@LYNYC: I thought EWR was no longer slot controlled? Or, did you mean slots in IST?
@Kirk: TK is a Star Alliance carrier, so could you transfer points to Mileage Plus or LifeMiles and book that way?
If UR or MR could be transfer partners I'd be interested.
Hey Lucky. Further to your search for obscure airline experiences. You should try the Turkish flight to Nouakchott, in Mauritania (Chinguetti and the Ouadane Oasis are places to visit within Mauritania.) Then take a Binter Canarias CRJX flight, to Gran Canaria ; which is the major European gay holiday winter destination. (Or ...even catch the Mauritania Airlines flight (E75) to Gran Canaria.)
Hard to connect out of EWR when you land at 10:30pm.
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TK's IT, call center and Twitter are a joke. Look at the 787 seat map on their platforms. Shows only 3 seats in the even rows so you are unable to select the 2 center seats in these rows.
Calls to their call center and Twitter are absolutely adamant that there are only 3 seats in these rows. Whereas Expert Flyer/seat guru etc show the correct configuration.
Considering the cost of 4 J tickets it'd be nice to be able to select the seats you want.
EWR-IST is not a new announcement. It was announced in Spring 2019 to start by August 2019 but TK could not get the desired slots so it was delayed.
They’re also launching flights to Xi’an too