Turkish Airlines plans to launch flights to New Zealand

ISTANBUL

Shortly after expanding its network to Sydney, Australia, Turkish Airlines has unveiled plans to launch flights to New Zealand.

Ahmet Olmuştur, chief commercial officer at Turkish Airlines, has held talks in New Zealand to that end.

Flights to the country, however, are not expected to start in 2025 but at a later date.

Olmuştur is also working to add a new destination to the carrier’s network in China.

Turkish Airlines landed in Sydney on Nov. 29, providing the company’s second connection to Australia following its earlier inauguration of Melbourne flights this year.

With Sydney, which marked the carrier’s longest flight, the number of destinations Turkish Airlines flies to worldwide reached 351.

Speaking about the route to Sydney, Bilal Ekşi, the CEO of the carrier, said that the delays in plane deliveries and other issues with plane makers are causing problems for Turkish Airlines and that the company is working to overcome those problems.

At least 35 aircraft are grounded due to the issues with the engines of A320 planes. Ekşi expressed uneasiness about the impact of this problem on the carrier’s operations even though they received compensation from the engine manufacturer.

Yet, Ekşi reiterated that despite those problems they stick with their 10 percent growth target.

Ekşi told reporters that they had suffered losses due to the events in the Middle East, but they had increased their passenger numbers on other routes, which helped the company boost its profitability.

In the first 9 months of 2024, Turkish Airlines posted a net income of $2.7 billion with revenues rising 7.8 percent annually to $17.01 billion.

From January to October, the company carried a total of 72.2 million passengers, up 1.3 percent from the same period of 2023.