Turkish Airlines plans new routes to Asia, North America next year

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) plans to expand its network by launching flights to new destinations in Far East nations, such as Japan and China, as well as the U.S. and Canada next year when a third runway at Istanbul Airport becomes operational, the carrier’s board chair, İlker Aycı, told Anadolu Agency.

“We have obtained permission to launch flights to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. We will also resume flights to Osaka in Japan in April 2020,” he said, adding that THY is working to enter new markets.

“We hope to launch flights to Xian in China as soon as possible. We want to open more routes to destinations in Asia, particularly in China.”

Aycı said Newark Airport in the U.S. is back on the carrier’s radar and THY also plans to fly to Vancouver depending on market conditions and plane availability.

“We received 6 B-787 jets this year and in addition to this 9 B-787 and 5 A350 jets will be delivered in 2020 which will help us execute our plans to open new routes.”

Aycı noted that as of Dec. 5, THY will launch flights to Finland’s Rovaniemi and the number of weekly frequencies to Muscat (in Oman) will be increased to 10 from the current seven next month.

“In the summer season, we will also increase the number of flights to Los Angeles, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to 11 from seven, while we will have 10 flights to Washington D.C, up from seven,” Aycı said.

In January-September this year, the carrier served a total of 56.4 million passengers.

THY flew to a total of 316 destinations with a fleet of 344 jets as of end September, up from 304 destinations a year ago.

The carrier targets 76 million passengers this year.