Turkish Airlines Reveals 28 Cities It Wants To Target

Turkish Airlines has disclosed 28 destinations that it is targeting from its Istanbul Airport hub. Some have been mentioned before, but not all. There are five in the Americas, ten in Europe, six in Asia-Pacific, and seven in Africa and the Middle East. There’s no indication yet when they’ll materialize, and it’ll be subject to aircraft availability and bilateral traffic rights. It doesn’t mean others won’t happen first.

More to the Americas

Turkish Airlines seeks to fly to Orlando, Detroit (previously mentioned), and Denver (previously mentioned). If and when they happen, the Star Alliance carrier will have 15 US routes, a key growth market for the carrier, using its own metal.

They’d join Atlanta, Boston, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas Fort Worth (started in September 2021), Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York JFK, Newark (May 2021), San Francisco, Seattle (May 2022), and Washington Dulles.

In South America, Turkish Airlines is keen to add Rio de Janeiro and Santiago, presumably on a one-stop basis, but that is unclear. It presently serves Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Caracas, and São Paulo across the continent. Elsewhere in Latin America, it has just launched its first-ever Istanbul-Panama nonstop flights.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

More to Europe and the CIS

In Europe, Turkish Airlines has singled out Bergen, Kraków, Iasi (Romania), A Coruña (close to Santiago de Compostela, which it served between May 2013 and June 2016), Lankaran (Azerbaijan), Makhachkala (Russia), Nantes, Newcastle, Palermo, and Timişoara (Romania) as key route targets. The French city of Nantes is interesting: it has been served by Transavia France since October 2019 with up to 3x weekly flights this winter.

Lankaran, Azerbaijan’s fourth-largest city and near the Caspian Sea, would be Turkish Airlines’ sixth destination in the CIS. It would join Baku (Azerbaijan), Batumi (Georgia), Ganja (Azerbaijan), Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan), and Tbilisi (Georgia). Notice no destination in Armenia. That’s due to the relations with Turkey, although limited flights to Yerevan are now operated by other carriers.

Image: GCMap.

Newcastle seems an obvious addition and would supplement service to the city by the likes of Air France, British Airways, Emirates (which recently celebrated 15 years of serving the Northeast England airport), KLM, and Lufthansa. Turkish Airlines would target Newcastle’s wider Turkey, Middle East, Asia, and African demand.

More to Asia-Pacific

In Asia-Pacific, Turkish Airlines seeks to add Atyrau (Kazakstan), Aktobe (Kazakstan), Penang (Malaysia), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Sialkot (Pakistan), and Sydney (often mentioned).

Istanbul-Atyrau is currently served by Air Astana and SCAT, while Aktobe is in the hands of SCAT. Unlike those operators, Turkish Airlines would focus on connecting the Kazakh cities to Europe and beyond. Indeed, Central Asia is an important region for the carrier, and not just because of historical ties.

This winter, it serves 13 cities in Central Asia: Aktau (Kazakstan), Almaty (Kazakstan), Ashgabat (Turkmenistan), Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Bukhara (Uzbekistan), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Fergana (Uzbekistan), Nur-Sultan (Kazakstan), Samarkand (Uzbekistan), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Turkistan (Kazakstan), Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan; charter flights), and Urgench (Uzbekistan).

Photo: via Turkish Airlines.

More to Africa and the Middle East

Like Central Asia, Africa, and the Middle East are exciting regions for Turkish Airlines as it has an increasingly broad network there. Some 49 cities in Africa are served this winter, along with 25 across the Middle East, the latter including brand-new Kirkuk, its sixth city in Iraq.

Brazzaville is notable. Across the Congo River from the enormous city of Kinshasa, served by Turkish Airlines for a decade, Brazzaville isn’t served yet by Emirates or Qatar Airways. In Emirates’ case, it’s due to its existing aircraft being too large, even though it is among Dubai’s largest unserved African markets. Turkish Airlines could gain a foothold before their inevitable arrival.

Where would you like Turkish Airlines to fly? Let us know in the comments.