Tag Archives: Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines announced its passenger and cargo traffic results for August. The flag carrier recorded 84.8 per cent load factor in this month despite the global shrinkage of demand in the aviation sector. Offering connections to more countries than any other airline from a single hub, the global carrier’s international-to-international transfer passenger numbers increased in record numbers with a 9.4 per cent increase compared to the same month of the last year. Continuing towards its goal of becoming one of the top five air cargo brands in the world with its Turkish Cargo brand, the flag carrier increased its Cargo / mail volume by 11.5 per cent compared to the same month of the last year. The national flag carrier maintains its two-digit growth numbers at air cargo market in its new home as well. According to August 2019 Traffic Results domestic load factor was 88.4 per cent and international load factor was 84.3 per cent. International passengers excluding the international to international transit passengers showed a decrease of 0.4 per cent in August. Main contributors to the growth in Cargo / mail volume were North America with 24.8 per cent, Far East with 12.2 per cent and Europe with 11.3 per cent increase. In August, domestic showed load factor growth of 0.6 points, while North America and Far East increased by 0.4 and 0.3 points respectively.

Turkish Airlines is helping more customers to capitalise on its global network with special discounted fares to destinations across Europe, the United States and Canada. UAE passengers flying out of Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah with the carrier can avail discounts on flights to selected cities across the airline’s North American and European network.  Passengers can benefit from generous discounts on flights to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington as well as Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, Milan, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Rome, Sarajevo, Stockholm, Venice, Vienna and Zurich. Discounts also apply to the airlines’ base city, Istanbul, as well as North African destinations Casablanca and Tunis. The offer is valid for passengers booking a flight between September 5 and October 10, 2019 and is valid for a travel period of September 6, 2019 to May 15, 2020. You can book your Economy ticket and fly from the UAE at incredibly low fares — Dubai or Abu Dhabi to Europe at AED 1,600, Sharjah to Europe at AED 1,510, Dubai or Abu Dhabi to the United States or Canada at AED 3,200, Sharjah to the United States of Canada at AED 3,000 and Sharjah to Istanbul Airport at AED 1,899.

Turkish Airlines, flying to more countries that any other airline, continues to enhance its flight network. The flag carrier has launched scheduled flights to Mexico City, the second biggest city of Latin America and capital of Mexico along with Cancún, one of the favorite holiday centres of Central America. The flights to Mexico City and Cancún, the 18th and 19th destinations of Turkish Airlines in Americas, will be operated three days a week on Istanbul-Mexico City-Cancún route starting from August 21, 2019. With these flights, Turkish Airlines adds Mexico, the biggest country of Central America, to its flight network, thus offering a connectivity opportunity to a greater area from Istanbul Airport. During the press conference held in Mexico City International Airport for the Mexico City and Cancún inaugural flights, M. İlker Aycı, Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee, Turkish Airlines, said, “We continue to expand the borders of our flight network within the framework of our growth strategy. Following Bali, we are happy to be able to connect these two important cities of Americas to 125 countries around the world. Our guests travelling to Mexico City and Cancún will be able to fly with the comfort of Turkish Airlines. We believe our new flights will strengthen the ties between Turkey and Mexico in every way.”  

Turkish Airlines’ cabin crew will now greet passengers with ‘welcome onboard’ dressed in new uniforms on long haul flights of the national flag carrier. The new cabin crew uniforms of Turkish Airlines, flying to the most countries in the world, were designed with the aim of celebrating the airline’s 85th anniversary and will be visible on the entire cabin crew on the long haul flights of the flag carrier. The new uniforms in flag-red and anthracite gray colours, which were rigorously tested on long-range flights in different climates, have been tailored to 25,000 employees in order for cabin crews to serve passengers comfortably. İlker Aycı, Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee, Turkish Airlines, said; “I believe that our brand’s presence in the skies will be much more impressive when the new cabin uniforms, which bear elements of our culture, are combined with the elegance of our cabin crews.” Italian haute couturier Ettore Bilotta designed the new cabin uniforms, which were specially sewn by Vakko, and the main fabrics were produced by Altınyıldız, based on the compliance of Turkish Airlines with flight standards.

Turkish Airlines and LOT Polish Airlines announced the enhancement of their current codeshare agreement with additional destinations both from Turkish Airlines’ and LOT’s flight network. “With the introduction of joint flights on several destinations in Poland, Turkey, Middle East and Africa, passengers would enjoy more travel alternatives through the combined flights. Without a doubt, this agreement will help in increasing the commercial and tourism ties of our countries,” said Bilal Ekşi, Deputy Chairman & CEO, Turkish Airlines. Joint flights will offer fast and convenient connections for customers leaving Istanbul, the biggest Turkish city and also an important flight hub in the world, to Warsaw and beyond. “ The enhanced partnership with Turkish Airlines will help us not only expand LOT route network and offer many new attractive destinations to our passengers but also improve connectivity and travel experience on existing codeshare routes beyond Istanbul, such as Ankara, Cairo or Amman,” said Rafal Milczarski, CEO & President of the Management Board of LOT Polish Airlines. Passengers will also enjoy both domestic and international connections from Istanbul. Moreover, taking into account the complementary structure of time-tables of both carriers and agreement working reciprocally, it will allow both airlines’ customers to enjoy seamless connectivity in their respective hubs. LOT Polish Airlines and Turkish Airlines passengers have also the benefit of accruing and redeeming miles in their respective loyalty programs, Miles&More and Miles&Smiles on all flights of both carriers.

Adding more countries to its portfolio, Turkish Airlines latest destination is the addition of the Republic of Congo’s second biggest city, Pointe-Noire to its flight network as its 58th destination in Africa. The national flag carrier will operate three weekly flights to Pointe-Noire with a connection in Libreville. With Pointe Noire, the port city next to Atlantic Ocean, Turkish Airlines expanded its flight network to 125 countries and 313 destinations. During the press conference held for the opening of Pointe-Noire frequency, Kerem Sarp, Turkish Airlines Senior Vice President for Sales (2nd Region), said, “With this inaugural Pointe-Noire flight, we increased our destinations to 58 in the continent of Africa. As the flag carrier of Turkey, we cement our position as the airline that flies to more destinations in Africa than any other airline in line with our growth strategy in this continent. Our new flights will offer new opportunities for us to increase our existing cultural connections in the Republic of Congo. We will continue to spread the Turkish hospitality and the continuous travel experience to a wider area in the future.”

It was the second consecutive year that RwandAir sponsored the EmQuest Cricket Mania event recently with other partners such as Turkish Airlines, Seychelles Tourism Board, Millennium Hotels Dubai, Flexible Autos etc. The two-day event saw a total of about 800 participants from the travel trade which included players, spectators etc. EmQuest Cricket Mania is a large scale event that witnesses the coming together of travel management giants in the industry to compete against each other for the ever rolling trophy. Built on the success of the previous year, EmQuest, a division of Emirates returned with their annual cricket championship tournament EmQuest Cricket Mania 2019 for all Sabre users across the UAE. With Turkish mega carriers, Turkish Airlines as the platinum sponsors and the fast rising giants in the aviation industry — RwandAir as the gold sponsors of EmQuest Cricket Mania 2019. Kanoo Travels were announced as the winners of EmQuest Cricket Mania 2019 and dnata emerged as the runners up. Timothy Njihia, Area Manager, RwandAir,  stated, “RwandAir has been a consistent sponsor of EmQuest’s Cricket Mania tournaments for the last two years, as the T-Shirt Sponsor and in 2019 as the Gold Sponsor. We sponsor the tournament during the event days, that is, the two  weekends that the tournaments last.  This partnership is very important to us as it is a top-of-mind brand awareness to the travel trade, with trade engagement through sports, that is, cricket in order to strengthen partnerships between stakeholders RwandAir, EmQuest & the travel trade.

Indonesia’s Bali is one of the most favoured destinations by the Middle Eastern traveller, hence Turkish Airlines has now made it part of its network by adding direct flights from Istanbul. Global carrier’s Istanbul-Bali direct flights will be operated as seven frequencies per week. Flying to more countries and international destinations than any other airline in the world, Turkish Airlines inaugurated its direct flights between its home base Istanbul and world-renowned tourist destination, Bali (Indonesia) on July 17, 2019. Having operated with the airlines’ first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, which joined to its ever-expanding fleet a few weeks ago, TK 066 coded first flight conducted with 84 per cent load factor and carried 250 passengers. Introductory flight fares are available from Istanbul to Bali starting at 748 US Dollars (including taxes and fees). Commenting on newly commenced Istanbul-Bali flights, Kerem Sarp, Senior Vice President Sales (2nd Region), Turkish Airlines, said, “With our new generation aircrafts continuing to join our fleet, we feel highly encouraged to launch new direct flights to farther destinations in the world. By inagurating direct flights to Bali, our second destination in Indonesia, we keep strengthening our mission to reach all corners of the world.”  

Consistently striving to increase the overall travel comfort of its passengers, the national flag carrier of Turkey now offers new travel kits specially designed by Versace, one of the leading representatives of fashion world, and Mandarina Duck specialised in travel products. Increasing its market share and number of passengers in the global aviation sector every year, Turkish Airlines has now started to welcome its Business Class passengers on intercontinental flights with the elegant and sophisticated designs of Versace sets as from July 2. Socks, earplug, sleep mask, warning stickers, Versace lip balm, hand lotion, facial mist and hairpin (in women’s sets only) are all placed within the sets in order to meet passenger’ needs in this respect during their travel. The other travel set offered for economy class passengers on intercontinental flights of the carrier as of July 3, is designed by Mandarina Duck, which is renowned for bringing innovative and functional solutions to travellers with its smart and unique designs. This set includes sleep mask, socks, earplug, lip balm, toothbrush and toothpaste. Attentive to present natural and high-quality dermocosmetic products to its passengers, Turkish Airlines also offers the products of Atelier Rebull, who has a deep rooted past dating back to 1895, in its new travel kits.

Turkish Airlines and Kuwait Airways announced a new strategic partnership, which saw Kuwait national carrier’s code added to Turkish Airlines flights, and Turkey’s national carrier’s code added to Kuwait Airways flights operated between Kuwait and Istanbul/Sabiha Gokcen Airports. The Bilateral Codeshare Partnership will commence from August 1, 2019. Turkish Airlines and Kuwait Airways’ cooperation is further strengthened by signing the renewed ‘Special Prorate Agreement’ in May 2019. The signing ceremony of this codeshare agreement took place on July 9, 2019 at Turkish Airlines Headquarters in Istanbul, and was attended by Bilal Ekşi, General Manager of Turkish Airlines, and Yousef Al-Jassem Al-Saqer, Chairman of Kuwait Airways, along with respective delegation from both airlines. Turkish Airlines General Manager, Bilal Ekşi, said he is pleased with the new codeshare agreement signed with Kuwait Airways and added that the agreement would not only contribute to the carrier’s existing commercial relations with Kuwait Airways but also offer alternative connections between Turkey and Kuwait for Turkish Airlines passengers. “Istanbul is the natural and historical connection point between Asia and Europe. With its brilliant performance over the last 16 years, Turkish Airlines holds the title of the airline that flies to the highest number of countries in the world with 124 countries. The opening of our new home base, Istanbul Airport will further contribute and create new opportunities for our airline and I firmly believe that this codeshare agreement will support promoting the cultural and commercial relations between Istanbul and Kuwait,” Ekşi added.