Already ahead of the likes of Emirates, Lufthansa, and Air France – Turkish Airlines is set to continue their global expansion and will soon be ready to take on the ‘big four’ consisting of United, American, Delta and Air China. Having said publicly that they want to double their fleet by 2033, negotiations with Airbus have recently begun for a potential order of 355 new aircraft, with deliveries set to begin in 2026.
Expected to reach a total of 950 aircraft, Türkiye’s National Carrier is already the largest in Europe and flies to the most countries in the world using the new airport in Istanbul as its main base, which subsequently cost around $12bn USD to construct and helped solidify their claim as the Number One airline between London and the Far East nations.
The growth strategy now for Turkish Airlines, is to take on the US with flights to Detroit from Istanbul already having started on the 15th of November, with further routes next year targeting both Denver and Orlando. The USA is a key tourist target for Turkiye too, having already received 1.4m people from the US so far this year, compared with 1m the year before. Ahmet Bolat (Turkish Airlines Chairperson) stated that they’d like to double this figure next year, and set their eyes on Canada in the near future.
Speaking after an event to celebrate the first flights into Denver, Bolat also highlighted the upcoming changes to the cabin configuration which would now use home-made Business and economy seats given that it would be more economical to produce them in-house. Testing is currently underway to ensure safety and performance with the seats to be delivered in line with the new aircraft from Airbus.
Negotiations are also being held with the other major Airline company, Boeing, which currently supply the Sun Express brand which is a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. Sun Express currently has its operations in Antalya and is set to increase its fleet to 150 aircraft in line with plans to increase Antalya’s airport capacity.
Bolat ended his talk by highlighting the importance of Tourism saying that ‘Now, wherever we go, we are not just advertising Turkish Airlines but also Türkiye. Natural beauty is everywhere, but Türkiye is where history and civilization began.
