Summary
- Turkish Airlines has expanded rapidly in the US and now offers double the capacity of its pre-pandemic network.
- The carrier wants to make its newly-launched Denver route a daily flight.
- TK plans to serve up to 20 US destinations in the foreseeable future.
Turkish Airlines has established a major foothold in the US within the past couple of years, more than doubling its pre-pandemic capacity this summer. Simple Flying had the opportunity to speak with Turkish Airlines Chairman Professor Ahmet Bolat at the recent Farnborough International Airshow (FIA 2024) to uncover the airline’s plans for its US network moving forward.
Turkish Airlines eyes more US growth
Before the pandemic, Turkish Airlines operated around 75 weekly flights to nine US destinations, with its most frequent being a triple-daily to New York JFK. Fast-forward five years, and the carrier has doubled the number of weekly flights to over 150 and added another five US cities to its network.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
And the growth won’t stop there – having inaugurated its new service to Denver (DEN) last month, the carrier has already upped its weekly frequencies to Denver from three to four flights and set its sights on making this a daily flight. According to Bolat, “the numbers are excellent” on this route, and Denver will be a priority for added frequencies once it has the available aircraft.
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Once this happens, the carrier will then look to other well-performing routes, including Detroit (DTW), which is its second-most recent US network addition launched in November 2023.
14 US destinations for now
As per Cirium data for August, TK will serve 14 destinations in the US this summer, the vast majority of which (excluding Denver and Detroit) are at least daily flights:
|
Destination |
Weekly Flights |
|---|---|
|
Atlanta (ATL) |
10 |
|
Boston (BOS) |
7 |
|
Chicago (ORD) |
14 |
|
Dallas (DFW) |
7 |
|
Denver (DEN) |
4 |
|
Detroit (DTW) |
6 |
|
Houston (IAH) |
10 |
|
Los Angeles (LAX) |
14 |
|
Miami (MIA) |
11 |
|
Newark (EWR) |
7 |
|
New York (JFK) |
28 |
|
San Francisco (SFO) |
12 |
|
Seattle (SEA) |
7 |
|
Washington (IAD) |
14 |
As Simple Flying reported last month, the carrier has set its sights on flying to up to 20 US destinations, with additions like Charlotte, Minneapolis, Orlando and Philadelphia on the cards. Bolat hinted that the airline would aim for “at least daily” flights for its entire US network, given how important the market is for TK.
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Flights have doubled since 2019.
One of the driving factors behind its rapid growth in the US is the Turkish Minister of Tourism’s plan to attract up to five million tourists annually into Turkey – the airline will eventually need to triple its capacity and then some to meet this target, currently bringing in around 1.5 million tourists per year.
Despite its ramp-up in seat capacity, TK’s international network is currently seeing an average load factor of almost 80%, which is less than what it was achieving last year. The onboard experience with Turkish Airlines is about to get a major boost after the carrier revealed it would offer free, unlimited WiFi across its entire fleet as part of a deal with state-owned satellite firm Türksat.