Summary

  • Turkish Airlines plans to begin flying to Santiago de Chile this December.
  • It seems it will operate four weekly flights via São Paulo.
  • It will become its ninth passenger destination in Latin America.

Turkish Airlines intends to add Santiago de Chile to its network. It revealed the city in the public disclosure area of its investor relations website, where the carrier must legally disclose coming routes. More broadly, Santiago has been repeatedly disclosed in various presentations. While nothing has been officially announced as of July 29, things can be pieced together. However, they are subject to change.

Turkish Airlines to Santiago

While not yet confirmed, the Star Alliance member will arrive in Chile on December 12. This will be during the Southern Hemisphere’s peak summer and timed to capitalize on Christmas demand.

According to Brazil’s Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC), flights will operate via São Paulo Guarulhos with fifth-freedom traffic rights. A four-weekly Airbus A350-900 operation is expected.

As you will appreciate, it is speculation until the airline officially announces it.

Turkish Airlines has had passenger flights to São Paulo since 2009. It has 11 weekly flights, seven of which continue to Buenos Aires and four of which are terminators. As it is unlikely that São Paulo frequencies will increase, they’ll be extended to Santiago. Some websites have disclosed a possible Santiago schedule, but the timings are well off and are not detailed here.

Key Santiago markets

Based on not flying too far out of the way from Istanbul, booking data suggests an opportunity for Turkish Airlines of around 147,000 roundtrip Santiago passengers (201 passengers daily each way). Of course, it will get only a fraction of this market, hence the São Paulo stopover.

If Italy is added, the potential pool could grow to 200,000+. However, flying to Rome, by far the primary market, via Istanbul adds 11% more distance than ITA Airways’ non-stop services. Given two stops and a much longer journey time, Turkish Airlines would have to offer big discounts to attract Italian passengers more meaningfully.

Turkish-Airlines-Airbus-A350-941-TC-LGC

Photo: Turkish Airlines

Yet, very few Turkish Airlines’ Buenos Aires passengers continued to/from Italy in 2023, suggesting it won’t be important for Santiago. In contrast, Asia was significant, which is likely to be the case for Santiago. That is despite Santiago’s one-stop options via London Heathrow, Paris CDG, the US, and elsewhere, along with two-stop service via Buenos Aires and Amsterdam with KLM.

Ignoring Italy, Santiago-Tokyo was the largest city-level origin and destination. The rest of the top 15 were Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Athens, Seoul, Hong Kong, Beijing, Dubai, Manila, Bangkok, Warsaw, Johannesburg, Delhi, Prague, and Cairo. Once Turkish Airlines has started flying to Chile, it will be good to see where its passengers went.

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Which do you think feature?

Ninth Latam passenger destination

They are shown below. The information is accurate as of July 29 but may change.

  • Istanbul-Bogota: daily (non-stop from Istanbul; continues to Panama City before flying back to Istanbul)
  • Istanbul-Caracas: daily (four flights via Havana inbound, three non-stop; all flights back to Istanbul are non-stop); rises to eight weekly in the winter, five via Havana inbound
  • Istanbul-Cancun: 11 weekly (stops in Mexico City inbound, non-stop to Istanbul outbound)
  • Istanbul-Buenos Aires: daily (via São Paulo in both directions)
  • Istanbul-Havana: four weekly (non-stop from Istanbul, via Caracas back); rises to five weekly in the winter
  • Istanbul-Mexico City: 11 weekly (non-stop inbound, via Cancun outbound)
  • Istanbul-Panama City: 10 weekly (daily via Bogotá inbound and three weekly non-stop; all 10 flights to Istanbul are non-stop)
  • Istanbul-Santiago: four weekly (via São Paulo in both directions)
  • Istanbul-São Paulo: 11 weekly (continues to Buenos Aires daily and Santiago four weekly)

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