Turkish Airlines is renowned as the airline that flies to the most countries and has held the bragging rights for over a decade. Last month, it was made official when it was recognized by Guinness World Records, earning the title “Most Countries Flown by an Airline” following the launch of the airline’s new route to Santiago, Chile. The airline now serves 131 countries (including temporarily disabled routes), which is two-thirds of the recognized countries in the world.

Turkish-Airlines-Airbus-A350-941-TC-LGC-(2)

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

The competition isn’t even close: The next best is Qatar Airways, which flies to 84 countries, Air France 83, British Airways 79, and Emirates 77. The US carriers are not even in the frame, with United Airlines closest at 73 countries. But by Turkish Airlines’ own admission, it still has much more to achieve. According to its most recent reporting, it only ranks 9th in terms of global market share (2.3%), and while it has grown that market share faster than any other airline over the past decade, it is still a long way off catching the leader, United Airlines (4.3%).

Many Turkish Airlines Planes parked and taxiing at Istanbul Airport.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

So, let’s take a closer look at Turkish Airlines’ record-breaking network, what it has planned for the new year ahead, and its longer-term strategy to continue its record growth.

An overview of the record-breaking network

We took a deep dive into data from Cirium, a global analytics company, looking at every flight that Turkish Airlines currently has planned for 2025. This forms the basis for the analysis contained in this article. A word of caution, though: This is forward-looking planning data, and it will likely differ marginally from reality based on subsequent changes to variables such as destinations, frequencies, and fleet.

Turkish Airlines 777-300ER shutterstock_2137241587

Photo: JetKat | Shutterstock

As it stands, Turkish Airlines is set to undertake over 378,000 flights this calendar year, which averages out at more than a thousand a day. Astonishingly, it will offer more than 76 million seats this year, or over 200,000 every day, which equates to an average of over 200 seats per flight. It will do all this while flying to more than 350 destinations in over 130 countries.

Turkish Airlines in 2025: Year at a glance

Total number of flights:

378,050

Average daily flights:

1,036

Total number of seats:

76,177,571

Average daily seats:

208,706

Average seats per flight:

202

Countries served:

131

Destinations:

352

Domestic / International split:

27% / 73%

Narrowbody / Widebody split:

75% / 25%

Istanbul: The ultimate network hub

At the heart of Turkish Airlines’ is Istanbul, the ancient city that straddles the Bosphorus. In 2025, 98.8% of all Turkish Airlines flights will either originate or terminate at Istanbul Airport (IST), which the airline moved to from the old Atatürk Airport in 2019. Just as Atlanta is a fortress hub for Delta Air Lines, so is Istanbul for Turkish Airlines, although it has an even greater stranglehold as it has 80% of all flights at the facility.

Istanbul

Photo: Istanbul Airport

It is a world-class facility that handles 80 million passengers annually, with growth plans to reach 200 million annually. However, its geographic location is the most significant benefit from an aviation perspective. Situated at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, over 100 countries making up half of the world’s population are within reach of Turkish Airlines’ narrowbody fleet of Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 family aircraft.

Turkish Airlines Airbus A321 at IST shutterstock_2153428023

Photo: EvrenKalinbacak | Shutterstock

Istanbul affords Turkish Airlines the same advantage enjoyed by the large Gulf carriers of being an ideal connecting hub between continents. On average, flying between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East / Asia via Istanbul adds only 12% to flight distance over direct flights. But, of course, connecting unique city pairs that lack direct connections, whether it is Birmingham to Beirut or Kraków to Karachi, and then tailoring the frequencies using efficient narrowbodies has been the primary driver of Turkish Airlines’ phenomenal growth.

The Turkish Airlines fleet in 2025

Flying to so many destinations requires a substantial fleet, and Turkish Airlines uses a wide range of narrowbodies and widebodies from both Airbus and Boeing. As we start 2025, it has a fleet of 370 aircraft, and its flight plans for the year have the Airbus aircraft being used for 60% of the flights and 62% of the available seats.

Turkish Airlines Airbus A321neo

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

Its A321 fleet is its most used type, accounting for 33% of all flights in 2025 (123,500 flights), while the most-used widebody type will be its A330s, which are scheduled for more than 48,000 flights (or 14% of the total).

Turkish Airlines passenger fleet: January 2025

Type

Number in fleet

Average age (years)

A319

6

13.6

A320

18

14.7

A321

66

12.4

A321neo

54

3.3

A330-200

22

14.4

A330-300

37

11.0

A350-900

24

2.2

B737-800/900

55

10.4

B737 MAX 8/9

29

5.8

B777-300ER

36

11.7

B787-9

23

4.0

Total

370

9.1

It should be noted that in addition to these aircraft, Turkish Airlines also operates a fleet of 25 cargo aircraft. AJet, its wholly-owned low-cost subsidiary, also operates a fleet of 92 narrowbodies, with plans to have more than 200 in operation by 2033.

AJ13

Photo: AJet

Related

AJet: What Do You Need To Know About Turkish Airlines’ Low-Cost Subsidiary?

The newly formed LCC has lofty goals to become a dominant force across the region.

Turkish Airlines expects its fleet to grow 8-10% in 2025, depending on the manufacturer’s ability to keep to schedules. At the time of writing, it currently has over 270 new aircraft on order, including:

  • A321neo: 163 aircraft on order, including the additional order for 150 of the type with 100 options placed in December 2023. However, a good number of these will likely be transferred to AJet.
  • A350-900: 66 aircraft are still on order, taking the total fleet size to 90.
  • A350-1000: The airline has 15 of the larger A350 variant on order, with deliveries set to begin later this year. These will be deployed on ultra-long-haul routes.
  • B737 MAX 8: Turkish Airlines is still awaiting delivery of 21 of the type. It is reportedly negotiating with Boeing for an additional 150 MAX jets, but engine costs are holding this up.
  • B787-9: The airline still expects 7 B787-9s delivered and is considering adding 75 more as part of the order with Boeing for MAX jets (see above).

Highlights of the route network

With so many routes, it is impossible to adequately report on the entirety of Turkish Airlines’ route network, but key highlights include the following:

The longest routes: The Americas

Despite the breadth of its network, Turkish Airlines isn’t part of the top 30 list of longest routes, which are all over 8,000 miles and have 16 hours of flight time. The airline’s longest routes are to the Americas, with the top five non-stop destinations from Istanbul being:

  • Mexico City (7073 miles): Turkish Airlines’ longest flight is to the Mexican capital, with an outbound flight time of 15 hours. The airline operates 10 flights a week using its B787-9s.
  • Los Angeles (6833 miles): There are twice-daily flights to LAX throughout the year, using a combination of A350-900s, B787-9s and B777-300ERs. Turkish Airlines will provide 236,000 seats to the largest US city on the West Coast.
  • Panama City (6718 miles): Turkish Airlines flies to the Panamanian capital three times a week. It currently utilizes B787-9s, which will be upgraded to A350-900s later this year.
  • San Francisco (6686 miles): Istanbul has 11 weekly connections to the City by the Bay, and like the LAX route, a combination of A350-900s, B787-9s, and B777-300ERs are used.
  • Bogotá (6663 miles): Turkish Airlines currently provides daily service to the Colombian capital using its B787-9s, but this will be upgraded to A350-900s later this year.
TC-JJS Turkish Airlines Boeing 777-3F2(ER) (3)

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

This will all change in a few months as Turkish Airlines takes delivery of its first A350-1000s, which it plans to utilize on its growing network to Australia and New Zealand. The carrier currently uses its A350-900s to fly to Sydney four times a week with a stopover in Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne three times a week with a stopover in Singapore. These will be converted to direct flights with the longer-range A350-1000, and once in place, the route to Sydney at 9,280 miles will become the world’s third-longest flight, ahead of Qatar Airways’ route from Doha to Auckland.

Related

What Are The Main Differences Between The Airbus A350-900 & A350-1000?

For airlines, the difference is more about the capacity, especially in the premium cabin, rather than the range differential.

The busiest routes: Ankara and London

Unsurprisingly, the busiest route in the Turkish Airlines network is from Istanbul to the nation’s capital, Ankara. Throughout 2025, the airline will fly an average of 28 daily flights between the two cities, using its full complement of narrowbody types as well as B777-300ERs, A330-300s, and B787-9s.

A Turkish Airlines 787-9 taxiing to the runway.

Photo: EvrenKalinbacak | Shutterstock

Its busiest international route is from Istanbul to London Heathrow, with 12 daily flights between Istanbul and the largest UK airport. Turkish Airlines would dearly love more slots at Heathrow, and a sign of demand outstripping supply is that despite it being a classic narrowbody route at 1,500 miles, two-thirds of its IST-LHR flights will be operated by widebodies such as the B777-300ER and A350-900. Even that is not enough, and it will also fly an average of 6 daily flights to/from London Gatwick, meaning that it will operate over 6,500 flights to the London area throughout 2025, offering nearly 800,000 seats in total for the year

GettyImages-876779430 Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 Getty

Photo: Getty Images

New routes and key growth points

The US market has been a key growth point for Turkish Airlines in recent years, and the carrier now offers more than double the capacity of its pre-pandemic network, with over 150 flights a week to 14 US destinations. When Simple Flying recently spoke to Turkish Airlines’ Chairman, Ahmet Bolat, he was very buoyant about continued growth in the Americas:

“We have seen strong growth and high load factors on our US routes, which encourages us to grow our investment into this important market. My expectation is that we will soon see 20 routes to the US, with all of them having at least a daily flight.”

Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 At Frankfurt Airport

Photo: Vytautas Kielaitis/Shutterstock

We expect to see new destinations such as Charlotte, Minneapolis, Orlando, and Philadelphia added to the US route network. Turkish Airlines has also stated its intent to open new routes to Lima and Rio de Janeiro following the successful launch of its Santiago route late last year. All this growth in the Americas is unsurprising, given that the region now accounts for a quarter of all revenue.

Turkish Airlines Boeing 777-300ER cropped

Photo: Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines’ expansion in its traditional markets is not slowing down either. In its most recent quarterly results, the airline announced its intention to add nine European destinations, including Glasgow, Newcastle, and Nantes. It will also add seven new routes to its African network, including Brazzaville, Monrovia, and Windhoek.

Into the future: The 2033 strategy

Just over a year ago, Turkish Airlines published its 2033 Strategy, outlining its growth plans for the next ten years. The highlights from this include:

  • Growth: The airline expects to grow at a 7.8% compound annual growth rate, well ahead of the anticipated global average of 4.8%
  • Market Share: This growth will increase its global market share, and by 2033, it expects to have a 3.8% share, comfortably in the top five largest airlines.
  • Fleet expansion: To fuel this growth, it intends to nearly double its fleet to more than 800 aircraft across all carriers in the group.
  • New Routes: It expects to add more than 50 new routes over the next decade but anticipates that 90% of its growth will come from increases in frequency and gauge.
  • Passengers: It expects annual passenger numbers to more than double to over 170 million over the next decade.
Turkish A350-900 shutterstock_2375854991

Photo: Kevin Hackert | Shutterstock

These are highly ambitious numbers, and it will be interesting to track the progress. But given that 20 years ago, Turkish Airlines was a small European carrier with 60 aircraft and 10 million annual passengers, and how it has grown since, it would be foolish to bet against it.

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