Greetings Turkish Aviation fans,

My condolences to all affected from the devastating earthquakes. May them all rest in peace and a speedy recovery to the whole region with lessons learned. And thank you to all who helped the region one way or another.

I will start this month’s thread with this;
-After 15+ years knowing each other here on a.net, I was finally able to meet LAXintl in person. We had a great chat, it was super nice to meet in person. So lucky to have this community here.
-TK to start Katowice on March 3rd 5 x W and will go daily by July 1st.
-Also UlanBator will start 27Mar 4 x W.

Please continue.
You can start last month’s thread here:
Turkish Aviation February 2023

Thanks TK787 for March thread.
Tomorrow is going to be a big day, i expect a record profit, we will have presentation on Thursday but it will give fleet details for 2023 latest.
I see chance of any order very low becase of:
1. Delivery slots
2. Earthquake impacts
3. Elections

Lets see, a good order for wb and nb for deliveries in 2025-2026 for wb is a need but i am pessimistic

Thanks for a new thread it will indeed be interesting to see the figures .

Thanks for starting off another thread TK787

TK should be looking to upgrade the business class product to 1-2-1 just like the rest of the world is pretty much doing. The 77W fleet together with A333 fleet need a fresh new modern interior, If tomorrows announcement does not include new WB orders then surely in my opinion TK needs to do something.

With the arrival of the newest A350 ( LGH ) with a good possibility two more LGM and LGN together with three 787's all five should be delivered by summer, Is TK looking to expand on new destinations or just increase capacity ? I know both DEN and DTW are among new destinations planned for this year but could we see more long haul routes ?

I have a question about how efficient and effective is TK utilizing long haul fleet.
Actual number of wb deployed on lh is : 30 77w+29 a333 + 5 a322 + 16 789 + 12 a 359= 92

What is numbers of wide bodies at European giants such as LH/BA/AF-KLM and if we compare number of lh destinations and flights, how is TK performing?

TK773ER wrote:

With the arrival of the newest A350 ( LGH ) with a good possibility two more LGM and LGN together with three 787's all five should be delivered by summer, Is TK looking to expand on new destinations or just increase capacity ? I know both DEN and DTW are among new destinations planned for this year but could we see more long haul routes ?

Right now the most remarkable changes in terms of frequency for S23 are the following:

PEK - from 1 to 5 weekly
PVG - from 1 to 5 weekly
CAN - from 1 to 5 weekly
BKK - from 14 to 21 weekly from October
SIN - from 10 to 14 weekly from August
KUL - from 10 to 14 weekly from August
NRT - from 3 to 4 weekly from August
SEA - from 4 to 7 weekly
GRU - from 7 to 11 weekly from September

North America has frequency reinforcements that were also there last year although the extra BOS service is not coming back. There has been some reporting that CCS will increase its frequencies by making the terminator service daily. Otherwise, the BKK increase is funded from A333 capacity and there is overall more A333 capacity to JFK and EWR than there was last summer.

That is just to say that, if two additional A359 and three additional B789 frames are joining the fleet this year, there should be capacity for at least one more additional longhaul route or for further frequency increases in the existing network.

WizzAir is going to start direct flights between Ankara-Astana and Ankara-Beirut, frequecy and start dates yet to be disclosed.

ankaraflyjet wrote:

WizzAir is going to start direct flights between Ankara-Astana and Ankara-Beirut, frequecy and start dates yet to be disclosed.

How come Wizz has the traffic rights ? Is there some obscure clause in a treaty somewhere ?

Good point but I do not have a copy of the bilaterals, I guess the CAA has the particular provision that authorize this operation. In the case of Ankara Astana for instance Pegasus and AnadoluJet already flies the route and FlyArstan will also start in May. WizzAir will be the 4th airline to fly the route so one of the unique routes exESB where we will see 4 airlines competing.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

ankaraflyjet wrote:

WizzAir is going to start direct flights between Ankara-Astana and Ankara-Beirut, frequecy and start dates yet to be disclosed.

How come Wizz has the traffic rights ? Is there some obscure clause in a treaty somewhere ?

Today I was on TK7756 ESB-GYD, which was 101% full. A friend of mine, who flew ESB-GYD few days back, said that his experience is also the same. He also said that during check in, ground stuff asked them to check in also hand luggage as much as possible as the plane was over crowded.

Looks like, TK can not hold it any more and ESB is flourishing.

Turkish Airlines marks $2.7B net profit in 2022

https://www.dailysabah.com/business/eco ... n-2022/amp

Some interesting stats in todays release .

WizzAir is also flying full 100% full between ESB and AUH and the competitive prices attracted passengers even from greater Istanbul area, so yes, ESB will grow in spite of TK and arrival of new airlines is a game changer. I think ESB will grow into another SAW with a different scale in the near future.

TK105 wrote:

Today I was on TK7756 ESB-GYD, which was 101% full. A friend of mine, who flew ESB-GYD few days back, said that his experience is also the same. He also said that during check in, ground stuff asked them to check in also hand luggage as much as possible as the plane was over crowded.

Looks like, TK can not hold it any more and ESB is flourishing.

Polish authorities canceled TKs rights to go on with their plans to launch Istanbul - Katowice tomorrow. Looked up in the TK booking engine and the flights are already gone...

Allegedly, LOT wants to fly the route themselves. Then why don't they do it (along TK)??
The market definitely has more potential than IST-WAW, even more right now regarding connections to Asia due to Russia

https://twitter.com/HavaSosyalMedya/sta ... YUtRg&s=19

400th plane for TK got this livery Boooooriiiinnnnnngggggg
What a waste of oppurtunity
https://tolgaozbek.com/haberler/iste-40 ... i8M2IpiA2U

TK787 wrote:

400th plane for TK got this livery Boooooriiiinnnnnngggggg
What a waste of oppurtunity
https://tolgaozbek.com/haberler/iste-40 ... i8M2IpiA2U

If somebody calls this as a "special livery", I am going to laugh. Sorry but this is the worst livery I've ever seen.

TK787 wrote:

400th plane for TK got this livery Boooooriiiinnnnnngggggg
What a waste of oppurtunity
https://tolgaozbek.com/haberler/iste-40 ... i8M2IpiA2U

I guess the subsequent paint of TC-LGI after LGK was postponed due to this extra paint of TC-LGH at IST?

TKflyer wrote:

[
I just found out through an acquaintance that Turkish Airlines is expecting another 6 Boeing 737-9 MAX in 2023.
presumably you're right TK787?
Anyone know more about this?

Never say never with TK
I mean we have seen over the years, RJ's, first 3 Indian 777s with First Class Cabins, 737-700, A319s.
Anything can happen
I have a TK MAX flight next month, might be -9

speaking of liveries...anyone know why TK continues to use the blue branding on aircraft, while all other media uses a black typeface in a different font? Drives my OCD crazy!

TK787 wrote:

Never say never with TK
I mean we have seen over the years, RJ's, first 3 Indian 777s with First Class Cabins, 737-700, A319s.
Anything can happen
I have a TK MAX flight next month, might be -9

good point! in fact, I was always puzzled why they held on to the last of only four 737-700's over so many years while the other 3 frames exited the fleet 4-6 years before. Here I'm talking about TC-JKO - a very odd frame indeed.

When I look at 400th Aircraft Livery, I see a solution with the Lowest cost. No style, no creavity, no nothing. Most probably no budget was allocated, no designers were hired, application costing had to be close to zero and this is the result. But in case a bulky bugdet was allocated, …. Anything is possible nowadays.

TC-LGH was ferried into IST early this morning and some sort of event seems to be planned around it at 10am local time. It is then planned to go to Vancouver as TK075.

HB-IWC wrote:

TC-LGH was ferried into IST early this morning and some sort of event seems to be planned around it at 10am local time. It is then planned to go to Vancouver as TK075.

The event was a special flight carrying 200 earthquake survivor children
Chairman Ahmet Bolat was also on the flight, it was even his first A350 flight.

https://havahaber.com/thynin-tek-turek- ... havalandi/

Also, the aircraft was named "Tek Yürek" meaning "One Heart", symbolizing the joint effort by all people to help the earthquake victims. There was a tv broadcast under the same name too, on which a big sum of money was collected.

flyaa757 wrote:

speaking of liveries...anyone know why TK continues to use the blue branding on aircraft, while all other media uses a black typeface in a different font? Drives my OCD crazy!

No idea, here is from their website:
https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/ ... o-archive/

Any pic of any new BBN airlines already painted, or not yet?

Reading from 737 MAX thread, there are some Southwind 737MAX updates.

LN 8331 TC-GRO
LN 8417 TC-GRJ
LN 8535 TC-??

All 3 frames are ALC frames and Blue Air NTUs. Do we know when Southwind will be ready to take deliveries? Or are they also impacted by the software update issues that Boeing has on NTU frames?

On A321neo front, it seems like Southwind also has gone quite after TC-GRE?

Let's see for how long Southwind is able to survive. The AYT-Russia traffic at the moment guarantees some decent revenue flows, but the crew, maintenance, operating and administration costs for this fleet must be horendous: 2x 321ceo, 1x 321neo, 2x 332, 1x 77W (?) and a few 737max in the pipeline.
At the same time, they aren't able to sell tickets on EU-TR traffic since January (according to their website).

I read a few weeks ago that TUI is chartering Southwind to take people from NW Europe to Turkish beaches... is this correct ?

davidjohnson6 wrote:

I read a few weeks ago that TUI is chartering Southwind to take people from NW Europe to Turkish beaches... is this correct ?

Yes it is, Southwind (and owning Tour operator Pegas) will focus on Uk and Scandinavia. Other large european TO's are also chartering Southwind from Germany to Turkey

Tkairlines wrote:

New champions league livery on a 777 just rolled out of ISL.
Source Airport Haber.

Serious question; have they changed their design team or marketing agency or whoever is responsible for the special livery designs?!? Honestly, their latest special themes are nowhere near as close to the beauty and completeness as we used to see in the pas. Really bland in my eyes and it somehow looks odd on the aircraft.

I know I keep going on like a broken record but another month yet still no A350 orders for TK ? Wasn't the talk exercising the five options and placing additional five for a total 36 frames ?
You can download the spread sheet for February here https://www.airbus.com/en/products-serv ... deliveries

Hava sosyal medya reports that TL leased a bunch of slots at LHR for the SS23 season from PK. LHR slot transactions usually get a lot of attention on this site, but haven’t seen this one being reported. TK will have 52 flights a week to LHR. Thats a lot of capacity, but hey where better than LHR. Congrats to TK.

gokmengs wrote:

Hava sosyal medya reports that TL leased a bunch of slots at LHR for the SS23 season from PK. LHR slot transactions usually get a lot of attention on this site, but haven’t seen this one being reported. TK will have 52 flights a week to LHR. Thats a lot of capacity, but hey where better than LHR. Congrats to TK.

Now there are even wing to wing flights like TK1933 & TK1989

THY has no excuse left not to reinstate LHR ESB (they always voiced out slot restrictions as the main factor) but I am sure they will drag their feet for not doing it. These slots came in from PIA btw.

If TK opens LHR ESB and channels LHR Turkey domestic connections for the ESB flights that will open up room for additional international transit passengers via IST to/from London to third markets. This is more profitable for TK actually and let's hope that they can see this potential. TK already has a lot of feed from India/Pakistan etc. for IST LHR sector, taking off Turkish domestic transit pax from IST LHR and channeling them to those desitnations via ESB is a win win for AnadoluJet and THY both.

emre787 wrote:

gokmengs wrote:

Hava sosyal medya reports that TL leased a bunch of slots at LHR for the SS23 season from PK. LHR slot transactions usually get a lot of attention on this site, but haven’t seen this one being reported. TK will have 52 flights a week to LHR. Thats a lot of capacity, but hey where better than LHR. Congrats to TK.

Now there are even wing to wing flights like TK1933 & TK1989

If TK starts routing more pax through ESB... is there a risk of allowing other airlines to gain access to IST and thus reduce TK's control of their market ?
Ankaraflyjet - I completely see your point, but if a company has acquired a near monopoly on something, it's very profitable to retain that level of control