DENVER — Turkish Airlines plans to add Minneapolis, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Orlando as future U.S. destinations, Chairman Ahmet Bolat said in an interview in Denver on June 11. Earlier in the day, Turkish Airlines’ first flight landed in Denver.
Carrier Now Serving Denver three times a week, increasing to four times a week starting July 9. Denver is Turkish Airlines’ 14th U.S. route, all departing from Istanbul.
“The number of destinations in the U.S. will grow to 20,” Bolat said confidently, but he did not estimate a specific timeline for these developments, or even for Turkish Airlines to launch its next U.S. route. The first priority, the chairman said, is to increase Turkish Airlines’ Istanbul-Detroit routeThe route, which opens in November, will increase service to daily from the current six times a week, and will also increase service to Denver to daily.
Turkish Airlines is a member of Star Alliance and currently serves 347 destinations in 130 countries. Airbus A350 wide-body aircraft orders Turkish Airlines is also considering an order for the Boeing 777x, depending on the final performance of the yet-to-be-certified aircraft, Bolat said.
The orders are in line with Turkish Airlines’ ambitious goal to double its capacity over the next decade, increasing its fleet size from around 460 aircraft today to around 810 (including its low-cost brand AJet).
In addition to adding U.S. routes, Turkish Airlines plans to use the additional wide-body aircraft to increase capacity in Africa and increase frequency across its network, especially in Asia, Bolat said. The increased frequency will further strengthen Turkish Airlines’ position in the East-West connectivity market, where it competes with Emirates and Qatar Airways.
Bolat noted that Turkish Airlines, which is 49% state-owned, also plans to use its fleet build-up to add about 50 destinations to its already extensive route network, although the number of destinations available is shrinking.
“How much more can you do?” he asked.
Turkish Airlines Chairman Ahmet Bolat speaks during a ceremony marking the airline’s first flight to Denver. Photo credit: Robert Silk
Turkish Airlines’ NDC Program
Joining the Turkish Airlines chairman in the interview room was Turkish Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Ahmet Olmustur, who spoke about Launch of NDC Program Oct. 1. The platform, called TK Connect, will be available to travel advisors in three ways: direct, through a web-based booking portal or through a third-party aggregator. Olmustur said Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport will be among the approved aggregators.
Turkish Airlines will impose a surcharge on traditional GDS bookings as it launches its NDC program, but has not yet publicly announced the exact amount.
Olmustur said Turkish Airlines will remove some low-fare content from the original GDS with the launch of TK Connect.
“We’ll probably only have one or two categories at the bottom to differentiate our offering from traditional channels, which means we’ll have a very smooth channel for agents,” he said.
Instead, he added, travel advisors will benefit from the ability to sell add-ons, including extra luggage and seats with extra legroom, among other enrichment products.
Olmustur said travel agencies can expect the Turkish NDC platform to not suffer from the service issues that early airlines experienced when launching NDC. He said Turkish Airlines has learned from the difficulties those airlines encountered over the past few years and that building its NDC interface using the latest IATA standards will also benefit the airline.
“We built our product to solve the problem of NDC,” Olmustur said.
