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Ankara: Turkish Airlines is gearing up to begin long-awaited flights between Istanbul and Australia as early as March 2024 following the federal government approving a total of 21 flights per week with immediate effect.
This covers not only Sydney and Melbourne, both of which Turkish Airlines plan to add to its network map, but also Brisbane, Perth and the new Western Sydney airport opening in 2026.
According to the government’s latest Register of Available Capacity for Australian International Airlines, an update made on 13 December 2023 to the air services agreements between Australia and Türkiye triples the previous allocation of up to seven flights per week between the two countries, well beyond Turkish Airlines’ request for 14 flights a week.
This not only paves the way for daily flights to Sydney and Melbourne but allows room for further growth, with 28 flights per week from October 2024 and 35 per week from October 2025.
The agreement also opens up the ability for selling a single leg of a stopover route – such as Istanbul-Singapore or Sydney-Singapore, in the case of Turkish Airlines’ proposed Singapore stopover – by permitting that “designated airline(s) may exercise fifth freedom traffic rights at two (2) intermediate points of choice in South Asia, South East Asia and/or the Middle East.”
Turkish Airlines executives have previously describing that ‘fifth freedom’ right as “really a crucial factor” for the route.
The government’s liberalisation of the Türkiye-Australian skies comes just one week after Turkish Airlines CEO said flights to Australia would begin in March 2024.
“We will commence flights to Australia between March 15 and 25, 2024,” Turkish Airlines Chairman Ahmet Bolat reportedly told local media.
-B
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