Turkish Airlines has announced plans to expand its international network to 14 new global destinations in the near future, including two new US gateways. In addition, Turkey’s flag carrier is also looking to launch six new routes to Europe, one in the Middle East, two in Asia, and three in Africa.
The airline outlined its growth plans in its most recent earnings report, which showed traffic during the first half 2022 rose to almost 31 million passenger, 12 percent below in the first half of 2019. However in July 2022, the airline flew 7.8 million passengers, topping figures for July 2019, when it carried 7.1 million passengers.
The boost in passenger traffic lifted the carrier to an operating profit of $693 million for the first half of 2022, and has given the airline momentum as it seeks to continue building its global presence.
In the latest quarterly report, the airline says it “aims to be among the leading airlines in the world by maintaining its growth trend through increasing capacity offering and new routes.”
North America
The airline has set its sights on two new cities in the US: Denver and Detroit. The two destinations would join 12 other gateways Turkish Airlines currently serves across the US.
Among those, latest include three routes which the carrier launched over the past 18 months: Newark, which started in May 2021, Dallas Fort Worth, which began operations in September 2021, and Seattle-Tacoma which started in June this year.
The other US destinations served by Turkish Air include Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York JFK, San Francisco and Washington/Dulles, with the airline operating a total of 272 flights per week.
Europe
Currently, the Turkish Airlines network covers 118 European destinations across 43 countries, including the addition this year of four destinations: the Russian cities of Moscow, Kaliningrad and Perm, and Tivat in Montenegro.
Plans call for the carrier to expand to six more cities on the Continent, adding Kraków, Palermo, Nantes, Coruna in Spain, the Russian city of Makhachkala, and Lankaran, Azerbaijan.
Middle East and Africa
The carrier is planning to add Abha in Saudi Arabia as its fifth destination in the Kingdom, complementing flights to Jeddah, Riyadh, Medina and Dammam. In Egypt, the addition of Aswan will bring the number of destinations in that country to six, including services to Cairo, Sharm el-Sheikh, Luxor, Hurghada and Alexandria.
The airline plans to add second destinations in both Somalia, with service to Hargeisa, and in Sudan with flights to Port Sudan.
Asia
In Asia, Turkish Air says it plans to add a third destination in Kazakhstan with service to Atyrau and a fourth in Pakistan with flights to Sialkot.
