Turkish Airlines plans to operate a dedicated configured Airbus A350-1000 fleet on its Australian network.
Speaking with CEO Talks on board the airline's inaugural flight from Istanbul via Kuala Lumpur to Sydney, Turkish Airlines CEO Bilal Eksi said the airline expects to receive its first Airbus A350-1000 in the future.
"When we receive the aircraft, we will start the first nonstop flights to Sydney. Four or five of our ordered Airbus A350-1000 will be modified for Australian routes,” the CEO adds.
Eksi said, that the number of Business Class seats will be increased because analyses have shown that Business Class demand is high and the number of those seats could reach around 60.
New Opportunities with A350-1000
The range of its 15 ordered A350-1000 will bring new opportunities. "We launch flights to Santiago de Chile on Dec. 18 via Sao Paolo. When we receive A350-1000 we can do those flights nonstop from Istanbul“, he said. "Actually, one-stop flights have advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes passengers like to have a (short) stopover, but we will see in the future“.
Asking about the network opportunities with the A350-1000, he said those are especially on the long-range routes.
"Not only to Australia, maybe to New Zealand and to South America“
Bilal Eksi, CEO of Turkish Airlines
Before Turkish Airlines started its flights to Melbourne, Australia in March 2024, Turkish Airlines had for about ten years cooperations and codeshares with other airlines. "We carried about 150.000 passengers with these cooperations and for that reason, our expectations for Australia are high and optimistic“, the CEO said.
"As Melbourne is performing already very well with three weekly flights, Sydney is looking promising as well."
Turkish Airlines traffic rights include flights to Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth in Western Australia.
We can go up to daily flights. I don’t have any concern about flight rights. It is up to us to increase frequencies to Melbourne and Sydney according to market conditions
Bilal Eksi, CEO of Turkish Airlines
Eksi said that so far, there is no plan for Brisbane to join the network. “Sydney and Melbourne should become a daily operation first“, he said.
Regarding New Zealand, Eksi said, that it is not planed for next year. “But we are looking at our options. Our CCO Ahmet Olmuştur is traveling to New Zealand after the Sydney launch. But for 2025, our main agenda is to increase frequencies on the existing network which is quite substantial already“, Eksi said.
Turkish Airlines today operates a fleet of 489 aircraft and targets 533 aircraft for next year.
Boeing 777X for Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines CFO Murat Seker told me on board the same flight, that the Star Alliance member remains to consider a possible Boeing 777X order.
Turkish Airlines have not placed any order yet for the Boeing 777X as it first like to see how aircraft deliveries and its performance are progressing.
“We are still looking at it, but we want to see how late the production is and still waiting for that to be clarified a little bit“. He said, Turkish Airlines is considering some 777X as part of its big Boeing (order) plan, but the 777X is still on hold.
