Turkish Airlines starts daily flights from Mumbai and Delhi to Istanbul

Turkish Airlines, the national airline of Turkey and the country’s flagship carrier,  began daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai in India to Istanbul in Turkey from February 2, 2009.

Earlier, the airline had been operating four weekly flights from Mumbai and three weekly flights from New Delhi to Istanbul.

Turkish Airlines, based in Istanbul, is a four-star airline company with a fleet of 127 aircraft flying to as many as 144 cities, including 109 international destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the United States.

Temel Kotil, president and chief executive of Turkish Airlines, told reporters in New Delhi that the carrier had successfully implemented its “bilateral rights” with India by enhancing its frequency by 14 flights every week from India to Turkey.

Kotil announced that Turkish Airlines had further plans for expansion in India by adding Hyderabad and Chennai as its new destinations, but these expansions would not take place before 2010.

Turkish Airlines has also replaced its earlier fleet Airbus A310 aircraft with Airbus A330 jets. While the Airbus A310 has 210-seat capacity, the Airbus A330 offers 250 seats, with independent entertainment screens, Temel Kotil said.

In addition to revamping the in-flight services, Turkish Airlines also guarantees its passengers “a restaurant above the clouds” with offerings of tastier Indian dishes on board these flights, Kotil told reporters.

He stressed that Turkish Airlines, which has its main base at Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul, had “enormous faith” in the potential of the Indian market and that the present economic downturn would not last for long.

Besides increasing the frequency of flights from India, Turkish Airlines has raised capacities and opened new routes to 11 international destinations recently. The carrier expects to add 21% in 2009 with an expected revenue growth of 25%, the airline’s CEO said.

In the opinion of Temel Kotil, Istanbul, with its peculiar geographical location, would become one of the most-sought-after international hubs for travellers in the coming years.

“Istanbul,” he said, “offers the best connectivity to almost 93 destinations around the world for passengers from Delhi and Mumbai today” and that the main attraction for Indian travellers to fly on Turkish Airlines would be its connectivity to Europe (including Russia), the Middle East and Africa.

More than half the passengers transit through Istanbul for Europe and Russia, and Indian passengers could get convenient connections to 93 destinations, including those in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Russia, Kotil claimed. Turkish Airlines connects even cities like Lyons in France, “which would help a passenger to fly to such cities directly, instead of changing flights again.”

Turkish Airlines, which at present has a fleet of 127 aircraft, has placed orders for 105 more planes to be delivered over the next 8 years.