Turkish Airlines starts direct Istanbul-Toronto flight, Istanbul-Lviv, Bologna flights soon

Turkish Airlines, the national flag-carrier airline of Turkey, has started non-stop flights between Istanbul in Turkey and Toronto in Canada.

Binali Yildirim, Turkey’s Minister of Transportation, and businessmen and journalists were on board Turkish Airlines’ first flight from Istanbul to Toronto on July 11, 2009.

In a statement, Turkish Airlines said that it would use Airbus A330 and Airbus A340 aircraft on the Istanbul-Toronto route.

Turkish Airlines will fly between Istanbul and Toronto thrice week – on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.  The non-stop Istanbul-Toronto flight takes nearly 11 hours.

The Istanbul-Toronto flight is Turkish Airlines’ 117th international flight destination.

Canada and Turkey had started cooperating in civil aviation after both entered into an agreement in March 2009.

The bilateral air transportation agreement allows Canada and Turkey to operate scheduled flights by more than one airline operator from both countries. The first permit under the bilateral pact was granted to Air Canada and Turkish Airlines.

The agreement on air transportation had set two destinations each in Canada and Turkey as scheduled flight destinations. Airline companies in both countries are permitted to operate three passenger flights and three cargo flights, as well as third-party codesharing flights.

Turkish Airlines also announced that it would launch flights between Istanbul in Turkey and Lviv in Ukraine from July 27, 2009.

The new Istanbul-Lviv flight will operate thrice weekly – on Monday, Thursday and Sunday, in both directions.

On the Istanbul-Lviv route, Turkish Airlines will offer promotional prices for a month – with roundtrip tickets starting at 99 euros, excluding taxes.

Lviv will be Turkish Airlines’ 118th international destination as well as its 6th flight point in Ukraine, after Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Simferopol and Odessa.

Turkish Airlines said in the statement that it would launch new flights between Istanbul in Turkey and Bologna in Italy; and between Izmir in Turkey and Athens in Greece.