Turkish Airlines to expand India ops

New Delhi: After adding 11 new destinations in Europe, Asia and Africa, Turkish Airlines is now working towards expanding operations in India in 2012 by doubling weekly flights to 28 and adding Hyderabad as its third Indian destination . "We are looking at Chennai and Kolkata after Hyderabad. India is a very important market for us and we need to fly to at least five cities there," Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil said, adding that attempts were being made to start flights from Hyderabad in the beginning of next year.
While the airline is operating seven flights from Mumbai and Delhi, it is gearing up to compete with their Asian and American counterparts by extending its code share with Air India, India's national carrier, to get more passengers from India to fly to or through Turkey to other places. The Airlines, which recently won the Skytrax award for 'Best Airline Europe' , launched its 'New Business Class' offering various facilities to its passengers. Turkish Airlines' 170 aircraft cover 74 European cities through 144 routes, making it the 17th largest carrier in terms of fleet. It uses its Airbus 330-200 and Airbus 330-300 aircraft for its India operations, registering average load factors of 70-75 %. The CEO said the airline aims to make Istanbul , Turkey's capital, the preferred transit point between Asia and Europe, as it takes only three to four hours to fly to any European city from there.
18/10/11 Smriti Singh/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Oct 2011