Turkish Airlines to expand India operations by 2012
18 Oct 2011
New Delhi: Turkish Airlines is working towards expanding operations in India and is looking to double weekly services to 28 by 2012 and adding Hyderabad as its third Indian destination. It has expanded international operations by adding 11 new destinations in Europe, Asia and Africa.
"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.
He said attempts were being made to start services from Hyderabad by the beginning of next year.
While the airline is operating seven services from Mumbai and Delhi, it is gearing up to compete with 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 Airbus 330-200 and Airbus 330-300 aircraft for its India operations, registering average load factors of 70-75 %.
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