Turkish Airlines splits widebody orders for 787 and A350s
Turkish Airlines will expand its widebody fleet by 60 new aircraft in the next six years as the airline today decided to purchase 50 firm and 10 optional wide-body aircraft from two aviation giants, Airbus and Boeing. For Boeing, a total of 30 787-9 aircraft (25 firm order plus 5 optional) is ordered. Airbus also received an order for 30 A350-900, also with 30 firm and 5 optional. Turkish Airlines says it will take delivery of the first six widebodies in 2019. A further 14 will be delivered in 2020, 10 will follow in 2021, another dozen in 2022, 11 in 2023 and will be completed when seven are delivered in 2024. It does not break out how many of each type will be delivered per year.
The carrier currently has 34 Boeing 777-300ER, 53 Airbus A330 (16 A332 and 37 A333) and 4 Airbus A340-300 in its widebody fleet. Shall all the options for 10 787 and A350 be exercised, Turkish Airlines can boost its long-haul capacity by over 35 percent after six years.
The Star Alliance carrier had initially disclosed an intent to take 40 787s last September, during Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to New York. It then in January this year expressed its interest in taking 25 A350s, together with five options, during an official Erdogan visit to Paris to meet French president Emmanuel Macron.
Some may speculate that political dimension is the culprit behind the acquisition of two similar types of widebody aircraft. The same scenario happened to government-owned Vietnam Airlines, where trade balance between Vietnam and the west made the government-owned airline to purchase aircraft from both aviation giants instead of solely the 787-9s. Vietnam is a major exporter of apparel, electronics, and other goods.
The boost of widebody fleet is accompanied by the upgrade of Turkish Airlines’ hub in Istanbul. The airline is set to transfer operations from Atatürk Airport to Istanbul’s currently under-construction third airport on the 29th October 2018. The new airport is built in order to accommodate growing traffic. The new airport will be large enough for 114 planes to dock at the same time, Transport Minister Arslan previously said, adding that it would employ 225,000 people when fully operational.
The Turkish government has already outlined its plan on how to transfer aircraft operations between the new and old airports. During the mobilization of airports, 600 trucks will carry equipment to the new airport within 18 hours. Meanwhile, flights would be closed in both airports for an 18-hour period as the airline moved 120 empty aircraft to the new airport. It is said that flights would be decreased by 50 percent to avoid potential operational problems during the transferal-of-operations period.
Based at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport, Turkish Airlines (THY) is the national airline of Turkey and the country's largest carrier. Turkish Airlines operates a network of domestic and regional services throughout Turkey and the Middle East and international services to Europe, Africa, North America, South America and Asia. The carrier operates passenger services to over 270 destinations via Ataturk International Airport as well as secondary hubs at Esenboga International Airport and Adnan Menderes International Airport. Turkish Cargo is a freight division of the carrier, operating services to over 100 countries across its network. Turkish Airlines is also a member of the Star Alliance. Istanbul is a major hub for transit flights, attracting lucrative transfer traffic this year from major airports in the Gulf as Turkey recovers from security worries, according to travel data analysis company Forward Keys. The airline was named Best Airline in Europe by Skytrax for six years in a row between 2011 and 2016, and chosen the Best Airline in Southern Europe for the ninth consecutive time in 2017.