Turkish Airlines CCO: Istanbul New Airport “could mean development of regional brands”; anna.aero identifies 100++ worldwide routes

“There are no regional aircraft services under the Turkish Airlines brand at Istanbul, but with Istanbul New Airport there will be no slot constraints, we will have as many feed services as we like – with any type of aircraft – and that could mean development of regional brands” – Akif Konar, the Chief Commercial Officer of Europe’s fastest-growing mega hub carrier tells anna.aero’s Paul Hogan in a chat at Turkish Airlines’ HQ.

Unsurprisingly Turkish Airlines currently has no meaningful dedicated regional aircraft feed at Istanbul Atatürk Airport – the graph here shows just a minuscule 24 out of 4,039 weekly movements are occupied by aircraft with less than 100 seats…less than 0.6%! Instead, Turkish Airlines’ decade-long transformation into mega hub airline has completely relied on its 737 and A320 families of aircraft to serve first and second-tier airports across Europe, and regional destinations within two hours.

Source: OAG Schedules Analyser w/c 1 December.

All of Europe’s big airlines face the same problems at their hubs which means that the smaller regional airports, which can only support <100 seater services, often struggle to get competitive hub connections to the rest of the world.

This is another reason why Istanbul New Airport is so important in European and global terms – with six runways it will be the world’s first classic hub outside the USA, providing ‘slot access to all’ – including opening up Istanbul to potentially hundreds of third-tier airports within two hours flying time which can only really sustain services with regional jets.

Istanbul and Turkish Airlines are already scientifically winning the competitive hub battle – the existing Istanbul Atatürk airport will overtake Frankfurt to become Europe’s third largest airport next year and, with Istanbul New Airport offering about double the available slots from 2018 onwards, Istanbul is already on course to overtake London Heathrow around 2020. “We want more slots and the new airport will give us just what we need to develop more routes all over the world,” explains a highly satisfied Konar.

Is your airport in Ralph Anker’s top 100++ potential new routes created by the opening of the new uncongested Istanbul hub? Turkish Airlines is providing free travel for airport CEOs from across its 46-city African network so they can come to ACI Airport Exchange Istanbul to learn more about opportunities for more routes stemming from the expanded hub. Contact the organisers if you think you qualify for one of these free tickets.

anna.aero’s identifies 100++ new routes

anna.aero has identified well over 100 destinations worldwide not currently served from Istanbul that could be become routes with the extra capacity provided by the new airport. These routes will be unveiled in a special presentation “What new route opportunities are created by the opening of the new uncongested Istanbul hub?” which will be given by anna.aero Chief Analyst, Ralph Anker at ACI Airport Exchange Istanbul 8-10 December which is hosted by İGA Havalimanı İşletmesi A.Ş. – the company building Istanbul New Airport.

ACI Airport Exchange Istanbul includes “The 1st Istanbul New Airport Development Conference: The New Mega-Hub Shaping The Future Of Aviation” featuring 10 senior Istanbul New Airport executives and a keynote presentation by Dr Temel Kotil, CEO, Turkish Airlines.