Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) will leverage Istanbul New Airport's increased handling capacity to expand its network coverage of Asia and North America, airline chief executive Bilal Eksi has said.
In an interview with Business Travel News last month, Eksi said that, free from the growth constraints of the current Istanbul Atatürk Airport, Turkish Airlines would target India primarily followed by China, Canada, and South America.
"Each day, our marketing people are looking for the new destinations. Of course, some of them are in Europe or Africa, but our main market is India, the second is China and the third is Canada," he said adding that South America's full potential would only be realized with Turkish Airlines' incoming fleet of B787-9s and A350-900s.
"For South America, we have an aircraft problem because our range is not capable to reach some destinations, but India and China are very important markets for us and we are looking forward to some commercial cooperation with those countries' airlines."
"We hope that we can declare some very good cooperation with some Indian carriers, and we are in negotiations with the Chinese airlines. Also, we are looking for the traffic rights to India, China, Canada and we hope that we will get more traffic rights."
The new facility is due to open to commercial traffic on Turkey's Republic Day, October 29, with the transitioning of flights from Ataturk to start on October 30. However, while Turkish Airlines' commercial passenger operations will be transferred to New Airport in one massive move, its charter operations, business jet service, and cargo unit will remain at Atatürk in the short-term.
"Our full cargo operation will continue from Atatürk Airport maybe six months or one year," Eksi said.
As previously reported, all carriers, including the Atatürk-based AtlasGlobal, Onur Air, and MNG Airlines, are expected to have completed their respective transition to the new airport by November 1, 2018.
