Turkish challenges Gulf 'biggies': flights to Australia start March 15
It had been talked about for about a year. In the past few hours, at last, Turkish Airlines has dissolved its reservation and put 'black [...]
Turkish Airlines
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It had been talked about for about a year. In the past few hours, finally, Turkish Airlines dissolved the reservation and put 'black on white' his landing in Australia, opening bookings for its Istanbul-Melbourne connection and thus entering the Narrow club of carriers flying to all six continents.
It is about his 346th destination and 130th country served. Turkish is only the second European airline to fly to the land of kangaroos after British Airways, which connects London to Sydney via Singapore, and the only one among the Old Continent carriers to land in Melbourne.
The inaugural flight will be held on March 15 with a Boeing 787-9, which will be Replaced by an Airbus A350-900 as of April 2.. The weekly frequencies will be three, with flight TK 168 taking off from Istanbul every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday arriving in Melbourne the next day. In the opposite direction, TK 169 will leave Melbourne every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday arriving in Istanbul the next day.
The distance between the two cities Makes a stopover in Singapore both outbound and inbound necessary, 'penalizing' somewhat the appeal of the link for those departing from Europe, who will in fact have to make two stopovers to reach Australia, when other carriers offer the same one-stop connection. But with the arrival of the A350-1000, part of the mega-order placed with Airbus a few weeks ago, the possibility of nonstop connections to Australia could be a reality.
The operative sees departure from Istanbul at 5 p.m. with arrival in Singapore at 8:45 a.m. the next morning; departure from Singapore will be after 90 minutes, at 10:15 a.m., with landing in Melbourne at 7:40 p.m. In the opposite direction, it will take off from Melbourne at 9:20 p.m. to land in Singapore at 2:50 a.m. the next morning; at 4:30 a.m. it will take off again for Istanbul with arrival scheduled for 10:40 a.m.
Aboard the Boeing 787-9 which will operate the link for the first three weeks passengers will find 30 seats in Business Class (with rows 1+2+1) and 270 in Economy (3+3+3); on theA350 i seats in Business will be 32 (1+2+1) and 297 those in Economy (3+3+3).
From Italy, overall flight times are only slightly longer than those offered by airlines flying to Melbourne on a one-stop basis. From Milan, for example, it takes you 24 hours and 5 minutes, which is more than the 23 hours and 10 minutes with Etihad, of the 22 hours and 50 minutes with Emirates, of the 22 hours and 15 minutes with Singapore Airlines and of the 21 hours and 55 minutes of Qatar Airways But less than the 25 hours and 15 minutes with Cathay Pacific or of the 26 hours with Air India. Thai Airways, which Will resume flights from Malpensa airport to Bangkok from July 1., it will take 21 hours and 55 minutes to connect it to Melbourne.
From Rome it will take 23 hours and 20 minutes, compared with 22 hours and 50 minutes for Emirates, the 22 hours and 40 minutes of Etihad Airways, the 21 hours and 30 minutes of Qatar Airways, the 21 hours 20 minutes of Singapore Airlines. From June 16, then, From Rome, the non-stop connection operated by Qantas between Fiumicino and Perth will be available again, thanks to which it will be possible to reach Melbourne in 22 hours and 20 minutes.
But companies such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad (not to mention Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines) fly only from their hubs (and from there on to Melbourne) only from the major Italian cities: Rome and Milan (plus Venice if one considers Qatar Airways and Bologna if one considers Emirates).
While Turkish's 'strength' lies in its dense network of 'smaller' destinations in Italy (where it serves as many as eight cities) and in Europe-all places where the three Gulf 'biggies' and other global airlines such as Cathay or Singapore Airlines do not land, and where the connection via Istanbul and Singapore is really the fastest and most convenient way to reach Melbourne (and eastern Australia).
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