Turkish Airlines is keen to use Bangkok as its regional base as it expands aggressively in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
In 2009, the carrier launched a service to Jakarta, while increasing the number of flights between Istanbul and Beijing and Shanghai.
This year, it looks to extend the Istanbul-Bangkok service to Ho Chi Minh City in October, and marks Kuala Lumpur and Manila as future destinations possibly in 2011.
Adnan Aykac, Turkish Airlines general manager for Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, was quoted in The Bangkok Post, saying they were eager to codeshare with THAI Airways on its Australia-bound flights and test the market before deploying their own aircraft to the region. He figured they could feed some 40,000 passengers into THAI's Australian network. However, Turkish and THAI remain in talks about this plan.
Turkish Airlines has been on a noticeable growth path since it joined Star Alliance in April 2008. It leased three Boeing B777-300ERs from Jet Airways and last year, ordered five more from the manufacturer. For the latest Tried and Tested review of a Turkish Airlines' flight, click here.
For more on Turkish Airlines, visit www.turkishairlines.com
Margie T Logarta
