News
Turkish Airlines studying plans to serve eight more Chinese cities
May 31st 2019
Xi’an and Xiamen under consideration as airline can expand from new airport. Read More »
Turkish Airlines is studying and negotiating to serve eight more cities in China, according to a report from the Daily Sabah, which said the article was written in Istanbul but did not cite anyone at Turkish Airlines as a source.
Turkish serves Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as well as Hong Kong. Amongst the eight cities under consideration, only Xi’an and Xiamen were specifically mentioned.
Some caution is advised in the reported plan given the scale of expansion proposed, which would be unprecedented for an intercontinental airline in China. The eight proposed cities and Turkish’s existing three would give Turkish the largest footprint, by destinations, of any non-Asian airline. National and local negotiations with various authorities would be unlikely to see eight destinations launched in the near future.
The report underscores Turkish’s ambition that infrastructure and capacity are aligned to produce growth. It has moved into a new airport and in June is due to take delivery of the first of its 25 787-9s. Turkish also has ordered 25 A350-900s. Last week, the carrier announced plans to resume flights to Osaka.
