Turkish Airlines plans to officially announce the start of flights from Istanbul to Australia. Istanbul – Melbourne would be the first route, debuting towards the end of 2023. There is a chance that Sydney will also be one of the Australian destinations to which Turkish Airlines will fly. Initially, the Istanbul - Melbourne route will have three weekly flights, with a stopover in Singapore.
The flights will be operated with Airbus A350 or Boeing 787 aircraft, both models being in the fleet of Turkish Airlines.
Turkish Airlines already has daily flights to Singapore, where it uses Changi Airport's Terminal 1 – the same terminal used by Qantas and Emirates, among others. Flights between Singapore and Istanbul take around 11 hours, and a trip on the Melbourne-Istanbul route could take up to 21 hours with a short stopover in Singapore.
Turkish Airlines President Ahmet Bolat will fly to Australia to attend an event at Melbourne's Crown Towers on Friday evening, where he is expected to reveal the official start date and schedule of the Istanbul-Melbourne flights.
Bolat says his ambition to connect Istanbul and Australia is a long-standing one, noting that Turkish Airlines carried 120.837 passengers in 2019 and 118.847 passengers in 2022 in codeshares with airlines in Australia, where they still have direct flights.
This indicates Turkish Airlines' untapped potential and desire to put Australia on the network map, with dozens of convenient connections extending from Istanbul to Europe, the UK and Africa.