Turkish Airlines plans to increase frequencies on several routes in the region during the 2024 summer season, which begins on March 31 of next year, but has ruled out the introduction of flights to Banja Luka following talks with airports officials. Apart from its recently announced plans to boost operations to Zagreb from fourteen to eighteen weekly, Turkish will also increase services on its other destination in Croatia - Dubrovnik - from the five weekly rotations operated during the summer of 2023, to daily. The additional service on Mondays and Wednesdays will be introduced from March 31.
Turkish Airlines will increase flights from Istanbul to both Podgorica and Tivat after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Air Montenegro earlier this year, enabling both flag carriers to grow their frequencies in each other’s markets. The Turkish carrier will initially increase operations between Istanbul and Podgorica from double daily to seventeen weekly, growing to eighteen weekly from mid-August. Similarly, it will boost frequencies on flights to Tivat, which it launched this summer, from six weekly to nine weekly, increasing to ten weekly from mid-August.
Turkish Airlines frequencies to destinations in the former Yugoslavia, summer 2024
The carrier will also grow its Sarajevo operations with the addition of an extra weekly rotation for a total of 21 weekly flights. Despite talks between Turkish Airlines and authorities from Banja Luka Airport, the carrier has ruled out the introduction of its second destination in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "There are commercial and structural assessments of the airport, and the airport is still working on it. However, we have no plans to start operations to or from Banja Luka Airport in the short-term", Turkish Airlines said. Commenting further on its presence in the region, the carrier said, “With the recent launch of flights to Tivat, the total number of destinations in the entire Balkan region has reached seventeen. We are working closely with local authorities to develop tourism and business relations. In addition, we are continuously expanding our presence in this region by investing in innovative technologies and the passenger experience".
Their Montenegro flights are performing really well.
ReplyDeleteThey are carrying Russians but also Turks have replaced Russians in terms of property ownership in Montenegro, and many come for holiday too.
DeleteThe only disappointment is Ljubljana. An afternoon flight in S24 was expected.
DeleteIt probably means we will see more widebodies to LJU next year.
DeleteIt would be good if Turkish start with flights from Banja Luka
DeleteMight be wrong but looks like TK really needs regional jet like e190.
DeleteExcellent news. TK dominating the region.
ReplyDeleteYou from Türkiye?
DeleteThey have really upped their presence through Anadolujet.
DeleteI wouldn't go as far as dominating but they are currently probably the number 1 transfer airline in many ex-Yu markets
Deleteyesterday it was ryanair dominating the region. Everyone just wants to be dominated
DeleteI'm still waiting for them to start Split, especially since they openly talked about introducing it before Covid.
ReplyDeleteThat would be great!
DeleteShame about BNX
ReplyDeleteAmazing how quickly they grew Tivat! Already 10x weekly.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAnd how many flights does Air Montenegro have on this route next summer?
DeleteDaily
DeleteSo 17 weekly total. Impressive
DeleteDidn't they used to have more flights to DBV before Covid? Or I mixed something up
ReplyDeleteYes, they had double daily in 2019
DeleteWould Ohrid make sense for them in the summer?
ReplyDeleteJust a couple days ago I read somewhere they will introduce flights to Ohrid.
DeleteOHD might work if they tie it with another destination in the beginning like they did with Varna-Constanta a couple of years ago and splitting them afterwards. Maybe IST-BNX-OHD to check its performance. But, filling a 738 to OHD might be a bit difficult and this is their smallest plane but should work if there are many flights to and from SKP to Istanbul.
DeleteA319 is their smallest plane, after that comes A320. THY has less seats on all narrow body aircrafts then other airlines in Europe, for example their A321neo has less then 200 seats if i am not wrong.
DeleteOnce they get regional jets they'll be a dominant force in exyu.
ReplyDeleteWill wee see them sending wide bodies more in the region anytime soon?
ReplyDeleteOr any chance for any ex-Yu city to be permanently upgraded to an A330?
DeleteBelgrade realistically
DeleteI think their strategy seems to be adding frequencies.
DeleteBEG has definitely become one of the main airports in the Balkans for flights to Turkey.
ReplyDeleteS24
BEG-IST: 40 weekly
BEG-SAW: 8 weekly
BEG-ESB: 8 weekly
BEG-ADB: 4 weekly
We will see if more routes/frequencies are added.
It is really amazing.
DeleteIn addition to these figures we also have many charter flights between Serbia and Turkey during the summer.
The big one would be Antalya. Over 100,000+ annual passengers between Belgrade and Antalya on CHARTER flights. Let's see if TK/JU manage to make a deal about it.
DeleteImpressive
DeleteAny airline growing in the region is good news. Hope they keep increasing frequencies and destinations.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping Anadolujet launched more flights from Ankara to ex-Yu capitals.
ReplyDeleteSarajevo is a no brainer.
DeleteA jet*
Delete:P
^ True :D forgot they changed their name
DeleteAgree. I'm certain there would be demand.
DeleteThey are using AJET more and more in ex-Yu. Hope we get some new destinations with that too.
DeleteIt would be nice to see Anadolujet expand to ZAG and LJU too.
DeleteFlights to OHD for next summer are done deal.
ReplyDeletehave read that rare outgoing statement by a TAV CEO too
DeleteAir Montenegro will be toast on IST route.
ReplyDeleteTK should fly to more secondary airports in the region.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Flights to Split, Mostar or even Nis would be great.
DeleteSplit is not secondary airport. It is one of the main airports in the region with more than 3.000.000 passengers/year.
DeleteTK is back on full expansion mode.
ReplyDeletethe Turkish govt funds them on such a mission of global expansion.... lucky for them
DeleteIt is time for them to offer a second destination in Bosnia.
ReplyDeleteMany russians using tk nowadays
ReplyDeleteSo?
DeleteIt seems it's only a problem when JU benefits from it. When TK does so, it is amazing.
Delete+1
Deleteno its absolutely the same, Turkey and Serbia profiting
DeleteIs TK the foreign airline with the best coverage in ex-Yu?
ReplyDeleteNo, Lufthansa has more destinations, thanks to the Croatian coast. It also flies more routes because it has bases in Frankfurt and Munich.
DeleteUnfortunate they won't be using any widebodies anywhere on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteTK published a new presentation on its investor website: https://investor.turkishairlines.com/documents/presentations/turkish-airlines-strategy-presentation-vf.pdf
ReplyDeleteTruly astonishing what they want to achieve by 2033. When it comes to fleet expansion - on page 29 of the PDF, it looks like TK is expecting 30 other type ? Could the A220 or E2 be that of the other fleet type? This would allow them to launch flights to second-tier destinations in the Balkans.
Why is OU ignoring IST, look at that growth, they would make some money
ReplyDeleteLH is not flying to IST from MUC nor does OS from VIE
DeleteThat wasn't my question but ok.
DeleteBecause OU is only focused on flying to Munich from every city in Croatia.
Deleteok next try: Because they will have zero chances to compete with TK
DeleteBecause they don't exist for doing business, and for growth as an airline. They exist to feed LH by Mafia orders, to be sanctuary for Party uhljebs, and to provide additional income for selected individuals tied to high politics, through corruptive deals and actions. Everything else is irrelevant.
DeleteAir Montenegro, company with two Embraers in the fleet, competes with Turkish. I think they even grow operations. Not flying to top European airports while being legacy career of European country is just stupid.
Deletebtw the planned IST-SIN-OZ might boost some IST-ExYu traffic as well
ReplyDeleteAustralia flights are not happening any time soon. Australia will not grant them a permit.
Deletehttps://www.executivetraveller.com/news/turkish-airlines-australia-margot-robbie
Deletealso from hurriyetdailynews: (THY Board Chairman Ahmet Bolat) "A considerable number of Turkish Cypriots, Greeks and Macedonians are living in Australia, Bolat said, while voicing hope that some 500,000 to 600,0000 tourists from Australia would travel to Türkiye."
Delete"However, at least one detail reported by Hürriyet Daily News will raise eyebrows: Bolat is quoted as saying the flight from Istanbul to Australia “will involve a layover, a 10-hour stopover in Singapore, and then a further seven-hour journey to Australia.”"
DeleteYeah sounds fantastic.
TK flights to Australia will begin between March 15 and 25, 2024, via Singapore. Once TK will get the A350-1000, these flights will become non-stop from Istanbul. With the A350-1000s, other ULH destinations will be started out of IST (Buenos Aires, Santiago in Chile and Montevideo in Uruguay).
DeleteIts sad how JU, OU and everyone has just done nothing while TK has grown so much. and once they get those flights to australia there wont be much anyone can for for many mant years.
Deletesad to see aegean also didnt develop a long haul plan. athens would have also been successful flying to sydney and melbourne
Slav Man, Aegean are not interested in long-haul, because this does not enter their strategy. Plus, Olympic Airways was once a pioneer in long-haul, but this is no longer the case and Athens WAS successful and so was the Greek economy before 2008 - uncomparable with 2023.
DeleteAustralia is a super expensive destination and only really big players can operate there. You also need the perfect plane and product. Saying JU doing nothing is not true. You forgot about their recent expansions and flights to China and Chicago. They also began serving secondary cities in Europe and not only capitals.
OU has a very strong competition in the coast by tens of airlines and ZAG is a small market. It is also geographically close to big hubs unlike BEG. Again, both airlines are very small compared to TK, OS, LO, etc.
^ Which hubs is ZAG close to?
DeleteI hope they add more flights to SKP once they start to fly to Australia. Third daily flight in the afternoon is needed already.
Delete@15:24 Vienna, Budapest and Venice I guess.
DeleteBudapest is closer to Belgrade than Zagreb and I highly doubt anyone drives from Zagreb to Venice or Vienna to catch a flight.
DeleteBelgrade is far away from Zagreb. From Zagreb is closer Ljubljana, Graz, Venice, Vienna, Budapest than Belgrade.
DeleteI live in Zagreb and I know that people are going to Vienna or Venice for some flights (New York or etc.) On the other Hand, they are not going to Belgrade, especially because of the border and you never know if there is a lot of waiting. Vienna, Venice and Budapest are in the EU and Schengen area like Croatia.
DeleteZagreb is closer to budapest than Belgrade.
Delete“With the recent launch of flights to Tivat, the total number of destinations in the entire Balkan region has reached seventeen." - crazy!
ReplyDeleteFurther to the table above, here are their other weekly frequencies in the region:
CLJ - 7
CND - 8
VAR - 11
SKG - 14
SOF - 21
Guessing if they are considering BNX, might look into INI, SPU, TSR
What about OTP?
DeleteOTP is similar to BEG, SJJ and SOF - 21 but they operate quite a lot with the A330 especially the morning flights to IST. After all, Romania is a huge market, so no surprise.
DeleteFinally Sarajevo back to 3 daily after a few years. Last time they did that one of the flights was from Sabiha because of capacity restraints at IST.
ReplyDeleteYeah but now PGS has way more rotation and SunExpress steals some of the transfer traffic as direct
DeleteIn 2019 they planned third daily Skopje flight. They even put it on sale but then removed it. Don't know what happened.
ReplyDeleteCovid happened.
DeleteWe had covid in 2019?
DeleteGood to hear. Hope they eventually increase LJU too.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Tuzla? Any plans for them to fly there?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteFascinating to see Tivat get more IST flights than nearby Dubrovnik in top season.
ReplyDeleteThe P2P demand for Tvat is strong. DBV on the other hand is for Asian transfers.
DeleteThat means Tivat has more appeal to tourists from Istanbul than Dubrovnik.
DeleteIt has less to do with appeal and more to do with the fact that as a Turkish citizen you don't need a visa to enter Montenegro, while to enter Croatia you need a Schengen visa.
DeleteTurkish citizens need visa for EU/Schengen area. Croatia is EU/Schengen country, Montenegro is not, so...
DeleteDoesn't stop TK from flying 18 pw to ZAG and bringing tourists from other countries where visa is required.
DeleteMontenegro is more popular by Muslim traveler
DeleteI really hope they will consider transatlantic flights from an ex-Yu country soon.
ReplyDeleteI believe your hopes are too high and unrealistic, with minimum chances for realization
DeleteAgree with PIR, not gonna happen.
Deleteif it ever happens it will be from Skopje.
DeleteThere's no way that will happen, to say the least.
Delete@18:26 100% no doubt (if you can't say it already, I'm being sarcastic).
It wont happen but the ceo od TAV Skopje was in talks with Turkish for this route with fifth freedom flights.
DeleteYeah sure
DeleteWhat happened with JU flights to Ankara (4) and Izmir (2) this winter?
ReplyDeleteBoth are operating normally and flights are on sale.
DeleteAnkara was suspended for 1 month and Izmir looks like for 2 weeks. So I don't know about normally.
DeleteThanks. This is odd because Ankara was started last winter.
DeleteTickets for Ankara are on sale and available.
DeleteYes, you already wrote that once. But it was suspended for a month, that was the point.
DeleteI see that Turkish-Anadolujet operate Ankara and Izmir on behalf of Air Serbia until April, am I wrong?
DeleteYes you are wrong. It operates both routes alongside Air Serbia.
DeleteHence, I was not wrong, JU will resume flights to Ankara and Izmir from April.
DeleteHence, you are wong as both routes are currently operated by JU.
DeleteThere was already a gap in flights to Ankara for a month, and with some flights around New Year there will be a gap of 3 months for both JU flights, to Izmir and Ankara. And we shall se if Izmir will start in April.
DeleteI am surprised that TK wont increase SKP flights. Considering the huge and constant increase of pax numbers at skp is odd to me that they keep the same frequencies. SKP handles 240k pax in November, up 54% when compared to last year which is very good result for one of the slowest and poorest months of the year for the airlines. I bet Pegasus steals their p2p pax as for a year now they use the A321neo 8 times a week instead of A320, maybe 5% of the total flights were not operated with the longer neo version. Still surprised. Not to mention that everybody from Australia traveled with TK this summer.
ReplyDelete