Turkish Airlines has scaled back its planned expansion to Zagreb and Ljubljana, while also reducing frequencies to Sarajevo and Pristina. In Zagreb, the carrier initially intended to introduce three additional weekly red-eye flights from July 2, bringing the total to 24 weekly services. However, after postponing the launch to July 23, the airline has further adjusted its schedule. It will now operate 23 weekly flights between Istanbul and the Croatian capital from July 28, decreasing to 21 weekly from September 1, and 20 weekly from September 8.
In Ljubljana, Turkish Airlines increased its frequencies from fourteen to eighteen weekly flights in mid-June. However, services will be temporarily reduced to sixteen weekly for the week starting August 4, before increasing to seventeen weekly until October. The schedule is then set to return to eighteen weekly flights, although the airline has yet to finalise its October timetable. In Sarajevo, one weekly rotation will be cut in August, reducing operations from 24 to 23 weekly flights, and from a planned 21 to 20 weekly in September. Similarly, in Pristina, frequencies will be reduced from fourteen to thirteen weekly flights in both August and September.
This week, Turkish Airlines cancelled more than 100 flights for both August and September, cutting over 22.000 seats in each month. The airline has not provided an official explanation for the cancellations. Turkish Airlines continues to be affected by the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G GTF engine issues on its Airbus A320neos, though the ratio of grounded aircraft has improved as more spares have become available on the market. It is unclear whether these cancellations are in relation to engine inspections, although almost all the cancelled flights are on short and medium-haul services. The carrier’s Chairman, Ahmet Bolat, said recently, “I expect that [engine] issue will be solved completely in three to four years”. Around thirty A320neo aircraft will remain grounded by the end of 2025, a noticeable drop from a previous peak of 45 grounded aircraft.
They keep doing this every year
ReplyDeleteSimilar as Aegean
Deleteand LH
DeleteYes. They last cut ex-Yu flights in February.
DeleteP&W has really screwed over its most loyal customers.
DeleteI think that they started to use it as an excuse for everything.
DeleteOne third of the global P&W fleet grounded is not an excuse but a sad reality for the airlines that made the mistake of ordering their A320s with this engine.
DeleteNot the heaviest cuts, could have been a lot worse
ReplyDeleteTK usually do it that way. They cut 1 or 2 flights but they cut on a lot of destinations.
Delete30 grounded planes is a lot!
ReplyDeletePlus if it takes 3-4 years to bring all of them back to service it is a significant hit on capacity.
DeleteI know sincr the beggining that all increase to this certain airports was a huge bite and was too much , and it comes true in the end..... so Skopje and Podgorica staying the same frequencies no any changes...??
ReplyDeleteBelgrade isn't also cut so that mean BEG, SKP, TGD and OHD have no cuts. I am not surprised by the ZAG cuts. Those middle of the night flights would never be popular. JU tried them as well and they barely had 30 passengers on the ATR.
DeleteOHD has been downgraded from year round to seasonal. It was reported here a few weeks ago.
Delete^ Same with Dubrovnik
DeleteOh my, it's really not good. I remember when people said how the economy was a problem people laughed at them. I don't see them laughing now when almost all of their regional network has been reduced.
DeleteNot only econony , Ohrid is city with 20k population and it is impossible to have enough passengers during all year , it will work only from March until Octomber after that barely there is outside tourists....but SKP,BEG,TGD stays not touched which is good and real frequencies not just pumped ones...
DeleteDubrovnik is bigger then Ohrid have sea and more then that ... :D I was surprise that they also cut too
DeleteTBH Ohrid and Dubrovnik having completly the same population. But for sure Dubrovnik has more tourists.
DeleteEach year you are lowering Ohrid's population. How on Earth have you counted 20k inhabitants in Ohrid?
DeleteAnd it's not just the local population, the route takes much greater area than Ohrid. Additionally, Turks are the largest group of foreigners that visit Macedonia especially Ohrid.
I'm sire if they haven't grounded ~30 aircraft the would have continued the route all year long.
Maybe the route did not perform well? I think it was reported on here that the first flights had like 80 passengers.. This is a route best served by a regional jet like KVO-IST.
DeleteThey will cut in October too. They just haven't gotten around to it yet
ReplyDeleteMost of A320neo family aircraft that are grounded are part of AJet's fleet. Turkish only has 6 neo grounded.
ReplyDeleteSo why they cancel over 100 flights then?
DeleteWell probably poor demand on select flights.
Delete@9.04 not true at all. Love it when people make stuff up here.
DeleteSource: Trust me bro!
DeleteAnon 09.11
DeleteNo need to be sassy when there are ways to check it online. A total of 10 A321neo are currently grounded. This is proof enough that these cuts are not because they don't have planes but because flights are not selling as planned. As they would say: ouch.
https://www.planespotters.net/airline/Turkish-Airlines
Of course they are cutting flights to countries that require visas for their citizens. Of course demand is softer
DeleteUnfortunate. But like someone said, could have been a lot worse.
ReplyDeleteThis has to do with the crisis in the Middle East and the falling demand. Places like SKP and BEG have enough O&D demand to compensate.
ReplyDeleteSKP frequencies is great and its not changed with a years so far which just describes the real amount of demand needed for certain route and airline. Its good they not forcing this scenario to SKP and BEG so far
DeleteBut SKP frequnecies have not grown in years. In ZAG and LJU these were extra frequnecies. They are still operating more flights than last year.
DeleteYes but in SKP they keep on sending widebodies and it is very often.
DeleteIn BEG they codeshare with JU so they have extra capacity. For example there is no need for the night flight to BEG when JU had their own 00.45 departure to IST.
In the last year, Turkish Airlines has deployed a wide-body aircraft to Skopje once (yesterday for the European Youth Summer Olympic Festival). it was also the first time a wide-body has been deployed on this route since 2022.
DeleteSad
ReplyDelete