Short-Haul Widebodies: Turkish Airlines Has Twin-Aisle Planes On 35 European Routes

Turkish Airlines

IATA/ICAO Code

TK/THY

Airline Type

Full Service Carrier

Hub(s)

Istanbul Airport

Year Founded

1933

Alliance

Star Alliance

CEO

Bilal Ekşi

Country

Turkey

In May, Turkish Airlines uses widebodies on 35 routes from its enormous Istanbul Airport hub to Europe, the Caucasus, and wider Turkey. (Some may not like the Caucasus and Turkey being included.) Last year, Istanbul was the world’s second-busiest airport globally for international passengers.

Turkish Airlines generally uses its widebodies in a clear way. They’re deployed in-between medium- and long-haul services, helping to increase overall utilization. For example, the B777-300ER to Athens this morning flew overnight from Singapore.

More importantly, they enable larger markets to use bigger aircraft to feed, or be fed by, peak departures and arrivals when demand is higher and more capacity is needed.

12% of flights

The latest OAG data shows that, across all aircraft types, Turkish Airlines has 10,469 departures from its Istanbul hub across Europe, the Caucasus, and wider Turkey in May.

Widebodies have 1,258 of these, or 12 in every 100 flights. If only international is considered, it rises to nearly one in every five.

The 1,258 monthly departures, around 40 a day, may seem a lot, but it is still down by a fifth over the pre-pandemic. Still, May 2022 has the third-highest number of widebody departures in the past decade.

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35 routes see widebodies

The 35 routes involve 18 countries. Turkey has the most departures, followed by Germany, the UK, Netherlands, and Spain.

Given the importance of Germany to Turkish Airlines, seven cities see widebodies. In order of flights: Berlin; Frankfurt; Düsseldorf; Hamburg; Munich; Stuttgart; and Hannover.

Stuttgart sees them five times (May 14th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 30th with two flights) and Hannover only once (29th). But it all counts.

Turkish Airlines’ 277 Passenger Destinations In May

Amsterdam is top

Some 18 of the 35 routes have a 1x daily or more widebody service, with the top ten shown below.

Istanbul to Amsterdam rules, perhaps aided by its slot situation. But if the proportion of widebody flights is examined, Bucharest leads the top list. Eight in every ten flights on the short, 264-mile (425km) route, which often takes an hour, is by them.

• Amsterdam: 121 departures; between 3x and 4x daily (78% of flights by widebodies)
• London Heathrow: 93; 3x daily (53%)
• Moscow Vnukovo: 82; between 1x and 4x daily (53%)
• Bucharest: 75; between 2x and 3x daily (81%)
• Antalya: 71; between 1x and 5x daily (14%)
• Berlin: 64; between 1x and 3x daily (55%)
• Paris CDG: 64; between 2x and 3x daily (34%)
• Frankfurt: 64; between 2x and 3x daily (58%)
• Izmir: 62; 2x daily (14%)

Mainly about the A330-300

The following provides a breakdown of widebody use this month. It’s enormously about the A330, as you’d expect, given they’re Turkish Airlines’ primary twin-aisles.

Perhaps more interesting is the A350-900, the model responsible for more ultra-long-haul flights globally, albeit not by Turkish Airlines.

Only 3% of Turkish Airlines’ widebody services to Europe, the Caucasus, and wider Turkey are by the A350. Some days don’t see them, others up to 2x.

Despite having only six A350s, a larger proportion of the type’s total flights are to these areas than the B777 and B787.

Type	Departures in May 2022	% of wide/b flights to the areas	Number of routes	Top three routes in the areas examined
A330-300	702	56%	32	Amsterdam, Bucharest, Frankfurt
A330-200	258	21%	28	Vnukovo, Baku, Bucharest
B777-300ER	177	14%	11	Heathrow, Izmir, Athens
B787-9	84	7%	11	Amsterdam, Berlin, Heathrow
A350-900	37	3%	8	CDG, Ankara, Bodrum

Will you be traveling to, from, or through Istanbul this summer? Let us know in the comments.

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