Turkish Airlines to start Sydney-Istanbul flights this year

With Melbourne-Istanbul flights now underway, Turkish Airlines intends to begin flying to Sydney by year’s end.

Speaking to media following the arrival of the inaugural flight from Istanbul to Melbourne, Turkish Airlines chairman Professor Ahmet Bolat confirmed Sydney is next on the list, with flights “of four days a week this year.”

The flights would run on either an Airbus A350 or Boeing 787, both of which sport Turkish Airlines’ flatbed business class seat in a 1-2-1 arrangement.

This would give Turkish Airlines daily flights to Australia, with three flights per week to Melbourne and the remainder to Sydney – although daily flights to both Melbourne and Sydney “is our strategic target,” Bolat told Executive Traveller.

The Sydney-Istanbul flights will make a short stopover at Singapore, although non-stop flights to Sydney and Melbourne are on the radar when the Star Alliance member takes delivery of new long-range Airbus A350-1000 jets.

As is the case with Melbourne, Turkish Airlines will also sell Sydney-Singapore and Singapore-Sydney legs of the Istanbul flight: something Bolat has previously described as “really a crucial factor” for the Australian routes.

This opens up another option for Sydney-Singapore travellers on a corridor already crowded by Qantas, Singapore Airlines and low-cost carrier Scoot.

However, while the airline can run a total of 21 return flights per week between Australia and Istanbul, with room for further growth to 28 flights per week from October 2024 and 35 per week from October 2025, chairman Bolat says “we are going to stick with Sydney and Melbourne.”

“Other cities (like) Perth and Brisbane are not on our list right now,” Bolat admitted, “but we have already daily codeshares connecting through Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta” where travellers can join a Turkish Airlines flight.

As Turkish Airlines ramps up its push into Australian skies, the airline is offering a free status match to woo Qantas frequent flyers across to its Miles&Smiles loyalty programme.

You can also lounge access, extra baggage and other top frequent flyer perks on Turkish Airlines with this fast track to Star Alliance Gold status.