airberlin Turkey Ready for Launch

A new joint venture between German carrier airberlin and Turkish operator Pegasus Airlines began operations on November 1 offering flights between the two countries. The charter partnership has been established to provide additional flight options for German travellers to Antalya and will operate with a fleet of two Boeing 737-800s which will carry their own logo word ‘Turkey’ in cursive above the normal airberlin script.

The start-up’s inaugural flight took place between Antlaya and Stuttgart on the morning of November 1 with its network set to expand to 14 German cities which will be served with 31 weekly flights during the Northern Winter schedules. Destinations include Berlin, Bremen, Cologne/Bonn, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Leipzig/Halle, Munich, Münster/Osnabrück, Nuremberg and Paderborn.

"With airberlin Turkey, we are bringing a product to market that positions us very strongly on the Turkish tourism market. Furthermore, with airberlin Turkey, we are now, for the first time, including flights to Turkey in our winter flight schedule,” explained Detlef Altmann, Director of Tourism Marketing, airberlin.

The new airline represents a deepening of the relationship between the two European operators and follows the launch of a codeshare arrangement in September. airberlin Turkey will continue to operate during the Summer 2012 schedules and its operational plans are currently being finalised. “We are planning to operate up to six aircraft by then,” added Detlef Altmann.

An estimated 6.8 million O&D passengers travelled on scheduled services between Germany and Turkey in the past year, a market that has grown by almost a quarter (23.2 per cent) in the previous 12 months. Just over two million of these passengers (30.4 per cent) began or ended their journey in Antlaya, the largest flow and a figure that would be considerably higher when you factor in the additional charter traffic.