THY Boosts Manchester Service

Turkish Airlines (THY) is to increase the frequency of its flights between Istanbul and Manchester by around 40 per cent this summer as it introduces an additional three weekly rotations on the route. The carrier currently offers a daily service between the cities but will add two further rotations from March 25, 2012 and a tenth flight from May 28, 2012.

The three new rotations will be operated using a Boeing 737-800: the existing flights are scheduled to be flown using a mix of Airbus and Boeing short-haul equipment. THY is currently the sole operator on the route, although UK low-fare carrier Jet2.com is due to launch a twice weekly service from mid-March.

THY has served the route since 1993 and has witnessed many peaks and troughs in passenger demand. However, in the past five years the estimated O&D traffic has grown by a fifth to 6,000 in the year ending September 2011. But, it is not all about point-to-point traffic as THY has a wider strategy to develop as one of the world’s leading hub carriers and is expanding its network and fleet to support this.

According to estimates around 49 per cent of passengers on the Istanbul – Manchester service currently connect to other destinations from Istanbul Ataturk Airport, including additional destinations in Turkey, Ercan in Northern Cyprus and large flows also reported to cities in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria and Jordan.