Turkish Airlines Adds Kharkov Link

Turkish Airlines (THY) is to expand its network to the Ukraine with the introduction of a twice weekly connection between Istanbul and Kharkiv, the second largest city in the former Soviet Republic. The new route will be introduced from March 13, 2012 and will increase THY’s network in the country to seven destinations.

This summer THY will offer 49 weekly frequencies to Ukraine, by far the largest operator into the Eastern European country from Turkey. Alongside the new route to Kharkiv the airline will offer 13 flights per week to Kiev; eleven to Odessa; eight to Dontesk; seven to Simferopol; five to Dnepropetrovsk and three to Lviv. THY will face no direct competition between Istanbul Ataturk and Kharkiv, although Pegasus Airlines does provide a regular link to the Ukraine city from Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen. An estimated 42,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year.

In the wider market an estimated 508,000 O&D passengers travelled between Turkey and Ukraine in 2011 with THY holding a 45.2 per cent share of this traffic. Alongside the Turkish carrier, Aerosvit Airlines also provides flights from Istanbul to Dnepropetrovsk, Kiev, Odessa and Simferopol; Onur Air has links from Istanbul Ataturk to Odessa and Pegasus Airlines serves the Istanbul Sabiha Gkocen – Donetsk route alongside its flights to Kharkiv.

As the table below illustrates, traffic between Turkey and Ukraine has grown significantly during the past two years, returning to a figure close to the market high that was recorded in 2008. THY has actually seen its share of traffic between the two counties fall during the past 24 months from 53.4 per cent in 2009 to 45.2 per cent last year. This has been mainly due to growth at Aerosvit Airlines and more recently the expansion of low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines into Ukrainian markets.

This summer Ukraine is jointly hosting the European Football Championships with Poland and although Turkey failed to qualify for the tournament, THY can still expect some traffic for the event to connect via its expanding hub in Istanbul. The airline now serves over 170 destinations from Istanbul Ataturk with its 2,085 weekly flights providing more than 365,000 seats from the city, a 74.1 per cent share of the total available seat capacity from the airport.