Auckland Airport is talking to Turkish Airlines, one of the world’s biggest carriers, about New Zealand flights but cautions the carrier’s arrival may be some time off.
While reports from Australia detail possible services, including a Singapore stopover, AKL’s chief customer officer Scott Tasker says he’d categorise THY’s New Zealand plans as “aspirational.’’ The airline’s bosses have spoken publicly about flying to this country. “The right term is an aspiration to fly to AKL at some point in the future, which is fantastic, and of course we would welcome that. It would be great for AKL and New Zealand to be joined to one of the world’s largest connecting hubs in Istanbul.’’ AKL has been talking to the airline. “We’re active in our air service development function and they are an airline that we have engaged with and we are [still] engaging with,’’ says Tasker. “We’ll keep having a conversation with them and it’s great that they’ve spoken publicly.’’ He says it’s ‘one of those slightly longer-burning conversations’ and like other airlines they need some more aircraft delivered to enable them to fly here.
TK last year carried 230 million passengers to more than 130 countries—and is the airline with the biggest international network. The airline began services to Sydney and Melbourne last year with stopovers in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Initial services to AKL would include a similar stop but the airline has plans to operate a modified long-range A350-1000 to fly non-stop to Australia, possibly as early as next year. The direct flight to New Zealand could then also be an option. TK has 15 A350-1000s on order and could fit them out with premium heavy cabins and modify fuel tanks as Qantas is doing with the aircraft for its Project Sunrise flights. Tasker cited the entry of Middle Eastern airlines Emirates and Qatar to this region as a possible template for future air development here. “These globally-connected airlines will naturally go to Australia first and they’ll look at what else is in the region.’’ Under a 2010 air services agreement, New Zealand airlines can serve any point in Turkey, via any intermediate point, and beyond to any other point. Airlines from Turkey have reciprocal rights. TK chairman Ahmet Bolat discussed plans to launch services to Minneapolis and also to AKL, Turkish website Turizm Ekonomi reported earlier this year. Flights via Singapore would pit TK directly against its Star Alliance partners, Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines. As of Jun last year, TK had a fleet comprising 125 twin-aisle and 307 single-aisle passenger aircraft and 25 cargo aircraft. It had a total workforce of 56,000. Simon Russell, md of Eagle Aviation Consulting says its ‘a sitter’ TK will come here given the expansion of aviation in Turkey and the airline’s new operations in Australia.
