There’s been a lot of bubbling about Turkish Airlines operating a direct service between Istanbul and Sydney… and its been troubling me how this is going to work… IF it’s going to work

Firstly, sheer direct traffic connections – is there enough local traffic to support such a route? Even if extra traffic comes from connecting travellers, will it be enough to sustain the route in the long term? I’m honestly not sure – there’s presume already thanks to the Falcon route (Emirates/Qantas via Dubai) and the Kangaroo Route (Hong Kong/Singapore/Bangkok).

The time on board – for those of you who don’t want to work out how long you’re aboard the plane, it’s roughly 16 hours aboard (assuming an equivalent ground speed of 600mph). That’s a hell of a long time to be in a seat- be it in a plush Business Bed, a reasonable Premium Economy seat or a crammed up Economy Seat

The length of the route is of major concern too. The route is almost the same distance (give or take 500 miles) than Singapore Airlines A30-500 Business class flight between Singapore and Newark. Considering Singapore Airlines is chopping the A340-500′s from its fleet shortly due to the cost of what can be described as a flying tanker for most of the flight. Turkish Airlines maybe considering using a 777-300ER for this… but is that the right equipment?

Whilst this could be a great promotional flight, I don’t honestly think it will work without a stopover (or a fifth freedom flight) – least of all due to fuel, but also to get more passengers both up and down route.

Unless I’m reading the market completely wrong… I have my doubts on this one.

What do you think?

Turkish Airlines is busy bolstering its future fleet. After the announcement it was purchasing Airbus A320neo aircraft, the airline has gone to Boeing to further expand its fleet

The airline will be ordering 95 aircraft – 70 on a new order, 25 on options. The break down is a mixed group:

• 65 Boeing 737-8 MAX
• 10 Boeing 737-9 MAX
• 20 Boeing 737-800′s

Delivery of the aircraft will commence in 2016 and will continue to 2021.

It’s amazing to see that orders for new planes are now stretching into the 2020′s – considering it is 2013 at the moment.

For some airlines, it’s the only way to order the capacity they need for future needs…

Turkish Airlines are preparing to increase their services to the Scottish capital.

The current service operates 4 days a week between Istanbul and Edinburgh.

This is due to a 5 day a week service from 31st March. The next jump to a 7 day a week (daily service) will be from 20th May.

The route is operated by Turkish Airlines Airbus A319 and Boeing 737-800, with equipment varying as needed.

In the background, Turkish Airlines have been beavering away, adding more services to regional destinations, boosting its feed European feed into its growing long haul network, with Manchester and Birmingham also receiving service boosts in the past 12 months.

It’s Sunday again, so it must be time for some more airplane art.

This week, over a blue, yet cloudy sky over Heathrow is a Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 taking off for Istanbul.

The image is clickable if you want to see a larger version – and yes you can keep them for your desktops!

More airplane art next week!

In the rush of yesterdays sale of 49% of Virgin Atlantic from Singapore Airlines to Delta, there was some other interesting news of a Boeing 777 nature.

And it seems the popularity of the 777-300ER continues with two airlines signing for more aircraft.

First up is China Airlines, who are to order 6 777-300ER’s.

China Airlines 777-300ER’s are due to replace the airlines older Airbus A340-300 aircraft to reduce fuel costs and operating efficiencies.

The six aircraft are scheduled for delivery from 2014.

Second up is Turkish Airlines who seem to be on a spending spree at the moment, with orders for 15 777-300ER’s and options for an additional 5 frames.

Turkish Airlines are on an expansion spree at the moment, aiming to boost its fleet to 400 aircraft by 2020.

Deliveries are of these aircraft are due between 2014 and 2017.

Third up, is American Airlines who after a bit of delay have taken delivery of their first 777-300ER.

Another little fact of the day – whilst a lot of US Airlines have taken delivery of Boeing 777 variations (777-200, 777-200ER, 777-200-LR), American will be the first US airline to order and take delivery of the Boeing 777-300ER.

American will deploying its 777-300ER between Dallas/Fort Worth and Sao Paulo, due to commence on 31st January 2013. Economy travellers may wish to look for other aircraft AA have configured their 777′s to be dense down the back of the plane (in a 3-4-3 configuration in economy)

There we go – three bits of 777 news!

It’s Saturday again, so its time to place your luggage in the overhead bins, stow your tray tables and ensure your seatbelts are fastened as it’s time for this week’s Safety Video.

This week, it’s Turkish Airlines with Manchester United (The football club – the game that uses spherical balls played for 90 minutes with a single 15 minute break in the middle and has very little carrying in it) doing the safety video.

More safety next week!

After picking up some A330′s from Airbus last week, it seems Turkish want some more Boeing 777′s.

The order is for 15 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, with options for 5 more – a total of 20 aircraft.

Subject to agreements, the following delivery schedulde is planning for these new planes:

• Three 777-300ER’s  will be delivered in 2014,
• Seven 777-300ER’s  will be delivered in 2015,
• Five 777-300ER’s  will be delivered in 2016
• Five 777-300ER’s  will be delivered in 2017

It’s unclear when the option aircraft will be delivered, but a quick guess would be as a tail-end to the order – the 2017 deliveries.

When all agreed – and if the options are taken up, at list prices the agreement will be worth $4.7 billion at list prices

Turkish Airlines are on an ambitious growth spurt and is looking to the narrow body fleet next. Whilst there are some economics running a single class of fleet, Turkish appear to be going down the line of fleets for specific missions that will give them better yield factors – not a bad thing at all.

It seems Turkish Airlines are in the mood to buy, with the airline purchasing 15 Airbus A330-300′s from Airbus with option for 5 more.

The aircraft will be used for expansion purposes and fleet renewal.

Delivery of the aircraft will be split over three years:

• Four Aircraft to be delivered in 2014
• Six Aircraft to be delivered in 2015
• Five Aircraft to be delivered in 2016

As well as the A330-300′s, Turkish Airlines are also considering expanding their Boeing 777-300ER fleet.

It seems Turkish are gearing up for some major capacity changes. The airline operates 12 A330′s already, so even if all of those are swapped over to new aircraft, that leaves 3 extra aircraft to send around the world – and we all know the A330 is a very flexible aircraft (especially the -300 which is payload optimised).

It wouldn’t surprise me to see these new birds in the Far East shortly after delivery…

As a lot of you know, BMI has left Star Alliance. Now whilst I matched to Lufthansa Miles and More Senator, lets be blunt – unless I’m extremely creative 100,000 miles to re-qualify for SEN is going to be an impossibility.

So I have to look to other possibilities – and Aegean and Turkish Airlines seem to be matching BMI status for status. Although Aegean has a lower qualifying requirement some of the Economy Class fares don’t earn a lot (or nothing at all) when credited to that airline. Turkish on the other hand will credit at 100%.

Considering my policy of “Earn at the back, burn at the front” and that “every mile counts”, it was a no-brainer for me to select Turkish Airlines.

A few days ago, an unassuming plastic covered envelop popped through the door, and this is what I got…

Lets rip open plastic and see what’s inside

Well lookie here. There’s nice open wallet here with a welcome letter, luggage tags and more importantly, a Star Alliance Gold card. in here – the useful bit!

Welcome letter and card – Personal details redacted

Welcome Letter

Luggage tags (yes, I’m a sucker for shiny luggage tags).

Looking at the kit – whilst small say to the box I got mailed by BMI each year – it contains the things I need and want (namely the Star Alliance Gold card).

Not a bad effort there Turkish Airlines. I like what I see.

It seems that people can’t live without WiFi or the Interwebs for a few hours in the air. Turkish Airlines will be filling this need with planes to equip it’s 12 Boeing 777-300ER’s and 10 Airbus A330-300′s with WiFi hotspots.

The first one is already rolled out, with plans for a quick deployment through the rest of Turkish Airlines long haul fleet.

You’ll be able to use your device of choice (Smartphone, tablet, laptop, other WiFi device) and for those who are desperate to keep up to date on their corporate going-ons VPN access will be available on their network

In the initial phase the service will be offered free of charge. Of course, nothing is free as we all know, and after what Turkish Airlines call “an introductory period”, WiFi will be available for purchase. Prices of course have not been disclosed, however if it’s anything like Oman Air – or for that matter any airline who rolls out Satellite based Internet, expect it to be expensive….

It’s Friday, so it’s time to have a quick wibble around the web to find out who’s doing what.

JAL – Seems like *everyone* is interested in them

JAL has a few suitors after it now – Delta and American as reported before and now Air France has tipped it’s hat into the ring.

BBC News, Flight, CrankyFlyer

American Airlines – One Beeillon Dollars!

With no apology to Doctor Evil, American Airlines has got a nice $1 Billion dollar miles for cash swap with CitiBank to offer as incentives for bank accounts. In a separate development, they’ve agreed a sell and lease back on some of their new orders totalling $1.6 Billon. With Extra money, thats nearly $3Bn raised

$3 Billion Dollars eh. That’s a lot of cash. Almost enough to buy a share in a partner airline….

BBC News

American Airlines goes where Delta and BA goes before – opens MAN-JFK route

Some good news for Manchester Airport and it’s TATL services (which are dropping like flies) – As Delta has pulled the MAN-JFK route, AA will be moving into the route to cover it.

With the loss of the BMI and BA routes this year, it’s a good news blip at least.

TravelMole

 Jet Airways – Back to normal

In news for fliers on Jet Airways (India), the management has agreed to meet the pilots demands with the re-instatement of 4 pilots. All leagle action has been dropped.

All’s well that ends well.

Flight

American do triangles – Starts BRU > LHR > BOS service.

In a move to protect slots and increase utilisation, AA is copying United and starting a Brussels > London > Boston service.

Anything to protect a slot at LHR these days…

Flight

THY (Turkish) gets finance for an Easy A321

Turkish airlines are increasing their fleet with a purchase of a 2008 Airbus A321. Finance has been secured for it for 10 years. Hopefully they got a bargain price for it!

Flight

Singapore Airlines WhaleJet increases to 10 – now larger than 747-400 fleet

Singapore Airlines who believe that the only good body is a wide one have taken delivery of their 10th A380 series aircraft, which now puts it in the position of having more A380s that 747′s.

747 fans will cry – SQ will be removing them from fleet by the end of 2011 fiscal year.

Now SQ, play nice with the rest of Star Alliance and release some redemption seats please in Suites, First and Business Class!

Flight, Flyertalk

Virgin Nigeria looses its Virginity – becomes Nigeria Eagle Airways

As the Virgin Atlantic group gets more annoyed, Virgin Nigera gets a new tailfin and becomes Nigeria Eagle Airways. It will continue to operate ERJ-170 series and Boeing 737′s – whilst long haul services are still suspended (with possibly very little chance of coming back at the moment)

Virgin Atlantic is still seeking to shed it’s 49% of Nigeria Eagle Airways. That could be used for a good purpose – like buying a UK rival…

Virgin Blue shopping for new B737′s

Virgin blue is on the shop for replacement Boeing 737 series aircraft to replace it’s older aircraft. The requisition is for 30-50 aircraft.  Whilst not that old – their aircraft range from 2001 to 2007, new aircraft always look nice and if there’s a bargin to be had.. they’ll take it.

Happy shopping blueys…

Next Gen A320… 2024 anyone?

Sadly, Next Generation aircraft will be taking their time to arrive and develop to try and bring new benefits. This is sadly the case of the replacement for the A320 class according to Airbus. They may have new engines – but no new concept for some time.

And that’s it for the news this week. More of course from the wacky world of aviation news next week!