BACK AGAIN: TURKISH AIRLINES HAS TRIPLE DAILY BOEING 777 CHINA FLIGHTS THIS SUMMER
Like many other carriers, Turkish Airlines is increasingly boosting China services. Come the peak summer, it will have triple-daily passenger flights, the same frequency as it had more than three years ago in the pre-pandemic period.
Turkish Airlines to China
According to Cirium data supplied by Turkey's flag carrier, it had 12 departing passenger flights from Istanbul to China this January. As the border reopened and things slowly returned to normal, they rose to 19 in February, 28 in March, 39 in April, and 51 in May. There are now 64 in June. It would be interesting to examine loads and fares.
Come July, there will be 90 departures (almost but not quite three flights each day), rising the pre-pandemic level from August. Flights are to China's three primary cities, as summarized below.
| Turkish Airlines to... | August+ flights | Aircraft | Departs Istanbul | Arrives | Departs | Arrives Istanbul | Find flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beijing Capital | Daily | 777-300ER | 01:25 | 15:35 | 00:10 | 05:25 | |
| Guangzhou | Daily | 777-300ER | 01:15/01:20 | 16:35/16:40 | 23:00/23:15 | 05:15+1/05:30+1 | |
| Shanghai Pudong | Daily | 777-300ER | 01:25 | 16:45 | 22:25 | 05:15+1 |
Each is scheduled to use Turkish Airlines' 349-seat Boeing 777-300ERs, with 49 seats in business – the highest quantity of all its aircraft – and 300 in economy. The 777-300ER is also great for freight, clearly essential for China.
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Carried 600,000+ China passengers
Using booking data for the full year of 2019 shows that it transported an estimated 629,000 roundtrip passengers to/from China. As it had 763,000 seats for sale, it achieved a seat load factor of about 82%, just above its system international SLF of 81% that year.
Analysis of traffic informs that nearly one in four passengers (24%) were point-to-point: they only flew between China and Istanbul. They didn't connect. More than seven in ten (71%) transited Turkish Airlines' enormous Istanbul hub, while those who transited in China and bridged both Istanbul and China airports were about 5%.
Where its China passengers go
Breaking down booking data further indicates that approximately two-thirds of the 446,000 passengers who transited Istanbul (China-Istanbul-XXX and XXX-Istanbul-China) traveled to/from Europe.
North Africa was the next most popular market, then West/Central Africa, the Middle East, and South America. China-wide Turkey was the most popular at the country level, then Ukraine (obviously cannot be served now), Germany, Algeria, Italy, Greece, UK, Spain, Romania, and Serbia.
More passengers traveled Beijing-Istanbul-Algiers than any other China origin and destination, with the top 10 shown in the (somewhat hard to read) map above. Guangzhou-Algiers was the second most popular market.
Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai
Beijing's top 10 transit markets over Istanbul were Algiers, Ankara, Kyiv, Odesa, Belgrade, Bucharest, Athens, Izmir, Gaziantep, and Tel Aviv. For Guangzhou, they were pretty different: Algiers, Dakar, Tel Aviv, Kyiv, Casablanca, Kinshasa, Belgrade, Athens, Odesa, and Beirut. The importance of Africa is clear.
Finally, Shanghai's most popular were Bucharest, Athens, Kyiv, Odesa, Tel Aviv, Algiers, Izmir, Ankara, São Paulo, and Belgrade. Flying Sao Paulo-Istanbul-Shanghai was just 0.02% (!) longer, distance-wise, than what a non-stop would be. Yet the Star Alliance carrier captured relatively little of the Brazil-China market.
Are you traveling to China this summer? If so, let us know in the comments.
2023-06-06T11:14:19Z dg43tfdfdgfd