Turkish Air ups flights out of India

Turkish Airlines on Monday announced the launch of daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Istanbul. The airline wants to connect Hyderabad and Chennai in the next phase of expansion here.

“We are studying other routes in India. The destinations include Hyderabad and Chennai. We may start these flights from 2010,” CEO Temel Kotil said.

Though Turkish Airlines is bullish on India as an aviation destination, it has no immediate plans to acquire a stake in any Indian carrier.

The Union civil aviation ministry is at present pushing for a proposal to allow foreign airlines to acquire minority stake in Indian carriers.

With seven flights each from Mumbai and Delhi, the airline would be exhausting its existing bilateral rights of 14 services a week, but Kotil was hopeful that more rights would be granted. So far, the Turkish carrier had four flights a week from Delhi and three a week from Mumbai.

Kotil said the main attraction for Indian travellers to fly on Turkish Airlines would be its connectivity to Europe(including Russia), Middle East and Africa. Via Istanbul, Turkish Airlines would offer connections to 93 destinations including those in Germany, France, the UK and Russia.
 
With the launch of daily flights from Mumbai and Delhi from Monday, the airline will be increasing the number of seats by 20%, Kotil said.

Turkish Airlines has 127 aircraft now and has placed orders for 105 more, worth $6 billion, over the next eight years.