Turkish Airlines in North America. Two new routes a year; geography favours it versus Gulf airlines

North America is Turkish Airlines' fastest growing passenger region. The region forms a relatively small proportion of its total network, but contributes five of the airline's top 10 international routes by ASKs (Istanbul to New York is the biggest). Turkish has a strong load factor on its North American operations, although this has slipped in 2015.

However, there is no sign that Turkish plans to ease back on the throttle. After launching services from Istanbul to Boston and Montreal in 2014, it started San Francisco this summer and will add Miami this winter to give a total of 10 North American destinations. In 2016, it will commence flights to Atlanta.

Turkish is the sole operator on all but one of its USA/Canada routes from Istanbul (and its only competitor, to Toronto, is also a codeshare partner). This clearly positions it strongly in the Turkey-North America O&D market. However, such a rapid expansion requires additional feed and the region is also part of Turkish Airlines' global connecting strategy. Its expansion brings increased competition with the much more highly publicised Gulf-based super-connectors in North America, but Turkish should not fear this.