Turkish Airlines: narrowing the strategic Gulf: Part 2

Rapid growth in Turkish Airlines' passenger numbers has been driven by international traffic, in particular international-to-international transfer traffic. By region, North America, Africa and the Far East have seen the highest growth rates, but Europe remains its biggest region by passenger numbers. This strategy has parallels with those of Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad. In part two of our analysis, we compare Turkish Airlines' network with those of the latter three.

The geographic location of its Istanbul hub means that, compared with the three Gulf carriers, it is closer to Europe, North America, Latin America, North and West Africa (and western parts of Central Africa). Relative to Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad, it has a low percentage of its international seats on routes to Africa and, most strikingly, to Asia-Pacific.

In spite of operating narrowbody aircraft (more than 80% of its fleet) to a high proportion of international destinations, it has a lower average frequency per international destination than Emirates, particularly in Africa and Asia-Pacific.