Turkish Airlines Part 2: expands in Southeast Asia but lags Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways

Turkish Airlines is adding capacity in Southeast Asia as it upgauges Singapore from the A330-300 to 777-300ER and launches Phuket. Turkish will have more than 33,000 weekly seats to nine destinations in Southeast Asia by the end of Jul-2017, representing a 10% increase compared to current capacity.

However, Turkish is still underserving Southeast Asia in comparison with its competitors in the Gulf. For example, Qatar Airways now has more than 100,000 weekly seats to/from 13 Southeast Asian destinations, and Emirates has more than 150,000 weekly seats across 12 (soon 13) Southeast Asian destinations.

Turkish also has a relatively small network compared to its peers in North Asia and South Asia, but only in Southeast Asia does it have the opportunity to expand and close the gap. Southeast Asia is a generally liberal market, whereas Turkish is unable to expand in China and India due to bilateral constraints.