Turkish Airlines turns its attention to Latin America with four new destinations in 2014

Turkish Airlines (THY) is pursuing aggressive expansion in Latin America, where it plans to triple the size of its network in 2014 to six destinations. THY will still be a relatively small player in the Latin America-Europe market but its launch of services to Bogota, Caracas, Havana and Mexico City is primarily targeted at the faster-growing and under-served Latin America-Asia market.

THY will offer the Colombian, Cuban, Mexican and Venezuelan markets the fastest connections to the Middle East, most of Asia and parts of Africa. With the expansion the Star Alliance carrier emerges as an attractive partner to Latin American carriers, which have a very limited presence in any of these regions.

THY is also accelerating expansion in the US market, where it plans to grow its network from five to eight destinations next summer. The carrier will open up new connections to parts of Asia, the Middle East and Africa from Atlanta, Boston and San Francisco. But the THY product from these new destinations will not be as exclusive as is the case with its new Latin American cities.