Turkish Airlines began serving Australia back in 2024, when the airline inaugurated its first service Down Under to Melbourne via Singapore. Later that same year, the Star Alliance carrier added Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD), which it currently serves with a one-stop itinerary via Kuala Lumpur, which it will move to Singapore next month.

The airline has now been rumored to be considering additional flights to Australia, with Brisbane Airport (BNE) and Perth Airport (PER) firmly on the airline’s radar. It is likely that the airline will connect these two additional cities via Singapore until the airline’s Airbus A350-1000 comes online mid next year, when the airline has expressed interest in serving Australia nonstop from its home at Istanbul Airport (IST).

Turkish Airlines Considers Its Next Steps To Australia

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Turkish is the world’s largest airline by international countries served, and it already has traffic rights to Australia to operate up to 35 services. The airline is currently just using eight of these, with a three-weekly service to Melbourne and five to Sydney. This permits the airline to add plenty more capacity to Australia.

Currently, Turkish operates both its Australian services with the A350-900, which has had favorable load factors above 85%. This has likely been influenced by the ongoing tension in the Middle East, with travelers reconsidering their options. Turkish has one of the largest European networks among Middle Eastern carriers, with nonstop flights to 125 airports across the continent. Below is a snapshot of the airline’s current Australia network:

Two New Australian Cities Could Start Soon

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According to Turkey Today, a spokesperson said that the airline remains committed to introducing new services to Australia soon, and its plans to serve the country nonstop are firmly on the airline’s horizon with the delivery of new aircraft. As part of the airline’s longer-term network plan, adding Perth and Brisbane is the next step in its expansion.

Melbourne and Sydney both began in 2024 and marked the first time the airline had operated to the country. The airline continues to enjoy strong demand for the services, and passenger numbers have increased by 19% over the last year. The airline sees strong point-to-point traffic, while onward travel also remains a key driver in the route’s success, with an extensive onward network across Europe, Africa and Asia.

With just eight weekly traffic rights to and from Australia, the airline has substantial capacity to rapidly expand its network to Australia. If the Perth and Brisbane routes materialize with a thrice-weekly service, the airline would still use less than half of its 35 weekly traffic rights.

Most Popular Destinations For Turkish Airlines From Australia

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Booking data has identified that the most popular connecting markets for travelers on Turkish from Sydney include London, Athens, Skopje, Rome, Belgrade, Paris, Dublin, Berlin, Milan and Warsaw, while Melbourne’s originating passengers frequently travel onto Athens, London, Rome, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Belgrade, Paris, Orhid and Dublin.

Should the additional Brisbane and Perth routes materialize, they would rely heavily on Western European traffic, rather than the Balkans and Turkey, which otherwise show a substantial disparity in the Sydney and Melbourne metropolitan areas.

Turkish shows no signs of slowing down in its international growth, and as more aircraft come online, the airline’s ambitious expansion plans, which now could consider two additional Australian gateways, will see the airline firmly position itself as a key competitor to other Asian and Middle Eastern carriers that have otherwise enjoyed the demand for travel to and from the continent.