Fast-growing Turkish Airlines is ready to start the first express services between Australia and Europe.
DESPITE Qantas’s long-cherished ambition to become the first airline to operate the world’s longest non-stop air route between Australia and Europe, it is expected to be beaten to the prize in the next two to three years by the world’s fastest-growing carrier, Turkish Airlines.
From its base in Istanbul – the eastern-most point of the European continent – Turkish will launch its first service to Sydney in 2014, according to its current plans.
But the service will initially have a stop in Asia before later becoming non-stop as the airline acquires aircraft specifically tasked with such ultra-long-haul services.
With a non-stop service from Istanbul to Sydney, passengers would be gathered from points around Europe during the day for a late-afternoon departure, arriving in Australia late the following afternoon local time after a scheduled journey of slightly less than 17 hours.
Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil: Australian services in 2014.The return service of just over 18 hours against prevailing westerly headwinds would leave Sydney in the early evening and arrive in Istanbul early the following morning local time.
It would be the longest commercial air service in the world – although that honour is currently held by Singapore Airlines’ six-days-a-week service from Singapore to New York Newark airport 8285 nautical miles (15, 544 kilometres) away.
With rising fuel prices and falling “yields” (average fares), that all-business-class service with just 100 seats in an Airbus A340-500 airliner that normally seats up to 300 people will be discontinued later this year. Airbus no longer builds that airliner.
By comparison, Istanbul-Sydney is 8076 nautical miles (14956 kilometres). The only current-production airliner that can do the trip is the 250-300-seat Boeing 777-200LR (LR for long range). Turkish has a shorter-range, larger version of the same plane, the 777-300ER, which is expected to be used for the initial service to Sydney via a stop in Asia.
The speculation is that Turkish Airlines will aquire a small number of 777-200LRs to do the Sydney service and other ultra-long-haul routes, but chief executive Temel Kotil won’t provide details.
Kotil said on Tuesday the rapidly expanding carrier’s high growth rate is expected to continue for several years. “By 2020, we are going to transport 100 million passengers, offering 2,000 flights per day,” he told Air Transport World.
“We receive a new aircraft nearly every day,” Kotil said, adding the airline is expecting a 30% passenger growth rate this year.
By 2020, we are going to transport 100 million passengers, offering 2,000 flights per day. We receive a new aircraft nearly every day.
He said the airline’s first flights to Australia were scheduled to start next year. The flights couldn’t start earlier due to a shortage of aircraft.
In 1989, as the government-owned Australian national carrier, Qantas operated a demonstration flight from London’s Heathrow airport to Sydney, using a new Boeing 747-400 being delivered via Europe from the factory in Seattle, USA.
The flight took 20 hours and 10 minutes using special fuel and slower-than-normal air speed to get the ultra-long-journey of 9188 nautical miles (17,016 kilometres), although the flight covered an extra 1000 kilometres for operational reasons.
Qantas is still working with Boeing to develop a version of the 777 that can fly an economical payload of passengers on the route in a regular commercial service taking as little as 19 hours from Heathrow to Sydney.
In the meantime, Qantas operate the world’s longest Boeing 747-400 non-stop service daily from Sydney to Dallas, USA, 7454 nautical miles (13,804 kilometres) away, although the return service operates via Brisbane because westerly headwinds put Sydney beyond the plane’s range.