Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) will modify up to five A350-1000s to fly non-stop to Australia and beyond, CEO Bilal Eksi recently told Aviation Week. The aircraft could have up to 60 business class seats, reducing overall weight and allowing it to fly further, he said, adding that flights to New Zealand are on the cards, albeit not until at least 2026.
Turkish Airlines commenced flights to Australia this year. Thrice weekly flights to Melbourne Tullamarine use A350-900 stock and fly via Singapore Changi for refuelling, while 4x weekly services to Sydney Kingsford Smith use the same aircraft type and stopover at Kuala Lumpur International, also for refuelling.
Eksi says his existing B787-9s can fly nonstop between Istanbul and Melbourne but doing so requires operating with a suboptimal load. Instead, he says Turkish will maintain the Southeast Asian stopovers while awaiting the A350-1000s. Turkish Airlines has 15 on order, and deliveries are due to start in 2025.
The planned premium-seat-heavy configuration on the A350-1000 subset cuts the aircraft's overall weight while keeping revenues high enough to make the nonstop flights economically viable. The bulk of the -1000 fleet will have fewer business-class seats but be deployed onto shorter routes.
Eksi said that once the nonstop services to Sydney and Melbourne are in place, Auckland could be next. The arrival of the A350-1000 will also open options in South America, he added. Turkish Airlines currently flies to São Paulo Guarulhos and Buenos Aires Ministro Pistarini and is starting services to Santiago de Chile mid-December. However, like the Australian services, the flights to Chile and Argentina require a refuelling stop, in this case São Paulo.
CH Aviation
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