AnadoluJet Takes On TUI & Jet2 For Birmingham

Turkish Airlines’ subsidiary, AnadoluJet, will launch Birmingham to Antalya and Dalaman in June, with both routes operating once-daily from the get-go. There are now more flights planned from the Midlands airport to these Turkish destinations this summer than in the past 10 years.

Birmingham Airport is to welcome AnadoluJet, a subsidiary of Turkish Airlines, this summer, with not one but two routes beginning on the same day using 189-seat B737-800s:

Antalya: once-daily from June 19th

TK7968: depart Antalya at 09:00 and arrive Birmingham at 11:40
TK7969: depart Birmingham at 12:40 and arrive back at 18:50

Dalaman: once-daily from June 19th

TK7970: depart Dalaman at 09:10 and arrive Birmingham at 11:40
TK7971: depart Birmingham at 12:40 and arrive back at 18:50

Speaking of the announcement, Tom Screen, Birmingham's Aviation Director, said:

"As we prepare to welcome customers back flying again, we are extremely pleased that AnadoluJet will be offering new services to Antalya and Dalaman. Working with its parent company, Turkish Airlines, over many years of flying to Istanbul from Birmingham, I know that customers will receive outstanding service, affordability and reliability with AnadoluJet.”

AnadoluJet to the UK — Both AnadoluJet routes will start on the same day and arrive/depart Birmingham at the same time. The airline will now have five routes to the UK this summer: these two, along with Stansted from Ankara, Antalya, and Dalaman. While AnadoluJet uses the TK IATA code, you can identify its flights from its flight numbers, which always start with seven. Image: GCMap

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Record number of flights

AnadoluJet will compete head-to-head with Jet2 and TUI in the week that both routes begin. The competitive make-up will be the same: Jet2 with seven weekly flights and TUI with five.

If all three airlines are combined, both Antalya and Dalaman will have 19 weekly flights in this June week, each up from 13 in the same week in 2019. But that's not it.

Later this summer, Dalaman will rise to 22 weekly – the highest this decade – from Jet2's offering growing to 10-weekly. Simple Flying recently showed that Birmingham is Jet2's second-largest base this summer.

Birmingham to Antalya and Dalaman — The growth in supply to Antalya since summer 2018 is especially notable. Source: OAG Schedules Analyzer.

Birmingham to Antalya up strongly

The present coronavirus-driven rise in demand to Turkey helps to explain why AnadoluJet is launching these routes. This month, Simple Flying showed that Birmingham will see nine widebody routes with TUI this summer, including to Dalaman and Antalya. This, and 19 weekly flights across all airlines, illustrates why Antalya has become almost as strong as traditionally British Dalaman in seat and flight terms.