-
Turkish Airlines
- IATA/ICAO Code:
- TK/THY
- Airline Type:
- Full Service Carrier
- Hub(s):
- Istanbul Airport
- Year Founded:
- 1933
- Alliance:
- Star Alliance
- CEO:
- Bilal Ekşi
- Country:
- Turkey
Next summer, Turkish Airlines will only use the B777-300ER to Panama City via Bogotá, with OAG showing that the Star Alliance carrier uploaded the change recently.
The B777-300ER is Turkish Airlines' largest aircraft, and it'll be the first time that the type has been used on its own. Codeshare agreements with Colombia's Avianca and Panama's Copa are important for the market.
B777 only to Bogotá and Panama City
Currently, Turkish Airlines operates Istanbul-Bogota-Panama City-Istanbul 1x daily using the B787-9. However, from early July, it'll be served by the B777-300ER (4x weekly) and the B787-9 (3x weekly).
It'll revert to the B787-9 this winter before becoming B777 only in summer 2023. The latest data shows that 349-seat B777-300ERs will operate exclusively from March 26th, when airlines in the Northern Hemisphere switch to summer schedules. The triangular route will operate as follows, with all times local:
- Istanbul to Bogotá: 10:05-15:20 (13h 15m block time)
- Bogotá to Panama City: 16:50-18:35 (1h 45m)
- Panama City to Istanbul: 20:15-17:00+1 (12h 45m)
The equipment change means that, in April 2023, Turkish Airlines will have 10,470 departing seats to Panama City, its highest to date. It'll have 16% more than in April 2022. Importantly, it'll also mean more freight capacity.
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Panama via Colombia: a summary
In what was an unusual move, Turkish Airlines inaugurated Istanbul-Bogota-Panama City-Istanbul over six years ago in May 2016. It started on a 3x weekly basis using A330-200s, rose to 4x weekly, and switched to more fuel-efficient B787-9s in mid-September 2019. It became 1x daily in November 2021.
It has multiple sources of passengers: Bogotá and Panama City point-to-point demand to Istanbul; Bogotá and Panama City transit passengers over its Istanbul hub; flying from X via Bogotá or Panama City to Istanbul; and 'bridging' Bogotá or Panama City and Istanbul (e.g., Quito-Panama City-Istanbul-Douala).
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A seat load factor of 90%
It is the above accumulation of demand sources that increases passenger traffic. Booking data shows that Turkish Airlines carried around 83,000 passengers on the route and 92,000 seats for sale, meaning a seat load factor of around 90%.
Nearly seven in ten passengers (68%) transited Istanbul, both Bogotá and Panama City passengers over Turkish Airlines' hub and those who bridged. With around 23,000 passengers, the single largest source of traffic was Bogotá over Istanbul, followed by 18,000 from Panama City over the Turkish hub.
Bridging passengers amounted to one-fifth of the airline's traffic. It played an important role and was primarily due to Turkish Airlines' partnership with Copa. Panama City is an important hub for Turkish Airlines' Latin American passengers.
The following shows where the top ten markets from Bogotá/Panama City over Istanbul. Each was small or very small, highlighting an essential purpose of hubs: to combine passenger numbers. In order of passengers:
- Bogotá over Istanbul to Tel Aviv
- Panama City to Tel Aviv
- Panama City to Mumbai
- Bogotá to Dubai
- Panama City to Beirut
- Bogotá to Izmir
- Bogotá to Jeddah
- Bogotá to Vienna
- Bogotá to Beirut
- Bogotá to Cairo
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