Turkish Airlines is planning to bring its commercial traffic back to the skies, as the airline has drafted a flight plan for the coming three months. It will begin with a 60% capacity to domestic destinations and international flights to 22 destinations in 19 countries in June. The Istanbul-based airline will then increase operations gradually over the following two months, slowly re-establishing its extensive network.

75 weekly international flights in June

As reported by Anadolu Agency, Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines plans to graduallyresume services next month. Sources told the media outlet on Wednesday that the carrier has drafted a flight plan for June, July, and August. 

According to the plan encompassing the next three months, Turkish Airlines will at first begin flying internationally to 22 destinations in 19 countries - Canada, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Belarus, Israel, Kuwait, Georgia, and Lebanon.

Flights to these destinations will amount to 75 per week in June. In July, international destinations and weekly flights will increase to 103 and 572 respectively, while the numbers for August are 160 and 937. The plan is dependent on travel restrictions, of course.

Domestically, the carrier intends to operate 60% of flights in June, adding destinations throughout the following two months.

Simple Flying has sought comment on the plans from Turkish Airlines but was yet to receive any information at the time of publishing.

Rebuilding an extensive international network

In a pre-corona reality, Turkish Airlines had one of the most extensive networks in the world, with 50 domestic and 246 international destinations in 123 countries. However, all of the carrier's commercial flights have been suspended since midnight on the 4th of April. International flights were halted even earlier, starting on the 28th of March.

For the Turkish economy, getting its Istanbul-based national carrier back into the swing as part of recommencing business-as-near-usual cannot come a day too soon. The country's exports slumped an entire annual 41% in April, according to Bloomberg, and its currency the Lira is nearing a record low. 2020 had previously indicated growth for Turkey's BNP, but now it is looking at its second year of recession in a row.

Meanwhile, not all Turkish Airlines aircraft have been sitting idle on the tarmac. About a third of the carrier's fleet has been busy lately operating a staggering amount of repatriation flights, bringing back nearly 25,000 Turkish citizens from abroad on 195 flights over nine days.

#ThrowForwardThursday

The last time we heard about its schedule, Turkish Airlines had stopped all of its regular commercial traffic until the 28th of May, after previously intending to restart operations late April. Hopefully, this time, the date will not be pushed back any further. Today might be Wednesday, but we will take a note from Turkish Airlines' crisis-campaign of #ThrowForwardThursday and begin to dream about traveling again, possibly even within the next few months. It will surely involve face masks and temperature screenings, but so be it.

 

Where do you want to travel to when passenger planes are once more able to fly more or less freely?  And do you think Turkish Airlines' three-month plan is feasible? Let us know in the comments.