Turkish Airlines launches its third-longest route, lasting up to 19 hours and ten minutes.

Turkish Airlines launches its third-longest route, lasting up to 19 hours and ten minutes.
Turkish Airlines launches its third-longest route, lasting up to 19 hours and ten minutes.

On December 18, Turkish Airlines launched their new third-longest route. The route is from Istanbul to Santiago de Chile (via São Paulo). In March, it began flying to Melbourne (via Singapore), followed by Sydney flights (via Kuala Lumpur) in November. Sydney is the longest service. It was included in the 150th edition of my Weekly Routes piece.

This means that all three of the carrier’s current longest links started in 2024. While they are all noteworthy, they will be overshadowed by the airline’s planned nonstop flights to Australia and maybe New Zealand on specially modified Airbus A350-1000s.

Take off: Turkish Airlines to Chile

The Star Alliance member officially announced its intention to fly to Santiago in July, though it had already been mentioned in several investor presentations. It was unveiled in September, leaving only two months to increase awareness and sales.

Note :-The airline does not have much lead-in time. For example, it will return to Benghazi, Libya, in January 2025, with only a month’s warning. It will become its 51st passenger destination in Africa.

The inaugural passenger flight to Santiago took place on December 18, with the first rotation being on Turkish Airlines’ largest aircraft, the Boeing 777-300ER. This is no different than most of the carrier’s other first long-haul routes, and it is intended to accommodate dignitaries, the press, and so on.

Its fifth South American destination

The 329-seat Airbus A350-900 operates four weekly flights via São Paulo Guarulhos, covering 7,107 nautical miles (13,162 km). This is its largest A350 configuration, with 32 seats in business and 297 in economy. It has fifth freedom transportation rights, similar to those established between São Paulo and Buenos Aires 12 years ago.

Santiago’s schedule is as follows, all times local. It takes 19 hours and 10 minutes to reach South America and 17 hours and 40 minutes to return from Turkey, including a stop in Brazil to change crew, refuel, and unload/load passengers and freight.

  • Istanbul-São Paulo: TK215, 20:35-04:15+1
  • São Paulo-Santiago: TK215, 05:50-09:45
  • Santiago-São Paulo: TK216, 11:40-15:15
  • São Paulo-Istanbul: TK216, 16:50-11:20+1

Santiago is Turkish Airlines’ sixth South American passenger destination, following Bogotá, Caracas, Buenos Airlines, and São Paulo. However, a sixth destination, Lima, is slated to open in 2025.

When all of Latin America is considered, it presently serves nine airports: the aforementioned locations, Cancun, Havana, Mexico City, and Panama City. Rising to 10 with the addition of Lima will be a significant achievement.

Hang on: who is it targeting?

The point-to-point demand between Santiago and Istanbul is limited, with only 9,000 passengers each year. Ignoring the several markets in Northern Europe, Turkish Airlines’ key categories will be as follows.

Because they require two stops (in Brazil and Turkey), some of them will find the carrier’s offering less competitive than that of other carriers.

  • Santiago-Rome: 39,000 roundtrip passengers
  • Santiago-Shanghai: 25,000
  • Santiago-Milan: 24,000
  • Santiago-Tokyo: 24,000
  • Santiago-Hong Kong: 19,000
  • Santiago-Seoul: 13,000
  • Santiago-Geneva: 11,000
  • Santiago-Venice: 10,000
  • Santiago-Manila: 9,000
  • Santiago-Athens: 8,000
  • Santiago-Bologna: 8,000
  • Santiago-Beijing: 7,000
  • Santiago-Tel Aviv: 7,000
  • Santiago-Delhi: 7,000
  • Santiago-Dubai: 6,000

Turkish Airlines Airbus A350-900 landing shutterstock_2300128809

Turkish Airlines’ five longest routes

They’re shown below. The first four require only one stop in either direction. In contrast, the fifth entry, Mexico City, travels nonstop to the Mexican capital with one stop return. Indeed, it would come in first if just nonstop flights were evaluated, with the other legs being too short to make the top five.

Nautical miles (km) Max. block time* Route Comments (November 2024-August 2025, as of November 21)
8,082 (14,968) 21h 35m Istanbul-Kuala Lumpur-Sydney The route started in November 2024. Four times weekly A350-900
7,940 (14,705) 21h 5m Istanbul-Singapore-Melbourne The route started in March 2024. Three times weekly A350-900
7,107 (13,162) 19h 10m Istanbul-São Paulo-Santiago de Chile The route started in December 2024. Four times weekly A350-900
6,623 (12,266 18h 20m Istanbul-São Paulo-Buenos Aires Daily A350-900
6,337 (11,736) 18h 50m Istanbul-Mexico City outbound; Mexico City-Cancun-Istanbul inbound Stops in Cancun back to Turkey due to Mexico City’s high elevation, which impacts take-off performance with a heavy load. Served 11 times weekly 787-9

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