To operate double daily flights into Delhi and Mumbai
Rituparna Chatterjee – Mumbai
To diversify and strengthen its presence in the India market, Turkish Airlines, is looking at adding minimum six new gateways in India which includes Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Amritsar. Moreover, the airline which is presently operating a daily flight into Delhi and Mumbai, is planning to increase this to double daily. For both expansions, the company is in talks with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Government of India and the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. Elaborating more on this expansion, Mehmet Akay, general manager, western and southern India, Turkish Airlines, stated, “According to the bilateral agreement between India and Turkey there can be up to two gateways and 14 flights and we are currently utilising the same. This limitation is not allowing us to showcase our real potential in India and hence we have approached the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Government of India and the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India and things are moving in a positive direction. We are just awaiting permission.” He is positive that prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Turkey in November will help strengthen the bilateral ties between both the countries.
Presently, Turkish Airlines is deploying Boeing 777-300 ER to Mumbai and Airbus A330-300 to Delhi. It is looking at deploying Boeing 777-300 ER to Delhi. “Both the gateways are approaching 90 per cent load factor and so we need to put in more capacity,” states Akay, adding that, “As for the six gateways, depending upon the season, we will either deploy Boeing 777-300 or Airbus 330-300. The six gateways can be rolled out in phases.”