This Turkish Airlines 777 has a mural of Istanbul on the fuselage. (Image: Chris McGinnis)
Turkish Airlines’ long-promised intention to begin Atlanta-Istanbul nonstops will materialize next year according to various internet sources. (The airline has yet to officially announce the service for some odd reason. Anyway….)
The Turkish carrier, which is adding U.S. routes right and left, plans to start flying a 777 -300ER to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson on May 16, 2016, and to operate daily flights year-round. The aircraft will have 49 business class seats and 300 economy seats (no first class). The business seats will recline to a fully flat position and will be in a 2-3-2 configuration.
Two months ago, Turkish Airlines started San Francisco-Istanbul flights flights, and last month it said it will begin Miami-Istanbul service on October 25 of this year.
Turkish has been hinting at the possibility of an Atlanta-Istanbul nonstop since 2014, and those who really wanted it set up a Facebook page to convince the airline to add it. So far, the page has nearly 700 “likes.”
Turkish Airlines lie-flat business class seat (Photo: Turkish Airlines)
As a member of the Star Alliance, Turkish will likely have a tough time in the Atlanta market, which is dominated by Delta and its SkyTeam partners. Why? Well, would you be willing to give up nearly 12,000 SkyMiles to fly Turkish roundtrip ATL to Istanbul?
Delta fares for fall flights to Istanbul (via Paris or Amsterdam) are now in the $1,000 range in economy and the $5,000 range in business class. Turkish fares for June 2016 nonstop flights are $1,200 in economy and $5,800 in business class.
The airline also flies to New York JFK, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Houston and Boston.
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Sincerely I don’t feel safe connecting in Istanbul.
Delta could easily make life difficult for Turkish in ATL by restarting their (suspended) ATL-IST nonstop offering either lower fares and/or bonus SkyMiles sometime before Turkish begins their service. Also, besides local originating traffic, who’s going to feed TK in ATL…WN?
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I flew Turkish out of SFO last month. Easily the absolute worst international flying experience I’ve ever had on any airline ever (and I’ve flown United to China more times than I’d like to remember). Flight delayed, rude, surly flight crew, and IST is a horrible airport. Most flights never get a gate at IST, and have to be bussed a *long* distance back to the cramped, hot terminal. The staff at the airport were also similarly rude, and disorganized.
I’ll never fly Turkish again.