After picking up some A330’s from Airbus last week, it seems Turkish want some more Boeing 777’s.
The order is for 15 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, with options for 5 more – a total of 20 aircraft.
Subject to agreements, the following delivery schedulde is planning for these new planes:
- Three 777-300ER’s will be delivered in 2014,
- Seven 777-300ER’s will be delivered in 2015,
- Five 777-300ER’s will be delivered in 2016
- Five 777-300ER’s will be delivered in 2017
It’s unclear when the option aircraft will be delivered, but a quick guess would be as a tail-end to the order – the 2017 deliveries.
When all agreed – and if the options are taken up, at list prices the agreement will be worth $4.7 billion at list prices
Turkish Airlines are on an ambitious growth spurt and is looking to the narrow body fleet next. Whilst there are some economics running a single class of fleet, Turkish appear to be going down the line of fleets for specific missions that will give them better yield factors – not a bad thing at all.
TK is on an amazing growth spurt. Food is good and the lounge at IST is good, but the IST airport is bursting at the seams, at least at peak hours
What will be their next USA gateways? They already serve LAX, ORD, IAD and I think IAH. But for some reason often their cheapest fares do not include UA but rather partners like B6.
Large Turkish enclaves in and around BOS…..so maybe BOS ? SFO would be great as well.
TK is a pretty darned good airline and seems to be well mamaged. This is a very hefty order of large aircraft, but they’ve streteched it out over several years, a very smart move. Their growth program is impressive, yet modest enough that they can (probably) sustain it through this 5-yearp-plus delivery cycle. I’ve flown on TK metal several times and have never had an unpleasant experience. While TK may never become a dominant carrier, it seems that they are in the fray to compete and in a very serious way. Their ‘soft’ products make it very clear that they want to see more repeat business. When their schedules and routes are convenient, TK always gets my attention and at least a second look. As for new gateways in North Amerika, I have no idea where they may land (pun intended) but, where ever it is, the cities won’t be selected based on guess work: TK seem to do their homework and very well. I’d be happy to fly TK again. Their coach soft product and catering service is better than most and, in most cases, the TK Business Class products are more fairly priced than are some others. TK will be around for a long time.
Perhaps of interest to some, while Islam may be the strongly dominant faith in Turkey, their government and general business practices have a decidedly secular flavor, one that has well served their sommercial interests and for many years. While TK will never be the best choice for that in-flight pork chop, the other faith-based restrictions seem to stay well beyond the boundaries of the airport and in-flight services. They are more interestetd in doing business than imposing religious constraints on their paying customers. It seems to be a successful model.