Shortly after the launch of Turkish Airlines' much-anticipated first Australian route from Istanbul to Melbourne, the start date has been brought forward. Turkish Airlines' first flight from Istanbul to Australia will now take place on 1 March, instead of the previously scheduled 15 March.
An analysis of last year's booking data shows that there were more than 70,000 round-trip passengers on Melbourne-Türkiye. Spread over 365 days, that's almost 200 passengers a day. This mainly reflects travellers of Turkish origin living in Melbourne, for whom the carrier is well positioned for this market.
Turkish Airlines will be able to easily capture passengers travelling from and to Melbourne in Türkiye and beyond, including Skopje, Bucharest, Podgorica, Ankara, Izmir, Tirana, Sofia, Sarajevo, Adana, Belgrade, Zagreb, Porto, Catania, Thessaloniki, Gothenburg, Marseille and many other cities. Looking at the past years, all of these cities had a good number of Melbourne passengers.