Turkish Airlines (THY), one of the fastest growing airlines in the world, yesterday announced flights to Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) from its hub in Istanbul’s Atatürk International Airport (IST). Starting in April 2013, the airline will operate four services per week using Boeing 777 – 300 ER aircraft.
Houston is a logical expansion point for Turkish Airlines. The airlines is a member of Star Alliance and Houston is a major Star hub. Houston, being the energy capital of the United States, has strong business traffic and Turkish can tap that using its excellent connections to oil producing regions of Asia and the Gulf. It will compete head-to-head with other airlines operating in the region: Emirates and Qatar Airways (Turkish bills itself as more of an European carrier than a Middle Eastern one as its main base Istanbul is in Europe though the rest of the country lies in Asia).
Turkish Airlines already operates daily services to New York JFK (JFK), Washington Dulles (IAD), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Los Angeles International (LAX) and Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), the last four being major star hubs. By operating flights to all major Star hubs, Turkish can provide onward connections to almost all points in North America. By the way, United Airlines (UA) starts its Istanbul flight from Newark (EWR) hub on July 1, 2012. United will use a B767 – 300 on this route.
One thing is clear: US Flyers will have more options to travel to one of the fast growing economies in the world and beyond.