TURKISH AIRLINES: Earlier start for Australian flights – from 1 March 2024

Back on 20 January, we reported that Turkish Airlines had announced the commencement of its Melbourne flights. ET is now reporting, and confirmed by Turkish Airlines that flights between Istanbul and Melbourne via Singapore are to commence two weeks earlier than initially planned. Instead of starting on March 15, the 16-hour flights are now scheduled to commence from Istanbul on 1 March.

Plane swapping

But don’t expect the originally scheduled Dreamliners. Instead, for the first two round trips (leaving Istanbul on 1 and 4 March) you will get whatever Turkish Airlines has available! That starts with the inaugural flight on the more noisy Boeing 777, with a Business Class that is arranged 2-3-2 – so there is a dreaded middle seat! You also don’t get much privacy. To counter that, you do get good legroom with this old-fashioned open style of Business Class seat.

From 6 March, the 777 will be swapped out for the Dreamliner – Boeing 787, which has the passenger-friendlier 1-2-1 layout in Business Class. From April, an Airbus A350 is then scheduled. The business class cabin on these aircraft is the same product as on the Dreamliner. It won’t be the planes originally built for Aeroflot that have sliding door private suites in Business Class.

Flight schedule

The three-times-a-week flight schedule remains the same:

• TK168 departs Istanbul at 5:30 pm (Mon, Wed and Fri), arrives Singapore 8:50 am +1 day;
  Departs Singapore at 10:20 am arrives Melbourne 8.40 pm.
• TK169 departs Melbourne 10:30 pm (Tue, Thu and Sat) arrives Singapore 3:00 am;
  Departs 4:30 am, arrives Istanbul, 11:15 am +1 day.

2PAXfly Takeout

Weird that having only announced this 10 days ago, there is already a schedule change to the start date, and plane swap on the route. But that’s the aviation industry for you.

Here is the original story.