It's hard to believe there have never been regular direct flights from Canada to Turkey. The reason: The two countries have never had an aviation agreement. But they came to an agreement March 13, and now Turkish Airlines is preparing to launch a route to Canada.
Though no date has been set, Cem Ongen, the airline's North American sales manager, estimates the flights will start in July or August.
The launch will be welcome news for Canadians, 147,546 of whom visited Turkey last year, taking long layover flights with Lufthansa, KLM, British Airways or Air France. That number has almost quadrupled since 2003.
Turkish Airlines, now part of Star Alliance, will use new 252-seat Airbus 330s for 10-hour trips to Istanbul (11½ on the way back).
As other airlines shrink, it's noteworthy that Turkish Airlines is expanding at all.
"Turkey wasn't affected as much by the financial crisis as much of the rest of the world," says Tugrul Biltekin, consul in the Turkish embassy in Ottawa. "It had its crisis in 2001, and it rebuilt and remanaged its entire banking system after that." As a result, he says, Turkey is now the world's 15th largest economy, doing as much trade with Canada as Russia does. The domestic flight industry has recently expanded, opening the second largest country on the continent up to private carriers. For Turkish Airlines, Toronto is part of an expansion of service to 11 new cities.
