Istanbul to get more Qatar flights and improved Ataturk Airport

< 1

Istanbul is to get more accessible from the Middle East, following the announcement that Qatar Airways will expand its existing service between Qatar and Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport, increasing the frequency to a double-daily service.

With the launch of the new daily service, which kicks off on 29th March 2015, passengers from the Middle East, Asia Pacific, the Americas and Africa can now take advantage of an additional morning connection to Istanbul via Doha.

Qatar Airways recently celebrated 10 years of successful operations to Turkey. The airline began services to Istanbul Ataturk International Airport in 2004 marking Qatar Airways’ first destination in Turkey, and due to popular passenger demand has been steadily increasing its number of flights to the country.

Qatar Airways currently flies to three Turkish destinations, namely Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport (daily flights), Istanbul Ataturk Airport (10-flights-a-week) and Ankara (four-weekly-flights). The non-stop four-flights-a-week service from Doha to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport was launched on May 22nd this year, becoming Qatar Airways’ third route to Turkey. Due to an increase in demand, Qatar Airways added three additional flights from October 26th to Sabiha Gökçen Airport.

In other air traffic news, Turkish airport operator TAV Airports announced in November it will invest €75million to expand the international terminal at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport. The expansion means the terminal will be expanded by 27,000 square metres.

Eight new passenger boarding bridges will be added, the number of check-in counters will increase, as will the terminal’s baggage handling and car park capacity. The works are planned to be completed in 16 months.

About Richard