Turkish Airlines plans to have daily operation in Porto next summer

Turkish Airlines’ plans for next year include a reinforced connection between Porto and Istanbul.

The Turkish airline plans to have daily operations at Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport next summer, according to Turkish Airlines’ regional marketing representative in Portugal, Nuno Sousa Figueiredo.

Quoted by Plubituris, the same official indicates that demand has been exceeding expectations: “We had five flights a week during the Summer to Istanbul and the months of July and August were, indeed, very good.”

The occupancy rate of the flights for winter was as high as 85%, he reveals. “Initially we had planned to do four flights per week, but bookings started to rise and we began to see that, even for the Winter, the occupancy rate of the Porto route was very high and, therefore, we decided to add another flight in the Winter”, adds Nuno Sousa Figueiredo, explaining that the Turkish Airlines operation in Porto will have five flights per week until 26 March 2022, with flights on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

After that date, and if the current growth in bookings continues, there are reasons for optimism:” If the growth in bookings continues at the rate we are now, we will soon reach the 2019 figures. I am very optimistic for 2022 and for the future”, admits Nuno Sousa Figueiredo.

Although the number of flights for the Summer of 2022 is not certain yet, the head of Turkish Airlines says that the operation will “certainly be daily” at Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport. And writes Publituris, the company admits that it is possible to reach 10 flights per week.

After a period of interruption since the beginning of the pandemic, the Istanbul-Porto route resumed on 29 March, with four weekly frequencies.