Turkish Expansion in Africa

Turkish Airlines will begin a double-drop service from Istanbul to Entebbe, Uganda and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania on June 13. Routes News reports on the strategy behind its phased expansion into Africa.

Turkish Airlines has significantly increased its operations in Africa from its Istanbul Ataturk hub, by almost quadrupling the number of weekly flights it offers to Africa since June 2005. Today it operates over 90 weekly flights to 12 destinations.

Pictured above: Turkish Airlines celebrated new services to Dakar (Senegal) last May.

Last May Turkish celebrated new service to Dakar in West Africa and one year later, it has announced a new double drop service to Entebbe and Dar-es-Salaam in East Africa, starting next month on a thrice-weekly basis.

Routes News has compared Turkish Airlines' schedule from Istanbul to Africa in 2005 and 2010 to offer a more detailed picture of its pace of growth here:

Source: Flightbase: June 14-20, 2010

A closer look at its fleet shows that Turkish uses a mix of narrow-bodies (A320s/321s, B737s-800s) and wide-bodies (A330s/A340s) on its African routes. Its wide-body aircraft are deployed on services from Istanbul to Algiers, Dakar, Tunis, Lagos and Johannesburg.

Although passenger data points to a light traffic flow from Istanbul to Dar-es-Salaam and Entebbe, Turkish will be looking to tap into its wider European network, focusing on inbound traffic that can transit through its Istanbul hub.

IATA BSP data supports a clear demand for air services from Europe to Entebbe and Dar-es-Salaam with 215,248 passengers flying between Europe and Entebbe and 376,285 flying from Europe to Dar-es-Salaam between March 2009 and 2010.

Turkish's Strategy: Linking Europe with Africa

Given that there are currently 24 weekly non-stop flights operating from both Entebbe and Dar-Es-Salaam to Europe, Turkish no doubt believes that its new services are well-positioned to capture a significant amount of indirect traffic from its extensive European network, feeding through its Istanbul hub.

Britsh Airways currently flies non-stop from London Heathrow to both Entebbe and Dar-es-Salaam five times and three times a week respectively, while KLM offers a daily service to Dar-es-Salaam and a five times weekly to Entebbe from Amsterdam. Brussels Airlines has three flights a week from Brussels to Entebbe.

Turkish Airlines has said that it will wet-lease an A330 to open the latest African routes and has publically stated its intention to continue growing from Istanbul, with 14 new routes this year - growth of nearly 30%. Its new wide-body deliveries and leased aircraft will play a dual role in supporting this growth.

Turkish Airlines' focus on Africa follows the announcement by Middle East competitors Emirates and Etihad that they will begin new services to Africa. In March, Emirates announced a new service to Dakar and will start flying to Senegal's capital this September.

Meanwhile, Etihad inaugurated new services from Abu Dhabi to Cape Town in September.

While Turkish Airlines and the Middle East carriers find new options for passengers travelling between Europe to Africa, Turkish's focus on Africa is generally away from North Africa, which is well-served from Europe.

Between March 2009 and 2010, nearly 37 million passengers travelled between Europe and Africa, according to IATA BSP data. Of these, 22 million passengers travelled to destinations in North Africa; 4.6 million passengers flew to East Africa; 4.1 million to West Africa; 3.4 to Southern Africa and 1.7 million to Central Africa. It is this smaller traffic flow that will be of interest to Turkish Airlines as it continues to ramp up service in Africa.