Birmingham: Turkish Airlines Flight Status, Hub News & Discussion

[Kevin Farnell]

Please can we post one off aircraft changes in the BHX Movements and Heads Up thread, located here - https://forums4airports.com/threads/5473/ and keep the airline threads for route/frequency upgrades, timetable changes and permanent aircraft type changes etc.

 

[Birmingham Aviation]

Looks like Turkish are operating 2x daily flights for winter 2023.
Means it’s 14 flights per week 7 in the morning 7 at evening

 

[Birmingham Aviation]

Surprised that’s there’s no increase on turkish flights.Manchester have got B77W and A330 in the next few days.Especially it’s time for people to return from holiday and prepare for school

 

[Kevin Farnell]

I saw on Airport Action, yesterday that TK1967/8 (morning flight) was operated by an A321 CEO instead of a B737-MAX8. FR24 is showing the same for today, Although there are several seating configurations for both the B737-MAX8 and the A321 CEO, this seems to be a seat increase. Is this a permanent upgrade?

 

[rollo]

The winter schedule shows a double daily A321 so yep an upgrade especially as I think last winter was 10weekly 737/A321 + the odd peak A330.

 

[mullion]

And as an addition the engine problems with the A321neo is causing problems.

 

[Karl C]

The A321 Neo engine problem will only affect whether it's an A321 Neo or A321 CEO being sent to BHX twice daily. The upgauge I presume is due to demand.

 

[Birmingham Aviation]

Atm there sending A321s At the moment.There are some regular occasions where they sending there neos

 

[mullion]

Many of the A321neo are out of services for checks and also have extra seats over A321ceo

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Atm there sending A321s At the moment.There are some regular occasions where they sending there neos

TK1969/70 (afternoon flight) is scheduled for and operated by A321 NEO's.

 

[gulftraveller]

August L/F was around 80% which is down on last year. SV may have had an impact on transit traffic. Winter figures tend to be lower so maybe not demand related.

 

[Birmingham Aviation]

I don’t think we can expect the odd A330 this winter unless incase of increased demand or Christmas

 

[nwoody2001]

With the exception of EK, TK is the only (nearly) middle east carrier that offers more than once daily world-wide connections via its hub. Its is of course competing with the likes of EK/QR/SV, but the later two dont have consistent connections daily across the week. Therefore for them to compete, they need keep this connectivity up...

Interestingly, looking at the Aug'23 figures:

BHX-IST (Aug'23): 17,455 Pax
BHX-IST (Aug'22): 19,069 Pax (-1,614 / -8%)

So quite the impact, but then in Aug 2022, Turkish wasn't competing with QR or SV. However, now the pressure is one. 2x daily with bigger aircraft is one way it can complete, be interesting to see if they upgrade further to wide-bodies in summer next year or decide to introduce 3x daily flights on some days....

 

[Kevin Farnell]

I don’t think we can expect the odd A330 this winter unless incase of increased demand or Christmas

The only times that TK have substituted an A330, is when there has been increased demand.

 

[Coathanger16]

be interesting to see if they upgrade further to wide-bodies in summer next year or decide to introduce 3x daily flights on some days....

Both LGW and MAN are 3x daily A321s this Winter, so I'd suggest a 3rd flight on at least some days would happen before a permanent upgrade to larger aircraft.

 

[Timberwolf]

The A321 Neo engine problem will only affect whether it's an A321 Neo or A321 CEO being sent to BHX twice daily. The upgauge I presume is due to demand.

Can't find any planned 787 or A330s this winter yet .Suppose with Qatar back, and Saudia started not as many spare connecting passengers to the region to mop up.

 

[Karl C]

Indeed, I had a quick look yesterday and could see no upgauge's. Still, a double daily A321 CEO or NEO is moving in the right direction and not to be sniffed at.

Whenever I fly to the UK, or anywhere for that matter, I tend not to use TK anywhere near as much as I used to. The flight prices from the home market to anywhere is so bloody expensive. Last year it was cheaper for me to fly ADB-FRA-SIN on SQ than to fly direct from IST. Even using SunExpress up to Frankfurt saved me in total about £300 than going from IST. The new Istanbul airport is far too big and much prefer SAW tbh. Pegasus to BHX can't come soon enough 🙏

Edit. SQ was cheaper than TK from IST for the non stops. Go figure. No competition...SQ every time

 

[Matt995]

just been checking the Turkish website, and apart from the fact the flight schedule pages keep crashing, it seems that from next week, alot of the flights seem to be downgraded from an A321 to an A320, some days showing double daily A320s, some days a mix of A320s and A321s for the rest of the winter timetable.

Next Tuesday is showing a B737 Max 9, and a B737-900 on the flights, no sign of any A330s.

 

[BhxJack]

On the 20th November Turkish look like they are sending a a330

 

[Matt995]

actually Turkish website shows both flights on November 20th to be operated by A321s:-

Birmingham to Istanbul on Monday, November 20

Flight details​

4h 5m
11:15 BIRMINGHAMAirline - Flight number:Aircraft type:18:20 ISTANBUL
Birmingham Airport (BHX)

Turkish Airlines - TK1968
Airbus A321-200neo Narrow body
Istanbul Airport (IST)

Flight details​

4h
16:40 BIRMINGHAMAirline - Flight number:Aircraft type:23:40 ISTANBUL
Birmingham Airport (BHX)

Turkish Airlines - TK1970
Airbus A321-200neo Narrow body
Istanbul Airport (IST)

who do you trust? the airline operating the routes, or FR24 a plane tracking app? 🙄