Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) is yet to secure regulatory approval for its recently announced flights to Australia, with an Australian government minister telling the Financial Review outlet that the airline had yet not applied to operate flights to the country.
Turkish Airlines has announced plans to start tri-weekly flights to Australia via Singapore Changi, later this year. The current bilateral air services agreement between Australia and Türkiye provides the airline with up to seven weekly roundtrips between the two countries.
However, Turkish Airlines CEO Ahmet Bolat visited Australia last week and wanted to announce 14 roundtrip services a week, with daily flights into Sydney Kingsford Smith and Melbourne Tullamarine. He also wants fifth freedom rights to sell tickets between Australia and Singapore, saying that otherwise, the planned flights don't stack up economically.
"There are some legal issues that we have to solve between the Turkish government and the Australian government," Bolat said late last week in Melbourne. Australian transport minister Catherine King said any negotiated changes to existing bilateral air services agreements would take "many months to complete" and be subject to Turkish Airlines meeting safety, security, and licensing requirements. Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), which is responsible for approving applications by foreign carriers to fly to Australia, confirmed to ch-aviation that it was yet to receive any application from Turkish Airlines.
Meanwhile, the same minister has come under fire for blocking an application by Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) to double its flights to Australia, with critics of the decision saying it was based on politics and lobbying by Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith), rather than market needs and ran contrary to strong public support for more capacity into Australia, particularly on routes to Europe. The minister has declined to provide specific reasons for rejecting the application.
