Turkish Airlines will resume its round-trip Ankara-Rome direct flights next January, the airlines announced yesterday.

The Turkish flag carrier first flew to the Italian capital in 1959. The new flights will now connect the two capitals after six decades, the airlines said in a statement. Initially, there will be two flights per week, on Mondays and Thursdays, as of Jan. 7, 2019.

"Within the summer schedule, Turkish Airlines currently operates 131 flights per week through eight destinations in Italy, including Rome, Milan, Venice, Pisa, Bologna, Naples, Catania and Bari, from Istanbul Atatürk International Airport and Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport," the carrier said. The airline operates direct flights to Rome and Milan from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, it added.

Turkish Airlines, founded in 1933, flies to more than 300 destinations in 121 countries across the world and enjoys the title of the airline that runs the largest aviation network in the world on a country basis.

By the end of August 2018, the airline had 326 aircraft - including 92 wide-body, 216 narrow-body and 18 cargo planes.

Earlier last week, the carrier announced that it carried more than 57 million domestic and international passengers in the first nine months of 2018. The total number of passengers rose 12 percent year-on-year in the nine-month period. The company carried 68.6 million passengers last year with a 79.1 seat occupancy rate.

It noted that the number of international passengers - excluding transit passengers - climbed 13 percent in the first nine months of 2018. During the same period, the airline's seat occupancy rate - passenger load factor - increased by 3 percentage points to 82 percent. Turkish Airlines was named the Best Airline in Europe by Skytrax for six years in a row between 2011 and 2016, and chosen the Best Airline in Southern Europe for the ninth consecutive time in 2017.