Turkish Airlines adds 7 new destinations from Ankara

Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) will add seven new direct international flight destinations from the country's capital Ankara beginning Oct. 1, 2015, officials said yesterday. The announcement comes on the heels of THY's May 13 notice that it will begin offering daily direct flights to Miami on Oct. 25, marking the company's 12th destination in the Americas. The head of the Ankara Chamber of Industry, Nurettin Özdebir, told Anadolu Agency THY had promised to add 27 flights per week from Ankara to seven new international destinations. "Turkish Airlines is currently flying direct from Ankara to Moscow and Dusseldorf," he said. "Beginning Oct. 1, the airline will fly directly from Ankara to Frankfurt, Vienna, Baku, Brussels, London, Tehran and Amsterdam." Özdebir said he had participated in a meeting on Wednesday with, among others, Parliament speaker Cemil Çiçek, Civil Aviation Director General Bilal Ekşi and Ankara Esenboğa Airport Director Nuray Demirer. According to Özdebir, it was decided at the meeting that the THY and its subsidiary, AnadoluJet, would add direct flights from Ankara to seven new international destinations by 2016 and to another five in 2017. Özdebir said by 2016, the THY will begin flying directly from Ankara to Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Paris. In 2017, flights will be offered from Ankara to Munich, Batumi, Irbil, Baghdad and Jeddah. He added that every year, about 850,000 people fly from Ankara to international destinations using Istanbul as a transit point. The number of travelers in this situation rises between 15 to 20 percent annually as well.