African market heats up

Turkish Airlines has joined Etihad and Emirates in offering increased services to African cities. This comes as the airlines compete to position themselves as the primary carrier linking Europe and Asia with the continent.

The Turkish carrier will introduce a new service on 13th June that will stop at Entebbe, Uganda, and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. The origin will be the airlines main hub in Istanbul.

At present 90 weekly flights from Istanbul to 12 African destination are operated by Turkish Airlines. The focus for the business is to encourage travellers to connect through Ataturk Airport to the African cities.

Etihad began a new route to Cape Town last September, while Emirates opens a new service to Dakar this September.

The move by the European carrier is part of the airlines continued growth. They intend to operate 14 new routes this year from their Istanbul hub and will wet lease an Airbus A330 to operate their latest African route.

Source: Arabian Aerospace