Turkish To Raise Frequency From November

Anindita Chattopadhyay - New Delhi

Barely a year after its entry into the India market, Turkish Airlines has decided to increase its frequency out of Delhi from three to five flights a week. The decision, according to Pramod Sahni, head - sales and marketing, Turkish Airlines, was taken because "a fair demand is being generated from Europe to India." Now, the carrier will operate services to the capital city on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. "From November 1 to December 16, the flight will leave at 4.45 am and arrive in Istanbul at 8.45 am. However, during the fog period in Delhi - that is from December 17 to February 15 - we will reduce the frequency to three flights because the departure timing has to be rescheduled to 1.50 pm. We will again resume to five flights after from February 16," he informed.

The carrier has been experiencing 82-96 per cent load factor on the way out from December till March, which dropped down to 65 per cent during April to September. "We experienced that flights from Turkey to Europe and US were choc-o-bloc during the summer months which resulted in loss of revenue from the India point of sale," he said.

As the GSA, Interglobe is in the process of promoting Turkey as a destination. "We have already witnessed an increase in leisure and incentive travel and people have come back happy. In the third week of November, we are planning to organise a buyer-seller meet in Turkey wherein we will fly the outbound tour operators. We are also pursuing the tourism ministry to focus on Turkey and are coordinating with our office in Istanbul to promote India in Turkey so that we have good load both ways," proffered Sahni.