Overview of Air Travel to Türkiye
Türkiye has 35 airports with international links, so you’re sure to reach your destination without much trouble.
The national carrier, Turkish Airlines, is world-class, modern and very well connected. Based at the new İstanbul Airport it set to become one of the biggest Airlines in the world.
There are cheaper operators of international flights in Türkiye like SunExpress and Pegasus.
European Holiday Companies operate economical charter flights to İstanbul and the main holiday resort (Antalya and Dalaman) Airports.
The Turkish word for Airport is Havaliman
TURKISH AIRLINES
Turkish Airlines (Türk Hava Yolları) (codes: TK, THY) is the national carrier of Türkiye. It is an excellent, world-class international airline with worldwide routes and domestic connections to every important Turkish city.
Here is the link to the Turkish website with language set to English.
Turkish Airlines serves 239 international destinations and 47 domestic destinations in 121 countries, as of December 2020.
It’s a member of the Star Alliance of airlines which means that with its Connecting Partners it can get you to more than 1,300 Airports worldwide.
THY’s aircraft fleet is relatively new and its safety record is good. Terminal and in-flight service is generally of a high European standard, security is better than most, and everybody speaks English.
Within Türkiye, THY runs domestic flights from its İstanbul hub to every important city, town and tourist resort in the country including Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, İzmir and Kayseri (for Cappadocia). Its low-fare domestic subsidiary, AnadoluJet, flies to many more cities.
PEGASUS AIRLINES
Pegasus Airlines is a low-cost Turkish airline flying to 100 destinations in 40 countries, including 33 destinations in Türkiye.
The most popular routes for international flights are Germany, Holland, Austria, the UK, Hungary, Denmark, Switzerland, Macedonia, France, Italy and Northern Cyprus.
Unlike most low-cost carriers, Pegasus runs its own flight crew training centre and maintenance organisation, Pegasus Technic. Both centres are fully licensed and are used to train new staff members both on the ground and in the air.
The website is here. It is Türkiye’s largest privately-owned airline
SUN EXPRESS
Founded as a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines in 1989, Sun Express offers numerous direct connections between Europe and Türkiye.
Sun Express serves many holiday destinations in Türkiye with direct flights from Europe to many Anatolian cities.
Sun Express’ headquarters is located in sunny Antalya, which is known as the touristic capital of Türkiye. Another key hub is İzmir on Türkiye’s Aegean coast. The company’s second headquarters is located in Gateway Gardens in Frankfurt am Main.
The website is here. Customers can book through Amazon Alexa and can get in contact round the clock via WhatsApp and can even book flights through Facebook Messenger.
CORENDON AIRLINES
Corendon Airlines (website here) (incorporated as Turistik Hava Taşımacılık A.Ş.) is a Turkish leisure airline headquartered in Antalya and based at Antalya Airport.
Corendon Airlines operates flights from 145 airports in more than 40 countries majorly Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Israel, Egypt, Spain, Italy, France, Czechia, Romania and Scandinavian countries with full charter, split charter, sub charter and wet lease business models.
Corendon Airlines uses many airports to base its aircraft in many countries. Besides Antalya, İzmir and Kayseri in Türkiye, the airline bases aircraft in Hannover, Cologne, Munster and Nurnberg in Germany. In the year of 2021, Corendon Airlines is adding two new European bases: Dusseldorf in Germany and Basel in Switzerland.
ANADOLU JET
AnadoluJet is a budget brand of Turkish Airlines operating as a regional airline. It operates domestic flights as well as flights to Northern Cyprus, Western Europe and the Middle East for its parent company. It operates flights at 43 airports and 80 routes.
The airline plans to extend its operations. AnadoluJet will begin international flights at İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport. Thus, 26 more routes in 16 countries will be added to its flight network and it will continue to operate at 68 destinations and 107 routes including domestic flights, with a fleet to be consisting of 57 aircraft.
AnadoluJet offers free baggage allowance and inflight dining services and car rental services. The website is here.
ONUR AIR
Onur Air is a Turkish low-cost carrier based at İstanbul Atatürk Airport. Onur Air was founded on April 14, 1992. It was the first private airline to start domestic flights. The airline has carried more than 105 million passengers in 28 years
The website is here. Onur Air operates flights to 11 domestic destinations from İstanbul Atatürk Airport to Adana, Antalya, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Gaziantep, İzmir, Kayseri, Malatya, Samsun, Şanlıurfa, Trabzon and 8 international destinations to Amsterdam, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Erbil, Lefkosa, Nalchik, Odesa and Paris.
EUROPEAN CHARTER FLIGHTS
Holiday Companies operate economical charter flights to İstanbul and the main holiday resort (Antalya and Dalaman) Airports. There are flight and holiday search engines such as Skyscanner and Kayak which are good for finding deals.
Jet2
com fly (website here) to Antalya, Dalaman, Bodrum and İzmir in the summer months from many regional airports in the UK including: Manchester, Leeds Bradford, Birmingham, East Midlands, London Stansted, Bristol, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast. There are services to Antalya throughout the whole year.
easyJet
easyJet (website here) now flies from the UK to Türkiye. They fly from İzmir from London Gatwick, from Liverpool, Manchester, Luton, Bristol and London Gatwick to İzmir, from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Luton and London Gatwick to Dalaman, from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol, Luton and London Gatwick to Bodrum.
Eurowings
This German carrier (website here) operates seasonal flights from all over Europe to Antalya, İzmir and Kütahya.