With over 300 aircraft in its commercial passenger fleet, Turkish Airlines connects
the world to and through Turkey and its hub at the new Istanbul airport. The airline offers service
to over 200 international destinations and is a defining feature of the Star Alliance member.
With narrowbodies and widebodies from both Airbus and Boeing,
let’s take a deep dive into the big and diverse fleet of Turkish Airlines in today’s video.
Before we begin, it’s important to note that we’ll only be focusing on
the carrier’s commercial passenger jets. As such, we won’t really be discussing the
carrier’s eight Boeing 777 freighters or the fleet of its subsidiary Anadolu Jet.
As of April 2022, Turkish Airlines’ passenger fleet consists of some 309 aircraft.
Going type by type, here are the quantities and average ages of each sub-fleet:
Firstly, the airline has six Airbus A319-100s which collectively average 11
years of age. Moving up, the carrier has just 11 Airbus A320-200s with an average age of 14 years.
Turkish Airlines had operated a total of 14 A319s. Eight have now been retired from the fleet
with many of these initially going to Pakistan's Shaheen Air. However, one is with Air Albania,
a carrier created by Turkish Airlines that took off in 2019.
Things intensify greatly when it comes to the longest A320 family member,
the Airbus A321. Turkish has a whopping 98 Airbus A321s, which divide into 66 -200s and 32 neos.
The average age of the A321-200s is approach 10 years while the A321neos
average just two years of age! In fact, the airline has dozens more
A321neos on the way- which is something we’ll definitely discuss later in this video!
Moving up to Airbus widebodies, the airline operates a fleet of 60 Airbus A330s.
This divides into 23 -200s and 37 of the longer -300.
The -200s are nearing an average age of 12 years while the -300s average just over eight years.
The final Airbus widebody in the Turkish fleet is the A350-900.
The airline currently has just six of these, but is due to take more in years
to come. These jets have an average age of roughly one and a half years.
Like most airlines around the world, the pandemic hasn’t been easy for Turkish.
While the country has some measure of domestic traffic, much of the carrier’s operations depend
on connecting travelers through its Istanbul hub, transiting onwards to other destinations.
As a result, the carrier decided to adjust one of its pending orders and deliveries
in order to save money. This is particularly the case with its order for Airbus A350-900s.
In January of 2022, Turkish reduced its commitment for this type by five jets. It was actually back
in 2018 that the airline announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) to acquire 25 A350s plus five options. As a result, the airline will accept
just 20. Considering six of these have already been delivered, outstanding A350s is now at
14. This will change in a few weeks as Airbus is already working on a 7th jet. It was on April 2nd
that AIB Family Flights reported spotting another Turkish A350 in Toulouse- albeit without engines.
Moving over to the Boeing side, Turkish Airlines is a fairly big operator of the 737. The largest
subfleet is the 737-800 at 40 aircraft with an average age of almost seven and a half years.
Then, there are 15 737-900ERs with an average age of nine years.
Moving to modernize this part of the fleet, Turkish Airlines also has a handful of 737 MAX
8s and MAX 9s- 20 and five, respectively. Both the MAX 8s and MAX 9s average just three years.
Then, for Boeing widebodies, the airline has an impressive 33 Boeing 777-300ERs at an
average age of eight and a half years. It also currently has 15 787-9s with an average
age of nearly two and a half years. However, more Dreamliners are on the way to Turkish
which will further reduce the average age of this group of jets.
When it comes to recently departed aircraft, the airline gave up two
A320-200s over the past two years. One jet was returned to its lessor in September 2020-
possibly due to the travel slowdown during the pandemic.
The other A320, registered TC-JPO, was re-registered as ZA-BBC and leased to
Air Albania in September 2021. Considering the fact that Turkish Airlines has a 49%
stake in the carrier, this deal doesn’t seem too surprising.
Likely also a result of the pandemic, the carrier also said goodbye to three
Airbus A330-300s over the course of 2020. Two of these were returned to their lessors and
now fly with Saudi Arabia’s flynas while the third remains in long-term storage.
When it comes to the airline’s recently departed 737s, two -800s left Turkish in May and June of
2020 and now fly with US startup Avelo Airlines. 18 -800s were also removed over the course of 2021
and reassigned to fly with the carrier’s subsidiary, Anadolu Jet.
Another two were also removed in 2021 and were converted into freighters.
One of these is in Lithuania while the other is in Iceland.
When it comes to Turkish Airlines’ future fleet, it looks like the carrier is mainly
moving towards Airbus- although it looks to still have a decent level of diversity.
The airline has dozens of outstanding A321neos left to be delivered as well as its 14 A350s.
On the Boeing side, the only type that has outstanding orders is the 787-9 Dreamliner.
Unfortunately, like a few other previous videos we’ve made covering airline fleets,
Turkish is also caught up in Boeing’s Dreamliner delivery issues.
As is the case with American Airlines, Lufthansa, and WestJet, Turkish Airlines
has at least four 787s that are complete- or near complete- that aren’t able to reach the carrier.
In case you missed it, Boeing has been unable to deliver new 787s for well over a year now.
Boeing needs approval from the FAA to resume deliveries-
approval that has thus far been held back as the aviation regulator
closely scrutinizes the planemaker’s manufacturing and assembly processes.
Indeed, manufacturing quality issues had been flagged as one factor that needs to be resolved.
The company suspended deliveries in mid-October 2020,
they briefly resumed from April to June 2021, before once again grinding to a halt.
Recent reports indicated that there may be a possible resumption date this month (April 2022),
with two deliveries a month planned. However, at the time of this video’s production,
no positive news has yet surfaced for Boeing.
But, going back to Turkish Airlines, the carrier should have received more than it did last year-
taking just one in June 2021. It would also be expecting a few this year as well.
Waiting for a total of 10, it’s up to the FAA and its approval
of Boeing’s production processes to get 787 deliveries happening again-
not just for Turkish Airlines but for other carriers around the world
Beyond the orders we know about,
it’s not clear what the airline will do to replace its older fleets of aircraft.
Seeing as it operates both 737 and A320 family aircraft, the carrier is in a good
position to take new narrowbodies from either Airbus or Boeing. From Boeing,
we could see it taking the 737 MAX 7 or the Airbus A319neo to eventually replace its A319s.
For its aging A320 fleet, this could again come down to the 737 MAX
8 or the A320neo. While many have compared the A319neo to the A220-300, we’re just not
sure if Turkish Airlines wants to further diversify its fleet by adding another type.
However, when it comes to the eventual replacement of its Airbus A330-200s and -300s, the A330neo
would be a strong candidate and the obvious choice. Having a decent fleet of A330-200s,
it would be exciting to see another customer order the rare A330-800.
At the same time, the carrier could just shift this segment of aircraft operations towards
Boeing’s widebodies. The airline already operates the 787 and could just order more of these-
whether its the -9 or the shorter -8. Of course, considering that the airline’s A330s average
around 10 years of age, there’s probably no rush to look at any replacement just yet.
Finally, Turkish Airlines has many more years to operate its 777-300ERs, considering their average
age of just eight and a half years. Of course, if we want to consider the long-term future just
as a thought experiment, then it would seem to be a fairly easy transition towards the 777-9.
Of course, now that the airline operates the A350-900- it would seem like the A350-1000
could be a strong contender as well… even if it has a little less capacity than the 777-9.
Ultimately, it would appear that Turkish Airlines and its fairly diverse fleet is in a good position
to choose new aircraft from both Airbus or Boeing when the time comes for fleet modernization.
What do you think about the Turkish Airlines fleet?
Do you think it will modernize its fleet with Airbus or Boeing aircraft in the years to come?
And do you think Boeing’s recent issues with both the MAX and the 787
will affect which direction the airline chooses? Let us know by leaving a comment.