The battle had been going on for several months. Authorised to operate a daily flight to Sydney, Turkish Airlines wanted to increase the number of its frequencies to Australia. The airline plans to launch flights to this country in 2024.
Finally, Transport Minister Catherine King signed a new agreement. The latter authorises the Turkish carrier to increase the number of its flights to 35 per week. However, this decision came as a surprise to many observers. Earlier in the year, the same Catherine King refused Qatar Airways' request to offer more flights to Australia. And this, without putting forward any valid explanation. The Qatari carrier is currently using all of its 28 frequencies authorised by the local authorities.
Lower fares on the Europe-Australia route?
However, Turkish Airlines' expansion in Australia will be gradual. and will run until 2025. Under the terms of the agreement, the company can immediately offer 21 flights a week to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.
Turkish Airlines has already announced that it will begin operations to Australia in March.. It has not yet specified its final timetables and destinations, but we are naturally thinking of flights to Melbourne and Sydney as a priority.
Turkish Airlines flights will provide a significant alternative to the services offered by Gulf carriers or via Singapore for routes between Australia and Europe. And contribute to lower prices according to observers.
More flights to France
The Australian government has also granted more frequencies to Vietnamese airlines (77 flights/week compared with 38 flights at present). New agreements have also been signed with Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and France.
For the latter, since 1er December, the agreement provides for seven flights a week for Australian airlines and 3 flights a week for French airlines. In addition to services to mainland France, Australia offers French carriers a daily flight to Polynesia and 2,400 seats a week to New Caledonia. For New Caledonia, only 1,926 seats are currently offered by Air Calin.
As a reminder, Qantas to launch Paris-Perth route (Western Australia) next summer.
