Birmingham International Airport has announced that another high calibre major global network carrier - Turkish Airlines - will commence services to Istanbul from 15th December 2008. The new service will offer Midlands travellers the first direct scheduled service to Istanbul from the region.

Turkey’s flag-carrier, and member of the Star Alliance global airline grouping, will operate five weekly flights to Istanbul and will provide onward flight opportunities within Turkey, the Middle East and the Far East, through its own established route network.

Turkish Airlines currently has a four star ranking according to SKYTRAX, the world airline star rating programme that ranks airline product and service standards, similar to that achieved by Air France, British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic.

Osman Battal, Turkish Airlines’ Director for UK, said, “Not only can we offer air travellers in Birmingham and the wider region new direct flights to Istanbul, but we are also able to fly people to over 140 onward destinations including Bangkok, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Delhi, Bombay and Singapore. Although we will be launching in December with five weekly flights, we aspire to be operating daily services from Birmingham by summer 2009 and carrying 30,000 of passengers a year by this time.”

The airline will operate a 155-seat mixed configuration Boeing 737-800 aircraft, fitted with 20 seats in business class and 135 in economy.

Flights on Mondays and Thursdays will arrive in Birmingham at 1030 and depart to Istanbul at 1130. The remaining three weekly flights on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays will arrive in Birmingham at 1215 and depart at 1315.

The timings are such to allow the shortest possible connection times to the banks of worldwide departures from Turkish Airlines’ Istanbul hub.