When Doctor Kotil, CEO of Turkish Airlines, spoke to the delegates of the recently-ended Africa Travel Association Congress in Nairobi, many of the less informed in the audience were surprised to hear that the airline is already the one with the widest network of a non-African airline linking African destinations via Istanbul. Soon to be covering 50 cities on the continent, Dr. Kotil left no doubt that in the short to medium term this is to rise to 60 while eventually eyeing literally all political and commercial capitals as well as resort locations.
The next destinations Turkish is now intensely looking at, intent to commence services soon, are reportedly Antananarivo in Madagascar and the Seychelles, both members of the Vanilla Islands group. In particular has the Seychelles promoted cruise tourism with Mahe one of the places where passengers can get off or get on a cruise liner. The fact that no Visa are needed for visitors to the Seychelles makes this arguably one of the easiest exchange points and the arrival of Turkish Airlines would add yet another global airline, after Emirates and Etihad. With wider choices, all three offer one stop travel to the Seychelles from their global network, will the destination no doubt benefit big time, as will Madagascar too.
Most African destinations are served by Turkish Airlines’ Boeing B737-800NG and Boeing B737-900NG fleet though select destinations have seen wide body operations put into place.
Both Madagascar and the Seychelles are reportedly monitoring developments closely to see when Turkish will launch flights to their capitals and as the saying goes, watch this space to find out too.
