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Turkish Airlines adjusts US & Canada flight frequencies amid traffic rights challenges

Turkish Airlines adjusts US & Canada flight frequencies amid traffic rights challenges
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Turkish Airlines | Official Website

Based on July flight data, Turkish Airlines ranks as the fifth-largest foreign long-haul airline serving the United States and Canada. The Star Alliance member plans up to 28 daily departures to these North American countries, a reduction from previous schedules but still surpassing its earlier record of 26 daily services. These figures were derived from an analysis of its full schedule using OAG data.

While Turkish Airlines has operated flights to Canada for 16 years, all three routes—Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver—are served less than daily. This limitation is due to traffic rights issues that affect many carriers relying heavily on transit passengers rather than local ones. A potential solution could involve partnering with Air Canada to utilize unused Canadian traffic rights for flights to Istanbul. However, this seems unlikely as Air Canada already partners with Emirates for Dubai services.

In July, Turkish Airlines' operations include various frequencies across several U.S. cities:

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- New York JFK: Mainly four daily flights

- Chicago O'Hare and Los Angeles: 17 weekly flights

- Miami and Washington Dulles: Double daily flights

- San Francisco: 11 weekly flights

- Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Houston Intercontinental: 10 weekly flights

- Seattle: Nine weekly flights

- Boston, Detroit, and Newark: Daily flights

For Canadian destinations:

- Toronto sees six weekly departures.

- Denver has five weekly departures.

- Montreal and Vancouver have three weekly departures each.

During summer months at New York JFK Airport—one of the busiest long-haul airports in the U.S.—Turkish Airlines operates up to four daily flights. In winter months like February, the frequency drops to as low as 18 weekly services.

U.S. Department of Transportation data indicates that between March 2024 and February 2025, Turkish Airlines carried approximately 608,000 round-trip passengers between Istanbul and JFK Airport. About 69% of these passengers connected through Istanbul to other destinations such as Tbilisi (the most popular), Tirana, Samarkand (!), Jeddah, Moscow (to circumvent sanctions), Athens, Tashkent, Medina, Baku, and Priština.

Organizations Included in this History
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