Turkish Airlines has announced plans to fly non-stop between Istanbul and Vancouver, but a bureaucratic hurdle may keep the carrier from launching its desired route.
In mid-October, the airline posted a notice to the investor relations part of its website saying that it “has decided to start operating scheduled flights, based on market conditions, to Vancouver, Canada.”
The notice was a heads-up to investors, given that slightly more than half of the venture’s shares trade on the Borsa Istanbul stock exchange. The Turkish government holds the remainder.
The airline did not reveal a launch date for the route because it is not yet a done deal. Canada and Turkey must sign off on changes to a bilateral air-services agreement to enable domestic carriers to fly to three cities in the foreign country, up from two.
The ability to fly to a third city is key because Turkish Airlines already flies non-stop between Istanbul and Toronto, and between Istanbul and Montreal.
Air Canada (TSX:AC) had operated non-stop flights between Toronto and Istanbul but suspended them in 2017 “as a result of a decrease in travel demand,” spokeswoman Angela Mah told Business in Vancouver…
