Turkish Airlines welcomes its first Boeing 787

Boeing 787-9 Turkish Airlines
A Boeing 787-9 in Turkish Airlines livery. Photo: © Boeing

Turkish Airlines has taken delivery of its first of twenty-five Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and becomes a completely new operator of the 787 aircraft that was launched in 2009. The aircraft is expected to arrive in Istanbul on Wednesday, at approximately 15:30 local time.

Turkey’s flag-carrier has already been a Boeing customer for many years; its current fleet includes the Boeing 777-300ER, as well as the Boeing 737 NG and 737 MAX. The latter aircraft type is currently grounded.

Turkish Airlines’ brand new Boeing 787 jets are equipped with 300 seats. Later this year, the airline will start to deploy the Dreamliner aircraft on long-haul flights from Istanbul’s new airport, which replaced the previous Atatürk Airport as the airline’s main hub in April this year.

In addition to the Boeing 737, 777 and the newly delivered 787, the carrier operates Airbus A320 family aircraft and A330s. Twenty-five Airbus A350-900s are expected to join the fleet in the coming years. Moreover, Turkish Airlines has options for an additional five Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner jets.

Furthermore, Turkish Airlines Cargo runs a fleet of both Airbus and Boeing freighter aircraft, which are mostly wet-leased.

Read more: IFN correspondent Umut Celik visited Istanbul’s new airport.

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