KUALA LUMPUR: Turkiye's national carrier Turkish Airlines is looking to increase flight frequencies to Malaysia and Indonesia as part of its network expansion in Southeast Asia.
Turkish Airlines chairman Ahmet Bolat said the airline wants more Malaysians and Indonesians to travel to Turkiye and Istanbul and it is looking for opportunities to add more frequencies to the countries.
"More Malaysians and Indonesians want to come to Istanbul and Turkiye. In the near future, I see that there will be good prospects between these two countries. If frequencies can be expanded, we will expand in these two countries," he said at the 79th International Air Transport Association's annual general meeting and World Air Transport Summit last week.
Currently, Turkish Airlines is doing double daily flights from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur.
Ahmet Bolat said the airline has an existing codeshare agreement with Batik Air Malaysia and it is also looking for opportunities to start a codeshare with Malaysia Airlines Bhd.
However, he said Turkish Airlines is also interested in doing direct flights on its own.
On its fleet expansion plan, Ahmet Bolat said Turkish Airlines is planning to buy some 600 new aircraft which comprises of 400 narrow-body and 200 wide-body airplanes.
The carrier's fleet size would increase to 813 from the current 435 with the addition of the new planes.
"What we're going to do is to have continuous growth in new destinations and in some places, additional frequencies," said Ahmet Bolat, who has been with Turkish Airlines for nearly 20 years.
He added that Turkish Airlines aims to become one of the top three airlines in the world and carries over 86 million passengers by the end of this year