Turkish Airlines Eyes Major Expansion Across the Americas as Widebody Deliveries Accelerate

• Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and Executive Committee Prof. Dr. Murat Şeker spoke to HavaSosyalMedya during the IATA AGM in Rio de Janeiro, outlining the carrier’s expansion plans across the Americas and its future network growth strategy.

“We are looking at the Americas as an entire continent, not only North America or the United States. We have significant growth ambitions across the region.

Today, we serve 14 destinations in the United States and we have plans to increase that number. However, one of the key limiting factors has been delays in widebody aircraft deliveries.

Unfortunately, only three widebody aircraft joined our fleet in 2026, all of them Airbus A350s. Starting next year, however, we expect a significant increase in fleet growth. Around 10 widebody aircraft are scheduled to join the fleet in 2027, 17 in 2028, and another 15 to 16 in 2029. With these deliveries, we intend to continue our growth plans across the Americas.

We may begin launching new destinations as early as next year. In Canada, we recently secured additional traffic rights and frequencies. We are likely to use these rights to increase frequencies on the routes we already serve.

In the United States, cities such as Philadelphia and Orlando have been under consideration for some time, and we will continue evaluating those opportunities.

There are also potential new destinations in South America. While no final Board decisions have been made yet, we continue to assess opportunities in Latin America, including Peru and additional cities in Brazil.

We have clear growth ambitions across the continent.

In addition, the process regarding Air Europa has received the necessary approvals from the Spanish Government. We are now awaiting approval from the European Commission.

Through this process, we aim to further strengthen our presence and interest in the Latin American market.”