Direct flights to Toronto by Turkish Airlines

News added by Victor Hunt under Airline News

Turkey’s leading airline company, Turkish Airways (THY), started direct flights to Toronto, the cultural capital of Canada, with a ceremony on Saturday.The administration of Toronto Pearson International Airport welcomed the first passengers from THY while students who study at Turkish schools in Toronto performed the Kolbastı, a popular Turkish dance with fast rhythmic moves. The ceremony was capped off with a convoy of decorated cars driven by Turks and Azeris, celebrating the launch of direct flights to Turkey.

Turkish Minister of Transportation Binali Yıldırım, numerous deputies, THY General Manager Temel Kotil, businessmen and journalists were among the passengers aboard the Airbus A340 aircraft.

THY will use Airbus 330 and 340 aircraft on the 11-hour İstanbul-Toronto trip, which will be scheduled three times a week, on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Toronto has become the 117th international destination of THY. Turkey and Canada signed a civil aviation agreement in March 2009 allowing scheduled flights and agreed to allow multiple airlines from both countries to fly routes between the two countries, with the first permits granted to THY and Air Canada. Two destinations each from Turkey and Canada were set as scheduled flight destinations, and airlines were allowed to make three passenger and three cargo flights weekly and to set up third-party code sharing on their flights.

At the ceremony after the plane landed at Pearson, Yıldırım delivered a speech to acknowledge the unprecedented growth of the Turkish aviation industry in the last five years. In that time, THY has become a leading global carrier, he asserted.

The number of passengers carried by THY soared from 8 million to 25 million between 2002 and 2008, Yıldırım recalled.

“I had a chance to speak with the passengers during this first flight to Toronto and could see the happiness on their faces. They told me about the troubles they faced with their connecting flights in the past. This made us better understand the significance of the launch of direct flights,” the minister said.

“In addition to this, the presence of passengers from a number of countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran and Russia reveals the high potential of this flight. It will be very profitable for THY to carry people to a country like Canada, where millions of people from across the world live,” Yıldırım noted.

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