Turkish Airlines grounded before launch as Minister delays air rights

One of the world’s biggest airlines, Turkish Airlines, has been forced to put its plans of expanding services into Australia indefinitely on hold after it failed to win government approval in time for an expected launch of highly sought after capacity to Europe from Melbourne and Sydney. The setback appears at odds with the Albanese government’s objective of fostering airline competition, after it knocked back Qatar’s application to send more flights to Australia. At a gala event in Melbourne on Friday, the chairman of Turkish Airlines, Ahmet Bolat, told The Australian Financial Review that the airline had encountered “legal issues” that stopped a formal announcement being made on the night. “There are some legal issues that we have to solve between the Turkish government and the Australian government, but today in the meeting the [Melbourne Airport owner Asia Pacific Airports Corporation] mentioned that they are on the issue,” Bolat said. Turkish Airlines currently flies to the most destinations of any airline in the world, and had been expected to name Melbourne as the 130th at the event. Turkish Airlines has the right to land four flights a week under an existing bilateral agreement between Australia and Turkey, but Bolat said the airline is trying to expand its air rights to 14 flights a week or daily services to Melbourne and Sydney. He said Turkish Airlines also needs “fifth freedoms”, or the right to sell tickets between Melbourne and Singapore, and Sydney and Singapore, as well as the longer Melbourne- and Sydney-to-Istanbul via Singapore fares, for the service to make commercial sense. This had caused some hesitance on the airline’s part. “In the 42 hours [that it takes to fly to Australia and back] I can fly to Miami twice. I’m sorry to say that is more profitable than flying to Sydney and Melbourne,” Bolat said, on the basis that the necessary fifth freedoms are out of reach.<br/>