No application from Turkish Airlines for planned S’pore-Australia flights, says CAAS

Despite going public with plans to fly from Istanbul to Australia with a layover in Singapore, Turkish Airlines has not lodged any application with the Republic’s authorities to operate these flights. Responding to queries from The Straits Times on Dec 27, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said it “has not received any application from Turkish Airlines to operate fifth-freedom services between Singapore and Australia”. “Airlines must obtain regulatory approvals before the flights can be operated,” said CAAS director of air transport Sidney Koh. Fifth-freedom flights allow a carrier to fly from its home country to another, and offload passengers and freight, before picking up passengers and cargo and flying on to its final destination. Turkish Airlines chairman Ahmet Bolat told Hurriyet Daily News, an English daily in Turkey, that it will start flights to Australia between March 15 and 25, 2024. The carrier plans to operate flights to Sydney and Melbourne. “The Australia flight will involve a layover, a 10-hour stopover in Singapore, and then a further seven-hour journey to Australia,” he said in the news report published on Dec 8. He added that the carrier is in talks with Hollywood star Margot Robbie, the lead actress in the hit 2023 movie Barbie, to front the airline’s advertising campaigns for this new route.<br/>