Turkish Airlines adds fourth Prague flight

Turkish Airlines will increase its flights between Václav Havel Airport Prague and Istanbul Atatürk Airport next year. From May 27, 2019, the airline will add a fourth daily flight to its current three.

The new line TK1773 / 1774 will depart from Prague at 1:10 pm and arrive in Istanbul at 4:50 pm. The flight in the opposite direction leaves Istanbul at 10:30 am and arrives at 12:15 pm.

The flight will use a Boeing 737 MAX 8, a new version of the popular narrow body plane that replaces the Boeing 737-800. The new model is more efficient than its predecessor. It also has a lighter empty weight and higher maximum takeoff weight than the rival Airbus A320neo.

“We expect the fourth daily frequency to carry 100,000 passengers in both directions every year,” Prague Airport spokeswoman Kateřina Pavlíková said in a press release.

The other three flights from Prague to Istanbul depart at 7:05 am, 12:05 pm and 4:50 pm. Flights from Istanbul to Prague depart at 9:40 am, 2:35 pm and 7:20 pm. These flights use the Airbus A320 or A321.

Turkish Airlines is the national flag carrier airline of Turkey. As of 2017, it operates scheduled services to 302 destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, making it the largest carrier in the world by number of destinations.

Turkish Airlines has been a member of the Star Alliance network since April 1, 2008.

The additional route to Istanbul fits in with Prague Airport’s strategy to increase the number of passengers at Václav Havel Airport Prague. In the long term, another runway is planned.

The airport handled a total of 7,463,975 passengers in the first half of 2018, a 10 percent increase over the same period last year, and looks set to break last year's annual record of clearing 15,415,001 passengers. That was an increase of 17.9 percent compared to 2016.

The airport recently opened new check-in facilities that will help increase the capacity of Terminal 2, which handles flights within the Schengen Zone.

Václav Havel Airport Prague opened April 5, 1937, as Prague Ruzyně Airport. Right after former president Václav Havel's death on Dec. 18, 2011, an online petition asked the government to rename it to Václav Havel International Airport. This name change took place Oct. 5, 2012, on what would have been Havel's 76th birthday.