Birmingham International Airport has received a major boost with the news that a major airline will commence services from the hub to Istanbul. The link up with national flag carrier Turkish Airlines will offer Midland travellers the first direct scheduled service to Istanbul from the region.

The five weekly flights, which will begin on December 15, will provide onward flight opportunities within Turkey, the Middle East and the Far East, through Turkish Airlines own established route network. British low fares airline Monarch also launched a new twice-weekly service to Larnaca in Cyprus and increased flights to the Canary Islands of Lanzarote and Tenerife.

Travellers will soon be able to fly direct from Birmingham international airport to Istanbul as Turkish Airlines is set to commence services from December 15th 2008.

The airline will operate five flights per week to Istanbul, offering Midlands holidaymakers the first direct scheduled service to Turkey from the region.

Director Osman Battal noted that passengers will be able to fly to over 140 onward destinations from Istanbul, including Bangkok, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Delhi, Bombay and Singapore.

Although we will be launching in December with five weekly flights, we aspire to be operating daily services from Birmingham by summer 2009 and carrying 30,000 of passengers a year by this time, he said.

The airline will operate a 155-seat mixed configuration Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the new route. Flights on Mondays and Thursdays will arrive in Birmingham at 10:30 and depart for Istanbul at 11:30 GMT.

The remaining three weekly flights on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays will arrive in Birmingham at 12:15 and depart at 13:15 GMT.

Last week the airport announced low-cost carrier Ryanair will launch a new daily route from Birmingham to Dusseldorf from its Birmingham airport base on October 27th 2008.Travel Bite