African Queen - the Boeing 737-900ER of Turkish Airlines
The name "African Queen" for one of the most modern commercial aircraft
in the world must of course be explained. The Boeing 737-900ER operated by Turkish
Airlines Boeing 737-900ER is to a certain extent a custom-made aircraft for the airline. The jet
offers around 16 comfortable, easily adjustable Business Class seats, which are
are usually only used in long-haul aircraft. Even in the
Economy Class also impresses with leather seating and a considerable seat pitch.
High-quality catering from Turkish Do&Co and one of the most modern in-flight entertainment
in-flight entertainment, i.e. individual screens at each seat with an
with an enormous selection of movies and music on demand, corresponds to the high
Turkish's high quality of service.
So far so good. One of the strategies of Europe's fastest growing airline
airline, Turkish Airlines, is also to massively expand its route network to Africa.
massively. Connoisseur Circle was on board the inaugural flight from
Istanbul to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, and onwards to Mombasa, Kenya.
The 737-900ER is of particular importance here. Equipped with
with a special additional fuel tank, the jet achieves a range of almost
seven hours. This means that the "African Queen" can reach destinations such as Kinshasa, Nairobi
or Lagos non-stop. The seating capacity of the
jet is absolutely sufficient for this task, as some routes would not be
route could not be operated economically with a wide-body jet.
"With Kilimanjaro and Mombasa, we now serve 33 destinations in Africa. In the
will soon increase this number to 40, and we plan to serve a total of 50
airports in Africa," explains Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil on board the inaugural flight.
Kotil on board the inaugural flight.
New connections are planned, among others, to Luanda (Angola), Asmara
(Eritrea), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Bamako (Mali), Niamey (Niger),
Bamako, N'Djamena (Chad) Sebha (Liybia), Juba (South Sudan), Libreville
(Gabon), Yaounde and Douala (Cameroon). The aim is also to serve each destination
up to twice a day from Istanbul, some cities even three times a day.
three times. "Our focus is also on secondary destinations, such as
Hargeisa in Somalia," explains Kotil.
A total of ten Boeing 737-900ERs are currently in service with Turkish Airlines.
with two more joining the fleet. And the "African Queen" is not
not only on its way to Africa. Between flights to the black
continent, the extremely comfortable jet also flies on European routes.
routes.
Kurt Hofmann
December 2012
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