Transavia.com France is returning to the Paris-Istanbul market this October after an absence of seven years as part of plans to launch two new routes to Turkey’s largest city.

Flights from Paris Orly (ORY) to Istanbul (IST) will begin on Oct. 30, operating four times per week using Boeing 737-800 aircraft. A 2X-weekly route from Lyon St-Exupery ({LYS}}) to IST will also start on the same day.

The launch of the new services will join Transavia.com France’s existing flights between Nantes (NTE) and IST, which currently operate twice a week but are scheduled to increase to 3X-weekly during the forthcoming northern winter 2022/23 season.

The LCC last served Istanbul in October 2015 when it flew from Paris Orly to Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (SAW). The route launched in April 2014 and operated year-round until being suspended 18 months later.

Transavia.com France’s restoration of Paris-Istanbul flights will see the airline enter a competitive market on a city-pair basis. Although it will be the only operator on the ORY-IST sector, OAG data shows that Pegasus Airlines currently serves ORY-SAW double daily.

In addition, Turkish Airlines offers 11X-weekly flights from SAW to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG), as well as up to 7X-daily CDG-IST services. Transavia.com France’s parent Air France also provides a daily CDG-IST flight.

At the present time, there are 33,210 two-way seats available between Paris and Istanbul per week, with Turkish Airlines commanding 74.2% of the total capacity. Pegasus has 18.2% and Air France has 7.6%. The number of two-way seats set to operate during the week commencing Aug. 8 is up by 3.3% on the same week in 2019.

ORY-IST