With international embargoes limiting flights into Russia, some airlines see great potential. Turkish Airlines not only has significantly boosted operations into Russia, but it converted aircraft to increase capacity from the existing fleet.
The company’s Turkish Technic subsidiary recently highlighted its success in converting a 777-300ER from a typical two-class configuration to an all-economy layout. The video is pretty fun to watch, even if it does mean going from a 3-3-3 to 3-4-3 layout in the back.
It appears the carrier has converted three planes to the new configuration. Those aircraft, with 496 seats in an all-economy layout, serve one key purpose: Ferrying Russians to holiday destinations in Turkey.
A review of Cirium schedule data shows the planes flying from St.Petersburg and Moscow to a mix of Antalya, Bodrum, and Dalaman.
In total, Turkish Airlines is operating more than 300% more seats to Russia in June 2023 than in June 2019.
Also of note, these are not the highest density 777s flying, though that title also belongs to a Turkish Airlines-owned plane. The carrier recently delivered the first 777-300ER painted for India’s IndiGo, operating on a wet lease basis. The plane is configured with one row of 2-3-2 business class and 524 economy seats behind it. That’s just 19 seats short of the maximum allowable on a 777-300ER frame based on exit door requirements.
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