Air Turkey 787-9 'ULH'

This Air Turkey 787-9 is different to most of the other 787-9s in the fleet, as it is fitted with an ultra long haul cabin, with a more premium heavy config. This includes 2 lounges featuring bars, one is behind the business class cabin and the other is behind the premium economy class. And although both lounges are small, the business class one is the larger of the two. This 787-9 is fitted with the same cabin as 8 other 787-9s in the fleet that fly off to far flung destinations.

Here is the list of said destinations:
Perth
Melbourne
Sydney
Auckland (Via Melbourne and Sydney)
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Phoenix
Cape Town
TO COME:
Brisbane (Starting 22 February 2022)

These special 789s are dubbed '787-9ULH' by Air Turkey, although this is not the official designation by Boeing. TC-HBE was the first '787-9ULH' delivered back on 26 January 2016, and flew the inaugural Istanbul-Sydney nonstop flight on 1 February 2016. Previously, and up until August 2019, Air Turkey flew Istanbul-Sydney Via Singapore using a 777-300ER. Melbourne was added in April that year and in May, the Dreamliners began to fly onwards from Sydney and Melbourne to Auckland. The only other 2 new routes to be added thanks to these 787-9s were Perth in August 2018 and Phoenix in March 2018. The other routes were already flown by other aircraft types, but now had the 787-9 introduced on those flights.

Even during the pandemic, these '787-9ULH's were utilised well, mostly as repatriation flights from places such as in South America, Oceania and Africa, albeit with the famous lounges closed off, and on 12 January 2022 began flying the daily Istanbul-Sydney and Melbourne flights once again.

TC-HCD: 2018 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner | Air Turkey | Currently: Active with Air Turkey

(I will be editing the other Air Turkey posts with more detail so look out for those too!)