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Air Turkey Asia Boeing 747-400



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Pingu, Med's template improved upon by M31MK

Air Turkey Asia Boeing 747-400

So, this may look like any old Air Turkey 744, but do not be fooled, for this is Air Turkey Asia. Air Turkey Asia was established in 1989 in order to be able to fly to Taiwan while also being able to fly to Mainland China without being banned by the CCP for flying to Taiwan. at first, 2 747-200s were used between 1989 and 1995 to fly once daily from Istanbul to Taipei and back as 9O0001 and 9O0002 respectively. In 1995, with the arrival of more 747-400s, the 747-200s that were used were replaced with 2 747-400s that were delivered a couple of years prior. The reason for this was because Air Turkey wanted to use the more modern planes on the main flights such as to and from London Heathrow. In 1999, the 2 747-400s were joined by a 777-200ER.

In 2003, Air Turkey revealed their iconic new updated livery. But around the same time, they revealed Air Turkey Asia's new livery, featuring the word 'Asia' on the tail and smaller titles on the fuselage. But this announcement was not very well known, as Air Turkey purposefully kept it hush hush in order to not annoy the CCP and get banned from flying to/above Mainland China. And so it was. By 2006, the fleet was once again 2 747-400s, except 2 different ones. This was due to increased demand to London in 2005 (for unknown reason), and so Air Turkey repainted the 2 Air Turkey Asia 744s in the new updated livery and just used the one 777-200ER for the flights. Air Turkey then put that 772 back on mainline routes and put 2 different 747-400s on the Istanbul-Taipei flights as the 2 previously used were already scheduled to fly many other fights.

Air Turkey Asia once again got a new livery in 2012 when Air Turkey revealed their modern present day livery. But this time, it was first applied to an A340-300. Indeed, the 744s were going to be put out of service for Air Turkey Asia, or at least that was the original plan, but they kept 1 of the 744s on the route to keep up with demand. That 744 got repainted into the Air Turkey Asia livery in 2013, and it wasn't actually a bodge job, it was a more 'permanent' livery (if you will). Alongside the A340-300 and 747-400 joined an A330-300 in 2014. The 747-400 left the Air Turkey Asia fleet in 2015 and was actually retired from service altogether, leaving the A343 and A333 to operate the flights.

The end was nigh for Air Turkey Asia however, as on 26 November 2016, Air Turkey announced that it would be suspending flights to Taipei starting 10 January 2017 due to dwindling demand. On 10 January 2017, Air Turkey would operate the last Istanbul-Taipei (and back) flight for the foreseeable future.

. . .to which the foreseeable future turned out to be 12 March 2019. On this day, Air Turkey announced flights back to Taipei using their 787-9 aircraft starting on 28 March that year. Air Turkey Asia was back, but they kept the name discreet for a little while, only applying a sticker to the front of the fuselage and removing the Turkish flag as well. They used only 1 787-9 for the flight, TC-HBR, which has since been repainted into Air Turkey Asia titles, but keeping the crescent and star logo on the tail, unlike all previous Air Turkey Asia liveries. To this day, Air Turkey Asia operated 2 787-9s, 1 in the Air Turkey Asia livery, and one with just a small sticker attached to the front, but with the flag still there. The operations of Air Turkey Asia were suspended from 12 April 2020 up until 10 December 2021. Currently, there is no plans to suspend the operations of Air Turkey Asia for the foreseeable future. . .

TC-JNG: 1994 Boeing 747-419 Air Turkey Asia | Currently; Stored in Mojave, California since 10 November 2016, still wearing the 2003-2012 livery but with all titles/logos stripped off of the plane.

There will be more Air Turkey Asia posts, but they will feature less description than this.



    i love the livery!

     

    but turkish airlines flies direct to taiwan as well to mainland china. and under the same name

    Asia branding isn’t necessary for a Turkish airline. But otherwise nice work!

    nice :)