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Route news: BA drops three European destinations, Turkish Airlines adds Stansted

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Airline route news in brief:

British Airways tweaks its European network

British Airways has made three changes to its European network for the winter flying season, which starts when the clocks go back in October.

  • Flights from Heathrow to Grenoble in France have been removed from sale
  • Flights to Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen – the ‘other’ Istanbul airport – will terminate at the end of the summer season. Whilst nowhere near as smart as the new airport, I did find Sabiha Gokcen very convenient when I used it last year
  • Flights to Zagreb have been removed from sale for the winter season, with the route becoming ‘summer only’. Croatia Airlines will continue to operate the route from Heathrow.

Hat-tip to @SeanM1997 on X.

Istanbul flight changes

Turkish Airlines to start flights from London Stansted

In some ways, Turkish Airlines flies under the radar as a major hub airline. Ask people to name the airline which flies to most countries in the world and I suspect most would say Emirates. Very few would go for Turkish Airlines, which is the correct answer.

The scale of the Turkish Airlines operation from the UK is also under appreciated. This is probably because it mainly operates with short haul aircraft which have a lower PR profile than, say, an Emirates A380.

Turkish Airlines has just announced 14 weekly flights from London Stansted to Istanbul, starting on 18th March 2026.

Turkish will now operate from six UK airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh – plus Dublin.

The total number of weekly UK flights to Istanbul will jump to 170.

However …. there is a tweak to the story which was not in the Turkish Airlines press release. AJet,  formerly AnadoluJet, is a low cost Turkish airline which is owned by Turkish Airlines. AJet currently flies from Stansted to Sabiha Gokcen, Istanbul’s second airport. It looks as if these flights are being discontinued from the end of March 2026.

If AJet is pulling out, the move by Turkish Airlines to launch Stansted – whilst genuinely improving services to the ‘new’ Istanbul airport and maximising connection opportunities for UK passengers – will not be increasing overall capacity between the two countries.

You can check pricing and schedules on the Turkish Airlines website here.

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Comments (64)

  • IslandDweller says:
    2 Jul2 July 08:46

    Can you not use “drop” please….. In previous articles, you’ve used it to mean “launch” whereas in this article it means “discontinue”. Using an unambiguous word would help us all.

    Reply
  • Michael Jennings says:
    2 Jul2 July 10:16

    Sabiha Gökçen airport isn’t that old – it only opened in 2001. Saying the “old” airport definitely refers to Ataturk. You can refer to Sabiha Gökçen airport as the “low cost” airport, I suppose, but that’s like calling Gatwick a “low cost” airport. There’s a fair bit of non low-cost stuff going on there as well. I think I would describe it more as Istanbul’s “Asian” airport or possibly eastern airport. It’s mainly there because istanbul is a huge city and it provides an airport that is closer to where many people live.

    The new airport has some great features – lovely lounges – but it also requires far too much walking. Getting into town has improvied dramatically since they opened one of the world’s fastest metro lines, but the M11 doesn’t go to anywhere that tourists are likely to be trying to go to. The interchanges to other lines at Gayrettepe and Kâğıthane are both awful, involving a lot of walking and in one cases crossing a busy road.

    The metro line from Sabiha Gökçen at least takes you directly to the middle of Kadikoy, which is somewhere you might want to go. If your destination is on the European side, it’s a simple ferry from there, and Istanbul’s Bosporus ferries are enormously charming.

    Reply
  • meta says:
    2 Jul2 July 11:12

    Croatia Airlines has only three flight a week to Zagreb in winter (Mon, Wed, Fri). With Belgrade gone last year, this means connectivity to that part of Europe has been significantly reduced.

    Reply
    • Throwawayname says:
      2 Jul2 July 11:30

      Aegean is probably the best bet for the Balkans from London, I think they’re up to 4 flights a day now so the connections should be good enough to compensate for having to do a bit of backtracking. Much trickier from the regions though, albeit LX do have some coverage.

      Reply
      • John says:
        2 Jul2 July 21:58

        The cheap A3 fares to the Balkans that used to exist before covid seem to have all gone

        Reply
    • janolabs says:
      2 Jul2 July 11:51

      Belgrade served daily by both Air Serbia and Wizz from LHR and LTN, respectively.
      I’d rather take a direct flight with Wizz to the Balkans, than connect anywhere to reach it. Quite an extensive network to that part of the world! Now even accepting Amex 🙂

      Reply
      • meta says:
        2 Jul2 July 13:38

        I’m never stepping on Wizz Air flight. They should be banned from flying anywhere. And Luton is too far from London! Air Serbia now really has a monopoly and they will charge accordingly. OU as well!

        And @Throwawayname are you suggesting people should fly 4 hours to Athens, wait a few hours and then another 1h30?

        Reply
        • Throwawayname says:
          2 Jul2 July 14:13

          Yes, very much so. E.g. if you’re going to SKG you can choose between a direct flight from STN taking up most of the day or having a full day in London and sacrificing a decent chunk of sleep flying out on the 22:15 Aegean flight and arriving at 08:00.

          I’m not saying that one of these two itineraries is necessarily better than the other, but the choice can be made a lot easier when you realise the direct flight [often] is more expensive and comes with no *G benefits.

          Reply
          • meta says:
            2 Jul2 July 15:13

            But I wasn’t talking about going to Greece. You should really study the map and see how far is Belgrade/Zagreb/Sarajevo to Thessaloniki or Athens.

          • Throwawayname says:
            2 Jul2 July 15:43

            The flight time isn’t materially different, ATH-BEG is less than 450 miles, and the journeys to TIA, SKP, SOF are all under than 300.

          • Throwawayname says:
            2 Jul2 July 15:48

            I do agree ZAG/LJU and OTP are too far though.

      • David P says:
        2 Jul2 July 23:34

        I have to go to BEG in September. Wizz is out of the question (flown once, never again). Can’t get there on OneWorld without a ridiculous diversion via Doha. So my options are either direct with Air Serbia, or change in Amsterdam with KLM and pick up a handful of VS points. I’ve been searching for a better alternative for weeks now and nothing has come up – any bright ideas from more experienced travellers?

        Reply
        • Throwawayname says:
          3 Jul3 July 08:52

          LOT are selling some decent connections at reasonable prices. I haven’t flown them in a very long time, but they’re supposed to be pretty good and they’d probably be my first choice as they’re part of *A and fly out of my preferred terminal at LHR.

          Reply
        • 4thLaw says:
          5 Jul5 July 10:04

          Do you also not use any other low cost carrier? I use Wizz to BEG quite regularly due to the convenience and I find it miles ahead of Ryan or easy jet – its main competitors. Also helps that Luton has been recently revamped and is now a decent airport to fly from not a glorified bus stop – which Stansted is slowly but surely becoming, but I digress!

          Reply
  • Nico says:
    2 Jul2 July 11:37

    Went to SAW last week, well connected to the city, but the airport itself is very low cost: limited WIFI, no AC, best to stick to IST.

    Reply
    • CB Root says:
      2 Jul2 July 14:48

      Not much choice now my December SAW-LHR has been cancelled and the route ends in October 🙂

      Reply
  • Aston100 says:
    2 Jul2 July 11:42

    I swear Turkish Airlines used to fly from Stansted in the not so distant past.

    Reply
    • CamFlyer says:
      2 Jul2 July 13:17

      Until recently, Turkish Airlines and AnadoluJet shared a single AOC (ie, airline license) and flights even had TK flight numbers. They thus earned points on Miles & Smiles, and gave status benefits even on what was otherwise a low cost product. Even today the AJet flights appear as options on the Turkish Airlines booking engine.

      Reply
      • Jonathan says:
        2 Jul2 July 20:24

        TK will sell tickets for flights either their low cost carrier, the ticket prices are a lot lower than their own red flights !
        I’m assuming it’s like just about all European carriers with their service, I’ve not flown with TK blue so I don’t know !

        Reply
        • CamFlyer says:
          2 Jul2 July 22:35

          My experience is that AJet (‘TK blue’) is usually operated by wet or damp lease aircraft (SmartLynx or similar); the onboard experience is good, particularly if one gets an exit row. On my last flights, I received an edible sandwich and bottle of water on each segment, free of charge. Now that AJet is a standalone airline, TK status no longer gives any benefits, and flights do not earn miles, though IIRC they have reinstated lounge access at SAW for Miles & Smiles Elite members.

          Reply
    • Old man traveller says:
      2 Jul2 July 15:51

      Yes it did.I flew on it in 2010.

      Reply
  • Mark says:
    2 Jul2 July 12:41

    Easyjet now fly to Grenoble from Southend for their winter schedule.

    Reply
  • RC says:
    2 Jul2 July 13:24

    Probably BA making slots for a flight to another square shaped flyover state in the US.

    Reply
    • ADS says:
      2 Jul2 July 13:53

      BA regularly fly A319s on the ZAG route – so I guess there just isn’t enough demand

      At least Ryanair fly ZAG-STN 10 times a week during the winter season

      Reply
      • meta says:
        2 Jul2 July 15:17

        I fly regularly over winter to ZAG (once a month at least) and it’s always full. The problem is that the flights are too cheap even in summer. They should have increased the price by 10-20% and it would still represent value compared to Ryanair or Croatia Airlines.

        On the other hand I hope OU now increases frequency and takes over the gap.

        Reply
        • ADS says:
          2 Jul2 July 17:08

          i’m told by a couple of passengers on this morning’s LHR-ZAG A319 flight that it was about 90% full !

          Reply
          • meta says:
            2 Jul2 July 17:39

            And I’m told this afternoon that couple of corporate contracts in the Balkans are also now lost as a result. Both Zagreb reduction and Belgrade axe is a bad decision given the Expo 2027 in Belgrade.

          • Strilen says:
            2 Jul2 July 19:29

            A320 last Friday morning was nearly full, and A319 return on Monday afternoon was packed

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      2 Jul2 July 14:31

      BA has plenty of slots. It doesn’t have enough LH aircraft though.

      Reply

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