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.

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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