Turkish Airlines will reduce the frequency of its Istanbul – Tokyo Narita route from the current daily to five weekly flights between December 2, 2024, and the end of February 2025. The airline’s route to Haneda will continue to operate daily.
With the exception of December 27, 2024, and January 3, 2025, Turkish Airlines will suspend Tuesday and Friday frequencies on the Istanbul – Narita route in the direction from Turkey (a day later in the other direction).
With that, during the period with reduced service, Turkish Airlines will offer 12 weekly flights between the two capitals as follows:
- TK198 / Istanbul – Tokyo Haneda / 2:35AM – 7:45PM
- TK50 / Istanbul – Tokyo Narita / 3:25PM – 8:45AM+1 / Mon, Wed, Thu, Sat, Sun
- TK51 / Tokyo Narita – Istanbul / 10:15AM – 6:05PM / Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, Sun
- TK199 / Tokyo Haneda – Istanbul / 10:05PM – 5:55AM+1
The Istanbul – Narita route will continue to be operated by Boeing 787-9 aircraft with 300 seats including 30 in business and 270 in economy class. The Haneda route will continue to be operated by the larger 777-300ER with 349 seats including 49 in business and 300 in economy class.
Turkish Airlines is currently the only airline offering flights between Tokyo and Istanbul. However, its Star Alliance partner ANA will launch Haneda – Istanbul on February 12, 2025, with three weekly flights.
Whether that will lead to Turkish Airlines reducing its flights to Tokyo accordingly, in a similar way to what Qatar Airways did when its oneworld alliance partner JAL launched Haneda – Doha, remains to be seen. For the time being, both its Istanbul – Haneda and Narita routes remain scheduled daily from March 2025 onward.
In addition to Tokyo, Turkish Airlines also serves Osaka. While the route currently operates daily, it will be reduced to five weekly during the same period as the Istanbul – Narita service reduction will be in effect.
