Flights to London Heathrow Airport started from Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, which connects 51 destinations in 154 countries to Istanbul. In memory of Sabiha Gökçen, the entire flight crew of the first flight consisted of women.
The first flight from London Heathrow Airport with British Airways, the flag carrier airline of England, took place to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (ISG) on Thursday, June 1st. Airbus A4 and A320 aircraft will be used on the SAW-LHR line flights, which will be operated 321 times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.
All flight crew are female
In honor of Sabiha Gökçen, the world's first female fighter pilot, British Airways commissioned an all-female cabin crew, including Captain Jessica Telford and Co-pilot Kerry Bennett for the first flight. Stating that they found this gesture of British Airways very meaningful, Sabiha Gökçen Airport CEO Berk Albayrak stated that this flight drew attention to the presence of women in the sector. Albayrak said, “Our first flight of LHR-SAW was an inspiring example for women to have a greater presence in the aviation sector” and emphasized that they are making efforts to employ more women in aviation.
“It will make a great contribution to the tourism industry”
Stating that Sabiha Gökçen passengers will be able to benefit from British Airways' wide global route network thanks to this cooperation, Berk Albayrak said, “Sabiha Gökçen serves a total of 51 destinations, 115 international lines and 39 domestic lines, in 154 countries. Thanks to this cooperation, we are now in a position to connect to more than 65 destinations of British Airways in 200 countries via London Heathrow. When British Airways' service quality and large fleet are added to this connectivity infrastructure, we expect the SAW-LHR line to make a great contribution to the tourism sector as well.”
Albayrak continued his words as follows: “We broke a record with 2019 million passengers in 35,5 and our 2023 figures after the pandemic are very good. We closed the first 2023 months of 5 with approximately 14 million passengers. In March, we were among the 10 busiest airports in Europe. We maintain our domestic position as 'Turkey's 2nd busiest airport'.
Making a statement about the cooperation between the two companies, Elisabeth Ruff, Head of the European Corporate Sales Department of British Airways, said, "We are happy to strengthen the connection between the two important cities of the world, Istanbul and London, in this process where we are advancing our investments in the fields of products, services and technology."
3 destinations in 51 countries with 154 new routes
Having added 3 new routes to its flight destinations recently, ISG started to provide services to Rhodes and Lesbos airports in Greece with Pegasus Airlines, in addition to London Heathrow Airport with British Airways as of June. Thus, the number of destinations that ISG provides in 45 countries with 51 airlines reached 154. Sabiha Gökçen, the second busiest airport in Turkey and the ninth busiest in Europe and shown among the 2 strongest earthquake-resistant buildings in the world, is the world's busiest single-runway and single-terminal airport with an integrated terminal of 9 thousand square meters and a passenger capacity of 8 million. located in.