After restarting domestic passenger operations last week and gradually adding some international operations, Turkish Airlines was the busiest operator in the Eurocontrol area with 359 flights.

The airline has drafted a three-month plan for June, July and August and is determined to go back to being the airline that flies to more countries than any other.

Turkish Airlines has finally been able to begin some limited international flying this week. Although the target date of June 10th turned out to be unfeasible, its wholly-owned subsidiary, AnadoluJet, has been able to take to the skies. On Thursday, the first flights in many weeks took off from Turkey, heading to European destinations, including London and Frankfurt.

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The month of June will see the airline resuming a number of international services. Turkish Airlines, which has established an extensive international network over the past few years, said that flights would begin gradually, depending on travel restrictions of the destination country.

According to the current schedule, international flights will begin by connecting 16 destinations with 14 Turkish cities on June 18th. The schedule will slowly expand to cover routes to Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, and the Far East.

Further flights and more destinations are planned to be added in the coming days, and while the citizens who can travel on these services are, at the moment, limited, Turkish Airlines is prepared. It is taking all the precautionary measures in line with the EASA/ECDC joint guidelines to ensure the safety of its passengers.

Turkish Airlines will be undertaking an extensive cleaning process on completion of the route. For this, a special four-person hygiene team will pass through the aircraft, conducting in-depth disinfection. The regular cleaning team will work alongside them to thoroughly disinfect surfaces and contact points throughout the aircraft.

Along with in-depth training, all flight crew who fly internationally will be offered the opportunity to have medical examinations where needed. Crew members will wear PPE when flying to and from countries with a high incidence of the virus and will work to ensure that exemplary hygiene is maintained on board too.

As is the case on most modern aircraft, Turkish Airlines uses advanced High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, the same equipment used in hospital environments. These remove 99.97% of airborne particles from the air and completely renew the air in the cabin between 15 and 30 times per hour. You can find out more about these in the video below.

In addition to this, all items used during meals are disinfected between use and other high touch items like blankets, headphones, pillowcases, and textiles are professionally cleaned and packaged by machine to ensure no viral transmission. This, coupled with the advanced HEPA filtration on the planes, will be far more effective than any middle seat block.