Turkish Airlines and Thai Airways Announce Plan to Form Joint Venture

Turkish Airlines and Thai Airways, both members of the Star Alliance, signed a preliminary agreement to “move towards” a network joint venture covering flights between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The two airlines said the partnership, if finalized, would “enhance the cooperation between the flag carriers of Thailand and Türkiye.”

Turkish and Thai already have a codeshare arrangement, enabling them to market each other’s flights. But joint ventures go deeper, often involving revenue sharing, collaborative pricing, joint capacity planning, loyalty plan reciprocity, and/or cargo cooperation. The two carriers haven’t yet detailed their precise plans, other than to announce that Thai will begin flying to Istanbul in December. It will join Turkish, which is already on the route.

The two partners are on starkly different tra