Turkish Airlines retires last B737-700, floats deferrals

Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul New) retired its last B737-700 on August 17, 2020, having ended the type’s scheduled operations in November 2019, ch-aviation research has revealed. TC-JKO (msn 34300), a 14.6-year-old twinjet owned by Tokyo Century and managed by Aviation Capital Group, was ferried from Istanbul Atatürk via Reykjavik Keflavik and Toronto Pearson to Marana for storage on August 17, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. Its last revenue service was on November 27, 2019. Having retired the -700, Turkish Airlines’ narrowbody fleet currently consists of six A319-100s, thirteen A320-200s, sixty-eight A321-200s, twenty A321-200NXs, 104 B737-800s (including 12 operated by SunExpress for its AnadoluJet division), and fifteen B737-900(ER)s. The carrier also has eleven B737-8s and one B737-9 on the ground. Aviation Week has additionally reported that Turkish Airlines is in talks with both Airbus and Boeing to defer aircraft deliveries scheduled for the next three years. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, the carrier’s outstanding order book consists of seventy-two A321-200Ns, twenty-five A350-900s, fifty-four B737-8s, nine -9s, and thirteen B787-9s.