Turkish Airlines plans to expand operations in India in 2012 by doubling weekly flights to 28 and adding Hyderabad as its third Indian destination. As per a report in ET by Anindya Upadhyay,  Turkey's flag carrier, which currently operates one flight daily to Delhi and Mumbai, also aims to extend its code share with Air India, India's national carrier, to get more passengers from Indian towns to fly to or through Turkey to other destinations.

"We are looking at Chennai and Kolkata after Hyderabad. India is a very important market for us and we need to fly to at least five cities there," Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil said.

The CEO said the airline aims to make Istanbul, Turkey's capital, the preferred transit point between Asia and Europe, as it takes only three to four hours to fly to any European city from there. "We are working on diverting 66% of the transfer passengers from Asia to Europe towards Istanbul. This is the size of Qatar Airlines or Etihad," Kotil said, adding that free city tours would be offered to passengers having a long stopover in the city.