Turkish Airlines adds non-stop service between Atlanta and Istanbul

Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren | Special for USA TODAY

Atlanta's long wait for non-stop service to Istanbul is over. Turkish Airlines will begin daily service to the city next year, on May 16.

The city was quietly added to the carrier's network last week. News of the addition was first picked up by route-tracking website Airline Route on June 15.

Turkish had been openly considering Atlanta for the better part of a year, with CEO Temel Kotil saying last September that the carrier wished to add the city to its network. The airline later told Global Atlanta that it would likely formalize the route in 2017 or 2018, making the 2016 announcement a welcome surprise.

The flights will use Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, and will arrive in Atlanta at 7:10 p.m. daily and return to Istanbul at 10:00 p.m. the same evening. The jets will seat 349 passengers, with 49 in lie-flat business class and 300 in economy.

Come next May, Atlanta will join seven other cities already served by Turkish, including Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The carrier will also add Miami to its network later this year, in October.

Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren is a Seattle-based photojournalist and aviation writer and a contributor to Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the Sky blog. You also can follow Jeremy on Twitter at @photoJDL.