When flynas and Turkish Airlines announced a codeshare on 28 July, the release talked about connectivity and Saudi Vision 2030 and said little else. The routes tell a more specific story, and they have changed twice since.
At launch in late July, flynas placed its code on Turkish-operated flights from Istanbul to Dammam, Jeddah, Madinah and Riyadh. Turkish went the other way on a much longer list of flynas-operated routes, mostly Saudi domestic: Riyadh to Abha, Al-Ula, Ha’il, Taif and Tabuk, Jeddah to Abha, Gizan and Tabuk, and Dammam to Yanbu. It also took Riyadh to Istanbul and Jeddah to Sohag in Egypt. In mid-August flynas added Turkish-operated routes beyond Istanbul, including Paris Charles de Gaulle, Ankara, Antalya, Izmir and Trabzon. From 25 October, Turkish adds four more flynas routes: Jeddah to Dammam, Riyadh to Dammam, Riyadh to Karachi and Riyadh to Kuwait City.
Count the routes and the pattern is clear. flynas is taking Turkish’s long-haul and Turkish domestic reach, while Turkish is taking Saudi domestic and short-haul regional capacity it does not fly itself. flynas says it operates more than 2,000 weekly flights to over 80 destinations in 38 countries. Turkish says it flies to 358 destinations in 133 countries. Each carrier is selling the part of the map the other one covers better.
This is also not flynas’s first Turkish codeshare. It has partnered with Turkish low-cost carrier Pegasus for some time, adding routes in 2024 including a 15-route expansion in November of that year. flynas now codeshares with both the Turkish flag carrier and Pegasus.
What we could not verify is how the arrangement is sold and settled. flynas says flights can be booked through all channels, including travel agents, and describes integrated booking, but neither carrier has said whether the codeshare content is available through GDS or NDC channels, or whether it works on free sale or blocked space. We also could not find the commercial terms. That matters for agents, because a codeshare is only as useful as the channel it can be sold in.
Three route phases in under three months is quick for a codeshare, counting the 25 October additions that are scheduled but not yet in effect. Whatever the reason, the effect is that Turkish can sell Saudi domestic and regional capacity without operating it. The open question for the market is whether that content reaches travel sellers on the same terms as Turkish’s own flights, and so far neither airline has said.
