SunExpress Adds More Seats to UK-Turkey Routes for Summer 2025
SunExpress intensifies summer travel options for UK citizens, boosting seat allocations by 10,000 in response to heightened travel demand.
Get ready for some extra vacation time in sunny Turkey! SunExpress, the joint venture of Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, is ramping up its game to cater to the sky-high travel demand with an added 10,000 seats across five essential routes from the UK to Turkey for the summer season of 2025.
These added seats are coming to the flights from London Gatwick, London Stansted, Bristol, and Birmingham to Turkey's popular tourist hotspot, Antalya, and from Edinburgh to Dalaman, between August and October, announced the carrier in a recent statement.
The previous year, a record-breaking 17.3 million tourists flocked to Antalya[1]. And in the first four months of 2025 alone, foreign tourist arrivals in the Mediterranean city escalated more than 17% year-on-year to a staggering 1.8 million[1].
British tourists have also been contributing significantly to this surge, with the number of Britons visiting Turkey rising from 659,000 in January-April last year to approximately 678,000 during the same period of 2025[2]. In 2024, the UK was the third-largest source of foreign tourists to Turkey, hosting 4.43 million British visitors—an impressive increase from the 3.8 million visitors in 2023 [2].
SunExpress is aiming high for 2025, as they revealed plans back in April to carry 16.8 million passengers this year, nearly doubling their seat capacity compared to the pre-COVID-19 period[3]. In 2024, the carrier managed to transport around 15 million passengers with an impressive 86% load factor[3], while their revenues skyrocketed by 23% from 2023 to a whopping 2.2 billion euros[3].
As of now, SunExpress maintains a solid presence on the Turkish Riviera and in Anatolia, operating a total of 237 routes to 92 destinations across 35 countries[3].
[1] British tourists visiting Turkey: https://bit.ly/3kzTMwz[2] Foreign tourist arrivals in Antalya: https://bit.ly/3kzTIgO[3] SunExpress's 2025 goals: https://bit.ly/3SPKYrl
In light of the increasing demand for travel to Turkey, SunExpress is expanding their UK-Turkey routes for Summer 2025, offering an additional 10,000 seats. With this move, tourism finance and lifestyle choices might considerably influence the economic growth of both countries, as more travelers explore various Turkish destinations.
