Further to my previous post, a piece has appeared in The Independent today written by the ubiquitous Simon Calder that discusses the transit market at hubs with particular reference to LHR and the movement of traffic to Middle East hubs and increasingly to Istanbul.
I don't know how well informed he is but this paragraph caught my eye:
Turkey's national carrier has been slow in exploiting its location, but is now expanding relentlessly – serving more places in Africa than any other airline. Unlike its Gulf-based rivals, which have to decide if they could fill a wide-bodied plane, Turkish Airlines can deploy smaller 737s to places such as Birmingham and Edinburgh, with Bristol tipped to be next. This provides an exotic short-break destination, but it also unlocks Asia, Africa and (soon) Australia to passengers from these airports.
The full newspaper article can be read at:
Simon Calder: Transit traffic and the airport problem - News & Advice - Travel - The Independent