Originally Posted by NickB

Is it a mistake, though? You are assuming that it is worth it for LH, BA, AF, etc... to join TK in the race for IST customers. It may not be worth their while to try to pour good money after bad for that purpose. Realistically, TK is always going to outdo them on both frequency and service. Some business is just not worth pursuing. Moreover, the current conjuncture is hardly conducive to increasing traffic. If IST was a key route for any of the EUropeans, then it might perhaps be worth fighting. But it is not.

As to there being no LCC competition, there might not be Europe-based LCC competition, but there is Turkey-based LCC competition (Pegasus, Atlas Global). Easyjet used to fly to SAW but it looks that they no longer do. I guess that European LCCs are experiencing the same thing as European network carriers, namely that they cannot match the lower costs of their Turkish equivalents.