One hundred years ago, the quiet waters of the Bosporus welcomed one of the first international commercial and passenger flights linking Europe with the young Republic of Türkiye. Today, few remember the remarkable seaplane base that made it possible.
Imagine looking up over the Bosporus on a summer day in 1926. Instead of the familiar silhouettes of ferries and cargo ships, a seaplane appears on the horizon, descending gracefully onto the calm waters of Büyükdere, far from the hustle and bustle of Istanbul. Having departed from Brindisi, with a stop in Athens, it gently lands in the sheltered bay at the northern entrance to the Bosporus. For the first time in history, Italy and Türkiye are connected not only by sea, but also through the skies.
A poster dedicated to Aero Espresso Italiana (AEI), 1932. (Courtesy of Tito Lacchia Family Collection)
This August marks the centenary of that pioneering flight, one of the earliest regular international air connections in the Eastern Mediterranean. The 1920s were the heroic age of civil aviation, especially for Italy, when governments and private companies sought to transform travel through new aerial routes that dramatically shortened distances once covered only by sea. Among these ambitious ventures, the Brindisi-Athens-Istanbul service quickly became one of the most important in the Eastern Mediterranean, reducing a journey of several weeks to only a couple of days, including the stops.
