Australians travelling to Europe can now stopover in Istanbul if they fly with Turkish Airlines.

Under an extension of the national carrier’s stopover service, Australians who have a transit time of 20 hours or more at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport will be offered the opportunity to explore the city, including complimentary accommodation.

Travellers will receive an “accommodation cheque” from Turkish Airlines, which offers economy class passengers a one-night stay in a four-star hotel, and business class passengers two nights’ accommodation in a five-star hotel.

As well as Australian travellers, this service has now been opened up to passengers from Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus. Pakistani passengers travelling for Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage purposes were already offered the service.

“After receiving positive response from our passengers we are excited to extend our stopover programme to other countries,” said Ahmet Olmuştur, Turkish Airlines’ chief marketing officer. “We are confident that our passengers will benefit through this programme and will make the most out of it.”

In terms of Australian passengers, the stopover service is only available for those travelling to destinations in Europe, while passengers from Kazakhstan and Russia will also be able to stopover in Istanbul en route to North and South America, Africa and the Middle East.