Turkish Airlines Istanbul-Houston.

I saw that plane above my head about 1 hour ago. Now I know about the earth curvature and all that but why on earth is a plane taking off from Istanbul latitude 41 and landing in Houston latitude 29 doing above the south of Norway ? wouldn't it be easier to fly through the top of Spain and cross the Atlantic ?

https://preview.redd.it/34ngp2m1kqje1.jpg?width=1112&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c2c10fadd2f736687009e9027867a1280512d89