A Boeing 777-300ER of Turkish Airlines.
ISTANBUL: Turkish Airlines has been witnessing remarkable development in the recent times. The airline is embarking on further expansion by announcing many new destinations around the world. The location of the headquarters in Istanbul has worked to the advantage of the airline as Turkey’s business hub is strategically located as gateway between Europe and Asia.
This hub in Istanbul helps Turkish Airlines easily cover more than 40% of routes worldwide. The Turkish Airlines fleet consists of both wide body and narrow body aeroplanes and reach more than 60 national capitals around the world.
The airline has grown exponentially over the decade in both number of aircraft and passenger volume. The airline has 517 aircraft in 2017 compared to 162 in 2003. During the same period, the number of passengers also saw significant increase, reaching 138 million in 2017 compared to 30 million in 2003. This translated into a 23 times increase of profit from 2003 and touched 70.2bn Turkish liras in 2016.
“There was small impact in growth rate in 2016, but we have come back strong in 2017 and from 2007 to 2017 the growth rate is a very healthy 13.1 percent,” said Muhammed Fatih Durmaz, VP Sales for Middle East.
“Doha is important to us as a company, which provides flights into Turkey and other international destinations. We have a decent share of the transit market,” he added.
As foreign and domestic markets are expected to maintain the current growth, in 2023 the number of passengers from around the world flying Turkish airlines will reach around 4.3 billion and domestic market will see around 240 million people using the airline.
Turkey is one of most developed countries in terms of number of airline passengers, ranking 14th in the world and is expected to improve its standing to 10th by 2035.
Turkish Airlines has managed to come out of the Gulf Crisis without any drop in passenger numbers or revenue.
Durmaz said that “temporary crises like the one that is happening now in the Gulf region do not affect our market policy. There are no crisis affecting the course of our flights, and we always have strategies for all scenarios, including developments in the Middle East and the Gulf region.”
As for the stability of the Turkish market, Durmaz added: “The stability comes when there is stable market and with the increase in travel to Turkey for tourism and business, the Turkish economy is having a positive impact. In Turkey we have more than 50 airports, which help the growth of the aviation sector.”
This steady growth should have a large base. And by the end of October this year, Turkey will open the new Istanbul airport, which is the world’s largest airport terminal under a single roof, with 1.3 million sqm of area will have passenger capacity of 200 million on completion of the project. It is expected that by 2025, the new airport will contribute 4.9% of Turkey’s GDP.
The airport will contain 500 aircraft parking slots and 143 boarding bridges. 80% of flights using the airport are expected to use these bridges for boarding. The airport will contain 52,500 sqm area of duty free shopping facilities.
During the first quarter of this year, the airline reported an increase of 29% in number of passengers over the same period last year and total load factor improved by 6.5 points to 80.5%, the highest load factor in the history of Turkish Airlines for the first quarter.
Turkish Airlines was established in 1933 covering four destinations inside Turkey. By 2003 it expanded to cover 55 countries and 103 destinations. As of 2017, Turkish airlines cover 305 destinations worldwide.
