Turkish Airlines

Connecting more than 330 destinations across the globe Turkish Airlines is giving you the opportunity to explore new places in its award-winning flights

Every experience teaches people something new and opens new horizons for them. As the airline flying to more countries and international destinations than any other airline, Turkish Airlines has brought people closer to exploring the diversities the world has to offer, to seek the unknown and to widen their worlds.

Established in 1933 under the name of ‘State Airline Administration’, Turkish Airlines started with a fleet of five aircrafts and has expanded it throughout the years to reach its current fleet of 371 aircrafts. Star Alliance member since 2008, Turkish Airlines is connecting its passengers across 334 destinations worldwide — 284 international and 50 domestic.

Turkish Airlines has added 46 international destinations to its flight network since 2015. With this development, it ranked 5th in the international passenger traffic (RPK) ranking in 2020 rising from 11th ranking in 2015.

In 2021, the capacity offered in the international market reached 67 per cent of 2019 and available capacity was above 2019 levels in the North America and Central and South America regions. Same year, Türkiye’s flag carrier airline started to fly to Newark and Dallas in the USA, Urmia in Iran, Vancouver in Canada, Turkistan and Aktau in Kazakhstan, Fergana and Urgench in Uzbekistan and Luanda in Angola. As of January 2022, scheduled flights to Cebu, the Philippines, commenced. It is planned to start scheduled flights to Denver, Seattle and Detroit (USA), Sialkot (Pakistan) and Hargesia (Somalia) cities in the coming period, depending on opportunities and market conditions.

Currently, Turkish Airlines has 371 aircraft in its fleet. In 2021, Turkish Airlines added a total of 21 new generation aircraft to its fleet, 18 of which are narrow and three of which are wide. In addition, it is planned of the acquisition of total 18 aircraft in 2022, ten wide body and eight narrow body.

AVIATION ECOSYSTEM

Turkish Airlines continuously improves its network, produces its own aircraft seat, galley, technology and in-flight entertainment system. It has created a growing aviation ecosystem by strengthening its subsidiaries which respond to operational, infrastructure and technical needs.

Turkish Airlines continues to make strategic investments in its subsidiaries. At the end of 2020, Turkish Technology was established as a wholly Turkish Airlines owned subsidiary, in order to enhance in the field of information technologies and contribute to Türkiye's technology exports in the future.

As a 100 per cent subsidiary of Turkish Airlines, Turkish Cargo was established to increase the competitive advantage of the Turkish Cargo brand in the international market and provide a separate ground for potential strategic overseas partnerships. With the transition to the main cargo facility (SmartIST) at Istanbul Airport, it is aimed to continue to grow in air cargo transportation.

AnadoluJet, a trademark of Turkish Airlines, operates in 88 destinations with a fleet of 64 aircraft by providing advantageous travel options. AnadoluJet inaugurated its international operations in 2020, continued to expand abroad in 2021 as much as the pandemic conditions allowed. This expansion will continue in 2022 as well.

ISTANBUL AS A NATURAL HUB

Utilizing the advantage of Istanbul’s unique geographical location as a natural hub in the aviation sector, Turkish Airlines has positioned its flight network to a highly competitive point, and keep further maintaining this advantageous situation carrying out right strategies in this regard. The narrow body aircraft range from Istanbul covers the whole of Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, North and East Africa, which corresponds to 40 per cent of the world's international traffic. Turkish Airlines is strategically positioned to connect to approximately 40 countries with a three-hour flight, and approximately 65 countries with a five-hour flight.

Turkish Airlines, which by an average of 11.5 per cent annually in the number of passengers from 2009 to 2019 that was 2.3 times faster than the world growth rate, increased its share of international passenger traffic to 3.1 per cent in 2020.

In addition to its success in passenger transportation, Turkish Airlines also pioneers the cargo transportation sector. Turkish Cargo carried 1.88 million tons of cargo in 2021, with an increase of 26 per cent compared to the previous year. Its market share in global cargo revenue increased from 0.6 per cent in 2009 to 5.4 per cent in the first 11 months of 2021. With the transition to the main Cargo facility (SmartIST) at Istanbul Airport, Turkish Airlines’ competitiveness in air cargo transportation will increase.

LEADER OF THE MIDDLE EAST MARKET

Turkish Airlines is the airline that flies to the most destinations in the Middle East, among European airlines. In the international market originating from the Middle East, excluding Airlines in the region, Turkish Airlines had a seat capacity share of 11.7 per cent in 2021.

Turkish Airlines increased its capacity to the Middle East 3.2 times with an annual average increase of 12.4 per cent from 2009 to 2019. At the end of 2021, Turkish Airlines’ flight network consists of a total of 13 countries, and 36 cities in the region.

Turkish Airlines provides an advantage with direct flights to various points in Türkiye and short-term connections provide to Europe and America via Istanbul. While providing prestigious flight experience with the TK brand, effectively competing in the Middle East lowcost market by maintaining affordable flights with the Anadolujet brand. In addition to Istanbul Airport and Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport, the two main hubs of our flights in the Middle East, we periodically highlight Ankara Esenboğa Airport and Antalya International Airport as secondary hubs.

Due to pandemic conditions, 22 lines are in active service. Turkish Airlines is ready to fly to more than 30 destinations in the Middle East, depending on conditions and availability. The number of direct flights from Middle East to Türkiye will increase in 2022.

In order to ensure better service for passengers in the Middle East, Turkish Airlines provides services in Arabic language, such as call centre, social media, help desk. The global airline also maintains communication with the passengers through 24 offices in 11 countries across the Middle East. In this sense, TK stands out in the region with services that no other European airline has and keep maintaining its leading position in the competition by this means.

Sustainable transportation

Strongly committed to sustainable development, Turkish Airlines has developed sustainability agenda based on four pillars: governance, economy, environmental and social. We act in conformity with the international aviation regulations along with national requirements and aim to go beyond compliance by implementing internationally-recognized management systems and policies.

In addition, we are in cooperation with the R&D studies carried out within the scope of the Sustainable Fuel Project. As Türkiye’s flag carrier, we have operated our first flight with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) flight on February 2, 2022 on Istanbul-Paris route.

We support initiatives related to fuel efficiency and take measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and natural resource consumption. In this direction, while investing in new technologies, we are developing our fleet with young, fuel-efficient, and more environmentally friendly aircraft, which we planning to continue adding in the coming years.

As Turkish Airlines, we have increased our total fuel efficiency by around 20 per cent to date thanks to ‘Fuel-Saving Projects’. We saved 37,000 tons of fuel in 2021, corresponding to, 117,000 tons of CO2 emissions avoided as a result of the actions that we have taken and the projects we have initiated to reduce our carbon footprint.

World-class recognition

While receiving many awards strengthening its place in the global aviation, Turkish Airlines has recently received first-ever conferred ‘APEX World Class’ award by APEX (Airline Passenger Experience Association) at the IFSA Expo. Besides, the airline was also awarded with ‘Five Star Global Airline’ by APEX for fifth consecutive year. Moreover, Turkish Airlines was assessed at the Diamond Standard status, the highest level possible, in both 2020 and 2021 by the APEX/SimpliFlying partnership at IFSA Expo.