Turkish Mid East and GCC capacity in Q1 double digit boost

Olmustur said the carrier is set to achieve US $12.2 billion in overall sales this year – up 16% on last year - on an estimated passenger turnover of 72.4 million and with some 25 new aircraft due to join its fleet.
The CMO said the Middle East and GCC capacity rose as travellers from the region looked at 24 new routes that were added last year to the airline’s network of 285 destinations and promised more to come this year.

“With growing market presence and phenomenal customer uptake, we plan to increase our capacity this year by offering more flights, destinations and increased frequencies to our growing loyal customer base,” he said.

“We have witnessed growth in the GCC and the Middle East last year has been very good, as we ramp up utilisation and add new aircraft to our fleet. Our capacity increase in the GCC was mainly driven by growth from Oman and the UAE.

“We are excited about our expansion plans as we aim to increase our existing market share of 2 percent in the global aviation industry to 5 percent by 2023,” he added.

The 25 new planes the carrier is expected to take delivery of this year include B777-3ERs, A330-300s, A321s, B737-800s and Cargo A330-200Fs which will take its total fleet to 336 aircraft.

Turkish Airlines is also expanding its route network in 2016, starting May, with Atlanta, its ninth US destination, and Bogota and Panama, to further reach into Latin America and to Dubrovnik in Croatia. The airline will also start flying directly to Hanoi in June 2016.

TK now has 482 weekly flights from the Middle East of which 193 are from the GCC.