FADIL ALİRIZA
ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News
Turkish Airlines, or THY, is continuing to post some of the best growth rates in Europe as it continues to open up new flight routes, officials with the company said Tuesday.
THY’s strength is that it can capitalize on the vital east-west flight corridor, one that accounts for 66 percent of all airplane passengers, marketing and sales specialist Aydın Özdemir said Tuesday during a tour of the firm’s facilities for passengers from the airline’s maiden Istanbul-Washington flight on Saturday.
Within the Association of European Airlines, or AEA, THY is currently showing the highest growth. Some of these numbers are a result of tourism, but much of it is the result of an increase in transit passengers from the United States and Europe continuing on to the Middle East or Central Asia.
Turkey’s geographic location has also been a boon to THY. Within two or three hours of flight time, flights from Turkey are able to reach dozens of countries, giving THY an advantage in terms of keeping their services at competitive costs, officials said.
After the attacks of Sept. 11, the entire airline industry suffered substantial setbacks, including some downsizing. Some of THY’s American routes were cancelled, including an Istanbul-Miami flight. However, THY is now in the process of reopening old routes and opening new routes to Atlanta, Los Angeles and other cities while conducting feasibility studies on cities like Boston and Chicago. THY currently flies to 12 cities in Asia, 20 in the Middle East, 14 in the former Soviet Union and 17 in Africa.
In all of these regions, the possibility of new routes is being examined, including flights to Manila and Gouzhou, officials said.
THY staged its first Istanbul-Washington flight Saturday.
Turkish Technic, a maintenance, repair and operation, or MRO, company and subsidiary of Turkish Airlines, expanded its repair operations in January with new facilities located near Sabiha Gökçen International Airport.
According to Mustafa Asıl, a marketing specialist at Turkish Technic, a new hangar will be operational near the Sabiha Gökçen Airport by September 2011, while another should be complete by the end of 2013. These operations facilities will require the hiring of another 3,000 workers.
Turkish Technic works primarily with THY. However, it is expanding its client base for “political reasons,” according to one representative, adding that the MRO was starting to work with Afghan and Iraqi partners.
Istanbul’s flight capacity increasingly limited
Representatives from Turkish Technic and THY both said Istanbul’s capacity as a flight hub was slowly becoming strained and that a third international airport would soon be needed.
“There are some slots still available at Sabiha Gökçen,” said Asıl. “In two to three years time, those slots will also be filled.”
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