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<\/p>\nTurkish signs aircraft deal<\/p>\n
April 19, 2013 by AFP<\/p>\n
Filed under Aviation, News<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ISTANBUL, 19 April 2013: Turkish national flag-carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) signed on Wednesday a gigantic deal for up to 117 planes with European manufacturer Airbus in a deal worth up to US$9.3 billion (7.1 billion euros) at catalogue prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are inking today the biggest deal ever clinched by a Turkish airline,\u201d THY chairman Hamdi Topcu said during a ceremony with Airbus in Istanbul finalising the order first announced last month.<\/p>\n
Neither THY or Airbus provided financial details, but at catalogue prices the aircraft would be worth some US$9.3 billion, although discounts are usually obtained for large orders.<\/p>\n
Turkish Airlines chairman of the board Hamdi Topcu (L) and Airbus president Fabrice Bregier pose during a signing ceremony on 17 April 2013 in Istanbul.<\/p>\n
The order centres on Airbus\u2019 A320 medium-haul family of aircraft, mostly on the new fuel-efficient Neo versions, and includes firm orders for 82 planes and an option for 35 others, to be delivered by 2020.<\/p>\n
THY currently has a fleet of 215 planes, 107 of them purchased from Airbus and the rest from its US rival Boeing.<\/p>\n
With the new order, the THY expects to be operating a 375-plane fleet by 2020, hoping to become \u201cone of the 10 largest airlines in the world and carry 90 million passengers a year,\u201d according to Topcu.<\/p>\n
The airline flew 39 million passengers last year, and its aiming for 46 million this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we celebrate a great achievement for Airbus and Turkish Airlines,\u201d Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier told reporters ahead of the ceremony.<\/p>\n
Bregier praised THY\u2019s growth, which he said was faster than Airbus.<\/p>\n
Starting off as a monopoly, THY was privatised 10 years ago, which Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said \u201cput the company on a rational footing that allowed this extensive growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent months, the company has also ordered 20 longer-range Airbus A330-300s aircraft, putting the total number of potential purchases as high as 137 planes.<\/p>\n
Bregier also said Airbus was looking to be the \u201cbiggest partner\u201d for Turkish aerospace companies by reaching a cumulative spending of US$2.4 billion in the country by 2025.<\/p>\n
Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would welcome \u201cmore of Airbus\u201d, calling on the company to produce planes in Turkey.<\/p>\n
As part of a shopping spree that began in October, the THY also placed orders for 95 Boeing planes, including 70 firm orders to be delivered by 2021.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 1994-2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n
via Turkish signs aircraft deal : TTR Weekly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkish signs aircraft deal April 19, 2013 by AFP Filed under Aviation, News ISTANBUL, 19 April 2013: Turkish national flag-carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) signed on Wednesday a gigantic deal for up to 117 planes with European manufacturer Airbus in a deal worth up to US$9.3 billion (7.1 billion euros) at catalogue prices. \u201cWe are inking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":69777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[846],"tags":[589],"class_list":["post-69776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-thy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}