Turkish Airlines is set to achieve a sales target of $12.2 billion in 2016, with an overall capacity increase of 16 per cent over last year, said Ahmet Olmuştur, Turkish Airline’s chief marketing officer.
Referring to the Middle East, Olmuştur also stated that the first quarter this year saw an increase in capacity by 16 per cent in the GCC markets and 18 per cent in the Middle East countries as travellers from the region looked at 24 new routes that were added last year to the Turkish Airlines network of 285 destinations.
Addressing a press conference at ATM, Olmuştur said: 'I am pleased to announce that we are one of the most preferred airlines in the world and one of the few to have registered substantial profits. 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.
'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 per cent in the global aviation industry to 5 per cent by 2023,' he further added.
As part of the expansion plans and by the end of 2016, the airline will be inducting 25 new planes including B777-3ERs, A330-300s, A321s, B737-800s and Cargo A330-200Fs, to its existing fleet, which would take its total to 336 aircraft.
Turkish Airlines is also expanding its route network in 2016, starting May, with Atlanta, its ninth destination in the USA, 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.