General Manager Yunus Mert at Turkish Airlines, Pakistan shared the airline’s operational standing and plans in an email interview.
Q: Are you planning to expand flight operations in Pakistan?
A: Turkey and Pakistan have strong bilateral ties, hence we want to reach to more cities within Pakistan and offer our efficient services to the people.
Q: What are the current fleet position and operational capacity?
A: Turkish Airlines is operating daily flights with Wide Body Airbus A-330 from Islamabad and Lahore, whereas we are operating double daily flights with narrow body Boeing 737-800 from Karachi. All our aircraft have an average fleet age of 6.4 years, which makes it the youngest fleet in the world.
The airline closed last year with a total of 61.2 million passengers carried over 12 months and marked 77.9 percent load factor. Turkish Airlines’ sales revenue stood approximately at $8 billion in 2015. During the period of January-May 2016, passengers increased 7.8 percent, reaching to 25 million from 23.2 million for the same period of 2015. Increase in number of passengers carried in domestic and international lines are 10.5 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively.
We have covered most of the destinations across the world. We have now 293 destinations in 116 countries and 323 aircraft.
Established in 1933 with a fleet of five aircraft, Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines is a 4-star airline today with a fleet of 331 passenger and cargo aircraft flying to 293 destinations worldwide with 242 international and 51 domestic.
Q: How do you see the open skies policy of the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority?
A: Open sky policy in Pakistan seems a positive endeavour to regulate and promote civil aviation activities and to develop an infrastructure for efficient and properly coordinated air transport service.
This undoubtedly is the first step to make operations framework more attractive for the airlines of other countries and making aviation industry more lucrative in Pakistan. The execution of new air service agreements will definitely boost Pakistan’s economy by increasing massive flow of passenger numbers through Pakistan airports as well as creating more employment opportunities due to increased efforts towards maintenance of airport infrastructure. Moreover, this serves as an unprecedented opportunity for global and regional aviation business entrepreneurs and thus making Pakistan’s attractive for foreign investors.
Q: How do you see the local aviation industry?
A: It’s a very growing market having good potential for corporate, leisure and ethnic travelers. Visa policies encourage the investors for business opportunities in the field of information technology and telecommunication. Future looks promising in Pakistan and Asia market.
Q: What are the challenges?
A: Turkish Airlines with each passing day has increased acceptance in Pakistan’s market. Our target is to achieve highest market share and become the most preferred airline for our international passengers.
We strongly believe that Turkish Airlines will be the most preferred airline in Pakistan in the next five years.
The first phase of the new airport in Istanbul is due to open in 2018. We will see the benefit of full operations immediately.
The new airport will mark a new history of growth for Turkish Airlines globally as it will serve more than 90 million passengers per annum in the first year. Apart from that, New Islamabad Airport will open great avenues of growth for Turkish Airlines in Pakistan as it will easily cater more passengers and we hope to see increase in our daily frequencies from Pakistan.
In this region, if political situation stays well and steady over a period of time, this will improve aviation industry in Pakistan multifold and each progressive airline can achieve its desired revenue.