Seaplane company enjoying high occupancy rate 1st month

Çilem Kaya ISTANBUL / Hürriyet

The Seabird Airlines is the first firm to operate regular seaplane services in Turkey.

An ambitious venture to launch Turkey’s first regular seaplane service is paying dividends so far, with carrier Seabird Airlines reporting occupancy rates of 80 percent in its first month of service.

“The [passenger interest] indicates that we are on the right track. We will purchase a new plane,” Kürşad Arusan, the chairman of the Seabird Airlines, recently said.

“We have received some investment proposals since we started the operations, but we have not accepted them for now. We hit 80 percent in occupancy rate in just one month. We have not encountered any problems other than minor operational issues. We have a total of 50 staff, including the call center. Currently, we carry out operations with one plane and another one will join in one month at the latest,” Arusan said.

Seabird Airlines made its maiden flight between Istanbul and İzmir’s Alaçatı district on June 28.