THY to start flights using greener fuel

ANKARA

Turkey’s flag carrier, Turkish Airlines, will begin flights using a special fuel which reduces emissions by 87 percent, according to local media reports.

İlker Aycı, Turkish Airlines chairman and head of the executive committee, said that sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will be used during weekly Istanbul-Stockholm flights.

Citing International Air Transport Association (IATA) data, Aycı stressed that Turkish Airlines is the world’s fifth-largest carrier of international passengers.

This January-November, the company served 40.5 million passengers, he said, adding that it saw the fastest recovery in the North America region during the same period.

Turkey’s flag carrier is flying to 328 destinations in 128 countries as of end-2021, marking the largest flight network of an airline in the world.

Turkish Airlines maintained its leadership in Europe with 932 daily flights on average in 2021, according to Eurocontrol data. Currently, the number of aircraft in its fleet is 373, including 104 wide-body, 246 narrow-body and 23 cargo planes.

“In 2022, we plan to receive a total of 18 next-generation aircraft, including 10 wide-body and eight narrow-body,” he said.
In 2020, Turkish Airlines carried 28 million passengers with a load factor of 71 percent even amid coronavirus-related worldwide travel restrictions, border shutdowns, and an overall drop in consumer demand.

During the third quarter of 2021, Turkish Airlines carried a total of 16.5 million passengers and reached 81 percent of its passenger capacity in the same period of 2019.

It maintained an enviable 82.4 percent load factor on domestic flights and 69.6 percent load factor on international flights.
Increasing its global market share above 5 percent, Turkish Cargo entered the top five air freighters list in the world.