Turkish airline Pegasus receives $5.5 billion gov’t incentive to invest in planes

ISTANBUL

Turkish budget airline Pegasus has received an incentive certificate worth more than 22 billion Turkish Liras ($5.55 billion) to invest in 167 planes, Turkey’s official gazette said on March 26.

The investment incentive certificate will be exempt from customs tariffs and includes tax reductions, it said.

Pegasus carried a total of 27.8 million passengers in 2017, a 15.2 percent increase from the previous year, the airline announced in a written statement late on Jan. 15.

The number of the airline’s domestic flight passengers rose by 10.5 percent to 16.89 million and of its foreign flight passengers by 21.7 percent to 10.45 million in 2017 compared to the previous year.

The carrier’s load factor also saw a 6.1 percent year-on-year increase, reaching 84.6 percent, according to a company statement sent to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP). The company posted a 501.1 million lira net profit last year, while it posted a 136.2 million lira loss in the previous year.

The number of passengers carried by Pegasus in 2016 had also risen to 24.1 million with an 8.1 percent year-on-year increase, despite a number of problems that hit the sector.

Its revenue also saw a 6.2 percent year-on-year increase during that period.