Turkish Airlines aims to expand fleet to 810 jets by 2033: Bolat

ISTANBUL

Turkish Airlines (THY) aims to expand its fleet to have a total of 810 aircraft by 2033, says Ahmet Bolat, chairman of the board and the executive committee.

The carrier announced last week that discussions with Airbus for the purchase of 355 aircraft — 240 firm and 115 optional — to be delivered between 2026-2036 were ongoing.

“THY will become one of the top seven airlines in the world,” Bolat told a group of journalists.

“There are three major airlines in the U.S. — United, American and Delta… There are also three large carriers in Asia and all of them are Chinese… Lufthansa and Air France are behind us.”

The number of aircraft in THY’s fleet will increase to 500 in 2025 and further up to 600 in 2028, according to the company’s executive.

“The current orders to make sure that we achieve those targets.”

He noted that THY is carrying out a joint project with the Tourism Ministry under which they identified 10 target markets, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and Taiwan, to lure tourists from those destinations to Türkiye.

“We aim to bring 10 million tourists from those countries.”

Bolat was in the U.S. last week for the launch of direct flights between Istanbul and Detroit, which become the 13th destination THY flies to in the U.S.

“We may launch flights to the 14th destination in the U.S. next year, probably to Denver to be followed by Orlando,” he said.

Direct flights to Australia may start soon, according to Bolat.

“We are allowed to have seven flights a week there. We need to finalize the procedures, which may take a few more weeks. We may launch flights to Sydney and Melbourne in a very short time.”

A considerable number of Turkish Cypriots, Greeks and Macedonians are living in Australia, Bolat said, while voicing hope that some 500,000 to 600,0000 tourists from Australia would travel to Türkiye.