Turkish Airlines eyes record plane order in two months

ISTANBUL

The chairman of Turkish Airlines has said that the company will make a final decision on plans for a record-breaking order of 600 aircraft in two months.

The airline is in talks with U.S. aircraft maker Boeing and its European rival Airbus to purchase 400 single-aisle planes along with 200 jumbo jets, said chairman Ahmet Bolat.

Türkiye's recent presidential election delayed the decision, Bolat said on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Istanbul.

"We were very close to make a deal with one of the manufacturers ... but we're going to wait for two months to announce our final decision," he said.

He declined to give details about the number of planes that might be ordered from each manufacturer.

Bola had previously been quoted as saying that a decision could be made at the IATA conference.

The mega-order would increase the airline's fleet to 800 planes within 10 years. It currently has 435 aircraft.

The new orders will be B737 MAX ve Airbus A320neo planes in single-aisles type, and A350, B787 and B777X in jumbo jets.

Turkish Airlines has ambitious growth plans, notably in Africa and Asia, with Istanbul's new airport serving as its main hub.

If the purchases involves firm orders, it would be the biggest in the history of civil aviation, beating the 470-plane order by Air India in February.

With the aviation sector recovering from the painful period of the COVID-19 pandemic, Türkiye’s flag carrier has put forward ambitious targets for the coming decade.

In a filing with Borsa Istanbul in April, Turkish Airlines said aims to boost its consolidated revenue over $50 billion by the end of this year.

The company’s latest financials showed that its total revenues rose more than 39 percent last year compared with 2019 to $18.4 billion, with the fourth quarter revenues soaring 45 percent to $4.8 billion.

Its passenger revenue rose 28 percent to $14.3 billion, while revenues from cargo operations soared 121 percent in 2022 from 2019 to stand at $3.7 billion.

Turkish Airlines reported a net income of $2.7 billion for 2022, up from a net profit of $788 million in 2019, with the net income margin improving from 6 percent to 14.8 percent.

In the filing with the stock exchange, the carrier also said it targets to expand its fleet to 435 aircraft by 2023 and to over 800 aircraft by 2033, growing its passenger network to 400 destinations.

It wants to double the passenger capacity in 2023 by 2033 with an annual average growth rate of 7 percent and carry 170 million passengers by 2033 compared to over 85 million in 2023.