SunExpress airline hits record turnover in 2017
ISTANBUL
SunExpress, a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, achieved an all-time record turnover in 2017, according to a statement by the company on Feb. 19.
SunExpress generated 1.15 billion euros in 2017 revenue, growing 17 percent compared to the previous year.
The airline welcomed 8.8 million passengers in 2017 and the seat load factor was 84 percent, the statement read.
The number of passengers increased by 11 percent compared to the previous year, said SunExpress CEO Jens Bischof.
“With our 2018 summer schedule, we will significantly increase our capacity from Europe to Turkey, especially Antalya and Izmir. In addition, we have added new routes to our Anatolia flights and significantly increased the frequencies. With a total capacity increase of 20 percent and more than 5 million seats, we offer the highest seat capacity from Europe to Turkey,” Bischof said.
“We also have plans to grow our route network from Turkey to the Middle East and Russia in summer 2018,” he added.
With its new flights and connections, SunExpress plans to operate direct scheduled flights from 12 points in Turkey to 32 European cities during the summer of 2018.
“We strongly believe in Turkey. On that account, we will offer a record number of seats to Antalya during summer 2018 and more than 3 million seats from Europe to Antalya. Accordingly, we have additionally leased five Airbus A320 aircraft, which will commence flights from Antalya as of June. With this summer season, we will start flying from Antalya to three new destinations, in addition to the existing flights. Brussels, London and Bucharest will be our new routes from Antalya,” Bischof said.
“We will also start flying from Alanya Gazipaşa to Cologne. In this summer season, we are performing a 20 percent capacity increase to Antalya alone. We will operate scheduled flights from Antalya to 27 destinations in Europe. Despite all uncertainties, 2017 was a very successful year for SunExpress. We aim to achieve even more in 2018,” he added.
