SunExpress to exceed its target of 10 mln passengers

ANTALYA

SunExpress, a joint venture of Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, expects to exceed its target of 10 million for 2022, Max Kownatzki, CEO of SunExpress, has said, also announcing plans for the upcoming winter season.

“We are the leading airline providing the biggest seat capacity from German speaking countries [DACH countries: Germany, Austria and Switzerland] to Türkiye outside Istanbul. We carried over 8 million passengers in the first nine months of the year,” said Kownatzki at a meeting in the province of Antalya.

“In terms of passenger traffic, we anticipate exceeding both pre-pandemic 2019 levels and our passenger target of 10 million for 2022. It will be a record year.”

2022 was a year when demand rose significantly with the lifting of pandemic-related travel restrictions, he said.

Commenting on SunExpress’ targets for the upcoming winter season, Kownatzki noted that, “We continue our support as tourism ambassador by bridging Türkiye and Europe. We recorded our historically largest network expansion in summer 2022. After a strong summer season, we are now prepared for the winter season and meeting continued demand.”

Following the additional capacity of 1,000 flights for September and October, SunExpress also planned 550 additional flights for November, according to the CEO.

“We increased our capacity by 35 percent for the winter season compared to the winters of both 2021 and 2019. We also added 15 new routes and reached the largest route network expansion in our history for the winter season,” said Kownatzki.

In line with its growth plans, SunExpress will recruit for cockpit, cabin, line maintenance, ground operations and general manager positions in the upcoming period. More than 200 new jobs are planned to be created in 2023.

The airline is in the final stages of negotiating to the signing of a wet lease agreement with a U.S. based airline. Under this agreement, four aircraft will be operated by SunExpress. The agreement will be the first large-scale wet lease operation in the U.S. by an airline from Türkiye with cabin and cockpit crews. Flights will begin in December 2022 and operate until April 2023.