Turkish Airlines to hire 10,000 new personnel

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines plans to hire up to 10,000 new personnel this year after it moved operations to Istanbul Airport and expects new aircraft to join its fleet later this year.

“We currently have some 66,000 staff. At the start of the year we planned to add 8,430 people to our workforce in 2019. However, after we moved our hub to the new airport [Istanbul Airport] we realized that we were short-staffed to provide certain services. We concluded that we need additional personnel to improve quality,” İlker Aycı, the board chairman of Turkish Airlines, told reporters.

According to the senior executive, Turkish Airlines already hired 4,600 new personnel in the first five months of the year.

Aycı noted that passenger traffic will peak during the summer months and more airplane will be delivered, THY will need additional staff.

“We will hire some 10,000 new employees this year,” he said.

According to Aycı, Turkish Airlines’ load factor is currently at around 72-73 percent but will increase to 80 percent during the Eid al-Fitr holiday in early June.

On a related note, Mexico’s foreign minister on May 21 announced that direct flights from Istanbul to Mexico City would start in August.

Turkish Airlines earlier this week marked its 86th anniversary.

The carrier flies to 309 destinations in 124 countries and has a total of 336 jets, including cargo planes, in its fleet.

The company saw 62.85 billion Turkish Liras ($12.85 billion) annual revenue and 4.04 billion liras net profit in 2018 when it carried 75.2 million passengers with a seat occupancy rate of 82 percent.

The flag carrier announced in January that it aims to carry 80 million passengers and $14.1 billion in revenues this year.