Turkish civilian airlines operate fleet of 554 aircraft

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s civilian airline operators have a total of 554 airplanes in their fleets, with the flag carrier Turkish Airlines taking the lead with 341 aircraft.

Local civilian airline companies operate 523 passenger jets and 31 cargo planes, according to data from Turkey’s Transport and Infrastructure Ministry.

The fleet of Turkish Airlines, one of the world’s largest carriers, includes 323 passenger jets and another 18 cargo planes, data showed.

Private airlines company Pegasus came second on the list with a fleet of 93 planes, followed by Güneş Express Havacılık with 58 jets.

Onur Air and Turistik Hava Taşımacılık have 23 and 13 airplanes, respectively.

Data also showed that Hürkuş Hava Yolu Taşımacılık and Tailwind Havayolları carry out their operations with their fleets of eight and five aircraft, respectively.

In the cargo airlines segment, MNG Hava Yolları and ACT Hava Yolları have five airplanes each, while ULS Havayolları Kargo Taşımacılık owns three cargo jets.

Air passenger traffic at Turkey’s airports, including transit passengers, declined by 61 percent in 2020 to 81.7 million because of the COVID-19 pandemic-related worldwide travel restrictions, border shutdowns, and an overall drop in consumer demand.

The number of domestic passengers declined by 50.3 percent on an annual basis to 49.7 million last year, while 32 million passengers took international flights, down by 71 percent from 2019, the country’s airports authority (DHMİ) reported last month.

Turkish airports served more than 1 million planes, including overflights last year, down from 2.03 million in 2019.

Cargo traffic also declined by 30 percent to 2.4 million tons in 2020.