By Mohammad Shoeb
DOHA: With the growing demand for its services in Qatar, Turkish Airlines is looking forward to introduce some wide-body aircraft, such as A330, on its Doha-Istanbul route to enhance capacity, a senior of official of the airline said here recently.
Currently, the airline files two daily (14 weekly) services of A320 aircraft to Istanbul from Doha.
Turkish Airlines is also running a promotion from Doha for Europe’s top destinations with fares starting from QR1,970, including taxes.
Mehmed Kursad Caymaz, the Airline’s General Manger for Qatar, said: “There is a significant growth in the number of passengers from Doha to Istanbul, which has reached closer to 100,000 between January and September, 2015.”
He said: “During the first 10 months of this year, there were about 35,000 Qatari passport holders travelled with us, which is nearly 40 percent higher compared to the number registered during the corresponding period in 2014.”
He said that during the period between January-September, capacity offered in Qatar in terms of ‘available seat kilometres’ grew by 3.8 percent compared to the same period in 2014. Number of passengers carried increased by 4.6 percent. And the Business/Comfort Class passengers increased by 24.5 percent for the same period and load factors also improved.
Mehmed, speaking to this newspaper, said that Turkish Airlines also has plans to introduce some big aircraft such as A380 (dubbed as Superjumbo) to Doha-Istanbul route by early 2017 when the carrier is expected to move to the upcoming airport in Istanbul.
Turkish Airlines has also started operations for cargo flights from Istanbul to Doha on the A330F. The service started on October 31, 2015 and will run till March 26, 2016 on Saturdays.
Selected the “Best Airline in Europe” for the fifth time in a row, today Turkish Airlines flies to 48 domestic and 232 international destinations, a total of 280 destinations in 111 countries including new routes inaugurated in 2015 such as San Francisco, Miami, Maputo, Durban, Baghdad, Graz, and Manila. From December, Turkish Airlines will launch flights to Mauritius, Antananarivo and Zaporijya.
Having one of the youngest airline fleet in the world, Turkish Airlines now operates 298 aircraft comprising 72 wide body, 216 narrow body and 10 cargo aircraft.
Despite strong competitive environment among the world’s leading players, the political and economical instabilities over its operating environment and significant currency fluctuations, Turkish Airlines continues to post successful and sustainable results.
According to the audited IFRS dollar financial statements for the nine-month period, compared to the same period of 2014, Turkish Airlines sales revenue decreased by 6 percent and stood at $8.05bn. Turkish Airlines disclosed an operating profit of $1.03bn and a net profit of $877m, outperforming the first nine months of 2014 by 29 percent and 21 percent, respectively.
The Peninsula
