LONDON – According to data from RadarBox.com, Turkish Airlines’ movement numbers have increased by 33%.
The carrier has been growing well year-on-year and is not far away from achieving pre-pandemic levels from 2019.
Without further ado, let’s get into the numbers…
The Numbers…
For this week, the carrier achieved 1,326 movements based on a seven-day rolling average provided by the flight tracking company.
This is an increase of 33.40% compared to the same period last year, where 994 movements were handled based on that average.
To achieve pre-pandemic levels, the airline has to find another 205 movements, but based on the growth it has experienced, this could easily be achievable in 2023.
Below is the last four weeks’ worth of data from the carrier:
| Date | 2019 Numbers | 2021 Numbers | 2022 Numbers | Percentage Difference (2022 vs. 2021) |
| October 29-November 5 | 1734 movements | 1583 movements | 1552 movements | -1.96% |
| November 5-12 | 1699 movements | 1340 movements | 1503 movements | +12.16% |
| November 12-19 | 1724 movements | 1052 movements | 1424 movements | +35.36% |
| November 19-26 | 1630 movements | 1037 movements | 1379 movements | +32.98% |
What we can see from this data is that Turkish Airlines has been comfortably exceeding 2021 numbers but still has a lot to do to exceed pre-pandemic numbers moving forward.
Focusing on a Network Rebuild…
Back in September, Turkish Airlines began discussing its plans to rebuild its network, which will hopefully make the airline exceed pre-pandemic levels.
Ahmet Bolat, Chairman of Turkish Airlines, said that the airline seeks to return to China Mainland and sees strong potential in the Indian Market.
He said that rather than adding too many new routes, the carrier is emphasizing growing its traffic from existing markets and returning to those markets which haven’t seen service resumed since the pandemic.
“For example, in China, which is a huge market, we will go back whenever it is fully open again,” Bolat told the Aviation Week Network.
Cooperation is Key, But Demand is Too Strong…
In India, Turkish Airlines cooperates with flag carrier Air India and Low-Cost Carrier IndiGo.
The carrier’s Codeshare flights have resumed with both Airlines following the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Chairman of Turkish Airlines Ahmet Bolat said: “Thus, we are now again able to provide more flexibility of choice to our passengers on sectors between Istanbul (IST) and India, amongst other destinations.”
“We are working together to enhance our cooperation with IndiGo further and to bring it to a new level.”
He added that it will be hard for Turkish Airlines to have enough Aircraft available during the winter season as demand remains strong.
Bolat: No Reason for Airline Bankruptcies in Europe…
Aviation analysts across Europe expect to see more airline bankruptcies across Europe this winter, especially in Eastern Europe.
With financial support during the pandemic from the Government falling away, many are facing challenges as this support is no longer available. “This support falling away has created a lot of uncertainty,” Bolat said.
Bolat added that “There is already enough demand—there is a shortage of aircraft, of pilots, and some shortages on the services, but I don’t see any basic reason why an airline should go bankrupt,”
Turkish Airlines has recently been seeing an increase in demand, breaking its pre-pandemic seat records multiple times over the last months and continuing to increase its seat capacity as others continue to cut theirs.
Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee Ahmet Bolat said in a Statement: “We are the biggest network carrier when it comes to seat count on international flights.”
Adding to that, they said: “With the effects of the worldwide pandemic lessening, global competition in the aviation sector continues at a higher level than where it left off.”
“As an exemplary airline with its performance during the crisis, we are happy to fly to success after the crisis has passed as well. Our goal was to surpass our 2019 performance which we managed to do so with the efforts of our 65 thousand-strong workforce.”
“While the aviation sector shrunk by 19 percent during August compared to 2019 on the available seat kilometers, we grew by 14 percent on the same metric.”
Overall…
Turkish Airlines truly seems to experience unstoppable growth, adding aircraft to its fleet which wasn’t taken up by Russian Airlines at short notice, such as A350s and A321neos.
As demand rises, the carrier extends its network across the world, with many routes seeing more service than pre-pandemic, such as Panama.
The growth of Turkish Airlines in recent times is truly impressive.
