Turkish Airlines has this week reported an eyewatering $2.7bn profit for last year, placing the airline in a strong financial position.
The airline has made significant gains financially through the increase in revenue, with there being substantial increases compared to 2021.
Without further ado, let’s get into the numbers…
Turkish Airlines’ Eyewatering Profit…
Turkish Airlines’ revenue increases from $10.68bn in 2021 to $18.42bn in 2022, resulting in the gross profit increasing from $2.36bn to $4.39bn.
Following additional costs incurred by the airline, this resulted in a net profit of $2.725bn, which is up significantly from the $959m recorded in 2021.
Turkish Airlines said the following in a statement, as sourced from AirInsight:
“In spite of the inflation pressures on the global scale, the flag carrier maintained its effective cost management in 2022 by lowering its unit expenses excluding fuel by two percent compared to 2019.”
“As a result, EBITAR, which demonstrates the cash generation potential of the company, realized as $5.4 billion”.
For passenger numbers, Turkish Airlines handled 6,086,116 passengers in January 2023, giving a projected run rate of just over 73 million passengers expected for the whole of 2023.
This represents an increase of 56.2% compared to the same period last year.
Turkish Airlines’ Movement Statistics…
Based on movement statistics for Turkish Airlines provided by RadarBox.com, you can begin to see why the airline is generating substantial profits.
For February 26-March 5, the carrier operated 1,465 movements, based on a seven-day rolling average provided by the flight tracking company.
This represents an increase of 26.73% compared to the same period last year and is 64 movements ahead of pre-pandemic levels in the Turkish Airlines network.
Below is the last four weeks’ worth of data from the carrier:
| Date | 2019 Numbers | 2022 Numbers | 2023 Numbers | Percentage Difference (2023 vs. 2022) |
| January 29-February 5 | 1395 movements | 1174 movements | 1385 movements | +17.97% |
| February 5-12 | 1398 movements | 1133 movements | 1353 movements | +19.42% |
| February 12-19 | 1374 movements | 1154 movements | 1440 movements | +24.78% |
| February 19-26 | 1390 movements | 1136 movements | 1489 movements | +31.07% |
What we can see from the data is that 2023 is off to a good start, with the airline exceeding pre-pandemic levels, with numbers due to climb further ahead of the Summer 2023 season.
For Turkish Airlines, this means that the potential to capitalize further on profitability is very strong, and that is something for them to take away.
Overall…
It remains clear that Turkish Airlines is operating a very successful business model at present, especially with strong load factors on the domestic and international stage.
What will be interesting to see is whether profits will be higher in 2023, especially with restrictions for COVID basically non-existent, followed by a massive surge in travel demand for the Summer coming up.
But for now, all eyes are on Turkish Airlines to see where they will choose to expand to or whether they will continue to consolidate their ongoing successes.
