Turkish Airlines Kotil to be A chairman
Almasalla Arab Travel Portal News – The Association of European Airlines (AEA), which will hold its annual general meeting in Brussels Nov. 29, is set to announce Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil as its new chairman.
Kotil told ATW his message is clear about the importance of aviation: “What I believe is Europe is a big market and every single person in this world should have [access] to the airline business. We are not asking for money [from governments]. What we [the airlines] are doing is like a civil service.” He said airlines play a widened role in global development and are becoming a big contributor.
“The message is that every single government on this earth should have the airline business. We don’t need babysitting by governments, but we are asking for them to understand our business [and the dynamics of aviation] better.”
He said Turkish already plays an important role in the aviation business.
The carrier serves 241 destinations today. “This makes us a large airline. We are operating 1,000 daily flights, up 1,200 to 1,300 during the summer,” Kotil said, adding that Turkish will double to 2,000 daily flights.
“In 2013, we are close to a total of 50 million passengers [more than an estimated 48 million] and you can expect us to grow at least 20%-plus in 2014.”
Turkish has the fourth largest network worldwide. “We are less than 2% of the global business; if we have 4%, [we would] one of the biggest airlines.”
Turkish had a market share among AEA airlines of 12.5% in the January to July 2013 period.
In the last decade, passenger growth has gone from 10 to nearly 50 million. It has opened 158 new destinations and the number of aircraft has risen from 65 to 231. Kotil said its fleet will grow to 423 aircraft by 2021.
In the last decade, it added 207 new aircraft to its fleet.
By 2021, options included, a total of 267 new aircraft will come into service, an investment of around $35.5 billion.
Source : ATW
