How Turkish Airlines achieved $2.7bn yearly profit

By Business A.M.

Simple Flying spoke with AHMET BOLAT, Turkish Airlines’ chairman of the board and the executive committee, about his carrier’s success.

Turkish Airlines closed 2022 with a whopping $2.7 billion in the black. Throughout the year, the flag carrier of Turkey carried over 71 million passengers. Amid this momentum, Simple Flying spoke with the operator’s leadership about how it achieved such results.

Word from the chair

The carrier’s chairman of the board and the executive committee, Ahmet Bolat highlighted that his team’s success is due to the group’s extensive accumulation of experience and its visionary approach to a range of opportunities and threats. As a result of Turkish Airlines’ forward-thinking strategies that looked past the short-term effect of the pandemic, it announced profits for the last six consecutive quarters.

While the aviation sector was struggling due to the global health crisis, several airlines took crucial measures, such as firing employees to survive. These actions then had repercussions in subsequent years.

Bolat explained:

“There was suppressed demand worldwide due to the pandemic, and with the lifting of travel restrictions, demand rapidly increased. With the rising demand in 2022, we had a longer summer season than usual. During this period, while other airlines faced operational difficulties such as delays and flight cancellations due to staff shortages, we focused on not cutting our flights as much as possible and became the network carrier that carried out the most flights in Europe in 2020, 2021 and 2022.”

Across the continents

Bolat added that Turkish Airlines exceeded its 2019 capacity in all international destinations except the Middle East and the Far East. In the Middle East, it was 6.5 percent behind its pre-pandemic capacity. In Asia, it reached 82.5 percent after the lifting of pandemic-related flight restrictions.

Still, the carrier managed to exceed its 2019 European capacity by 2.5 percent. The North and South American regions, which led the airline’s operational recovery during the pandemic, were the regions that led its direction in 2022, with a growth of 65 percent against 2019.

“With the total foreign seat capacity we offered last year, we became the world’s largest network carrier. We became one of the rare airlines that reached the capacity we offered before the pandemic, which was more than 7.5 percent of our total capacity.”

Bolat proudly noted that during 2022, his company continued to invest in its fleet and its employees. By expanding its holdings with aircraft that provide fuel savings in this recovery period, it is also expanding the scope of its operations. Additionally, while deepening the company’s existing routes, it maintains its title as the airline that flies to the most countries and foreign destinations in the world.

In 2022, Turkish Airlines added eight new foreign destinations to its flight network, including the following:

Cebu, the Philippines; Seattle, United States; Juba, South Sudan; Bukhara, Uzbekistan; Tivat, Montenegro; Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan; Kirkuk, Iraq; and Bergamo, Italy.

This year, Turkish Airlines seeks to move forward with the same motivation and determination as in 2022. The carrier has already rescheduled flights to Lusaka. Furthermore, it is gearing up to launch flights to Kraków, Palermo, and Detroit, and it also looks to reschedule flights to Osaka.

Covering all angles

It’s not only large-scale international operations supporting the airline with its growth. In the domestic realm, the airline will start flights to Yozgat and Bayburt when airport construction processes are completed. As of the first two months of 2023, it has increased its offered capacity by 33.7 percent compared to the previous year. While continuing to observe macroeconomic factors and global travel demand, the firm aims to grow capacity by 15-20 percent in 2023.

Moreover, freighter services continue to prove their worth. As Bolat stated:

“Cargo operations were like a lifeline to the industry throughout the pandemic. In response to the strong demand, Turkish Cargo demonstrated successful performance, and ranked 5th among air cargo carriers worldwide. Our cargo unit revenues in 2022 were approximately double that of 2019, which led to an increase in our cargo revenues by more than two times.”

Bolat concludes that his airline aims to keep increasing its quality of service and distinguish itself from its counterparts. These factors will undoubtedly help the operator continue its momentum into the second half of 2023.