TURKISH AIRLINES

'Turkish Airlines' (Turkish ''Türk Hava Yolları'') (THY) is the national airline of Turkey based in Istanbul. It operates a network of scheduled services to 103 international and 30 domestic cities, serving a total of 136 airports, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the United States. The airline's main base is Atatürk International Airport (IST), Istanbul, with secondary hubs at Esenboga International Airport (ESB), Ankara, and Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW), Istanbul. In 2006, it carried 17 million passengers with total revenues of US$3 billion. [1] The airline has around 12,000 employees.

Contents

History

Cultural References in Popular Media

Destinations

Cargo

Fleet

Affinity programs

Livery

Maintenance center

Incidents and accidents

See also

References

External links

History

The airline was established on May 20, 1933, as the State Airlines Administration - ''Hava Yolları Devlet Işletmesi Idaresi'' (DHY). It began operations with an Istanbul, Eskişehir, Ankara service in August 1933. In September 1937, the airline received three De Havilland D.H. 86B biplane airliners. The following December, DHY receieved the fourth plane. These planes enlarged the domestic routes of DHY to the destination of Istanbul, Eskisehir, Izmir, Ankara, Adana, Kayseri and Diyarbakir.^[1] The name was changed to ''Devlet Hava Yolları Umum Müdürlüğü'' (DHY) in June 1938. The first international flight was launched in 1947 to Athens but it was another 40 years before the introduction of long-haul flights to the Far East and across the Atlantic.
In a major reorganisation, the state company DHY was replaced with a mixed corporation, Türk Hava Yolları AO (THY) on 20 February 1956. The airline's shares were passed to the Prime Ministry Public Participation Administration in 1990, which took the company public first in December 1990 selling 5% of the shares. The government later sold about 23.0% of the shares to the public in December 2004 and a further 28.75% in May 2006. The airline is owned by TC Privatisation Administration (49%) and private shareholders (51%). It also has a 50% holding in affiliated airline SunExpress, the other half of which owned by Thomas Cook of Germany. It has set up in September 2006 an airline catering JV with Do&Co Restaurants & Catering of Austria. Turkish Airlines quit the Qualiflyer group in 1999, due to incompatibilites with Swissair and Delta. A request to join the Star Alliance has been accepted in December 2006; Turkish Airlines is expected to join in late 2008

Cultural References in Popular Media

In the film "Snatch", the narrator played by Jason Statham is named "Turkish". He explains in his initial monologue that he is named in honour of a Turkish Airlines disaster.

Destinations

Cargo

'Turkish Airlines Cargo' is the freight branch of Turkish Airlines, operating to Asia, Middle East and Europe.

'Turkish Airlines Cargo Fleet'

Aircraft	Total	Capacity (Max.Weight)	Routes	Notes
Airbus A310-300F	2		Europe and Asia	More to be added after conversion from passenger fleet

Fleet

The Turkish Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft as of August 2007:

'Turkish Airlines Fleet'

Aircraft	Total	Passenger Capacity (Business/Economy)	Routes	Notes
Airbus A310-200/300	7	208 (18/190) 210 (18/192)
Airbus A319-100	2	124 (12/112)
Airbus A320-200	15	150 (0/150) 156 (0/156)
Airbus A321-200	11	186 (15/171) 195 (15/180) 202 (15/187)
Airbus A330-200	5	250 (22/228)
Airbus A340-300	7	271 (34/237)	North America and the Far East
Boeing 737-400	11	150 (12/138)
Boeing 737-800	41	165 (90/75)
Total number of aircraft	102	Updated: 05 September 2007

★ The average age of the Turkish fleet is 7.3 Years

★ The airline has ordered 59 planes (Boeing and Airbus) which will be delivered gradually until 2008.

★ Total Fleet as of August 2007 is 99 aircraft.

Affinity programs

Miles & Smiles is the frequent flyer program of Turkish Airlines, started after the airline left Qualiflyer. The earned miles can be used in Turkish Airlines' flights, as well as flights on partner carriers (American Airlines and Lufthansa), including the entire Star Alliance once the airline joins in 2008.

Livery

Turkish Airlines's livery is a Eurowhite scheme, composed of white with red accents.

Maintenance center

Turkish Airlines has a maintenance centre at its hub Atatürk International Airport, (IST) in Istanbul. Turkish Airlines Maintenance Center (THY Technic) is responsible for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of THY's all aircraft, engines, APUs and components.

Incidents and accidents

During its 72 year history, Turkish Airlines had three accidents on its international flights, and 18 on domestic flights. The most disastrous was Turkish Airlines Flight 981, which crashed in France on 3 March 1974 due to explosive decompression, killing all 346 people aboard. The main cause of this event was a design fault on the cargo doors of DC-10 aircraft. Before the Tenerife disaster, it was the worst aircraft disaster.

See also

★ SunExpress, A daughter company of Turkish Airlines based in Antalya.

★ Onur Air

★ Pegasus Airlines

★ Atlasjet

★ Fly Air

★ Izair

References

1. Commercial Aircraft and Airline Markings edited by Christopher Chant


★ Accident report on Turkish Airlines

External links

★ Official website

★ Maintenance Center

★ Fleet Age

★ Fleet Detail

★ SunExpress