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Turkish Airlines signs MoU for up to 25 A350s
January 12th 2018
State-controlled Turkish Airlines has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airbus for 20 A350-900s plus five options. Read More »
The agreement was signed at Paris’ Élysée Palace during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s official visit to France, but in the airline’s official correspondence, Turkish Airlines chairman, İlker Aycı, suggested that the order was not set in stone.
“This order is set to play a key role in our growing business in the years to come. As we will be strictly evaluating it during the talks to finalize the order. Furthermore the increased business volume for the local Turkish supplier industry by Airbus will be a great gain for the sector,” İlker Aycı said.
Last September, Turkish Airlines announced its “intention to order 40 B787-9 Dreamliners”. The order was never finalized, so it could well be the carrier is playing the two OEMs against each other in a quest for the best deal.
The Istanbul-based carrier operates 62 A330s alongside 35 B777s so it is possible it could acquire both A350s and B787s.
Turkish Airlines last week announced its targets for 2018. They include increasing passengers carried from 68.6 million in 2017 to 74 million this year. The target is 33 million on domestic routes and 41 million on international routes. Forecast growth in ASKs is 5%-6%. Targets include Turkey (10%), Middle East (9%), Europe (6%), Asia (6%), America (4%) and Africa (3%).
