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Turkish reports US$755 million nine-month net profit
November 16th 2018
Turkish Airlines, a Star Alliance member, appears to be walking away unscathed from Turkey’s economic downturn brought about by sanctions and tariffs imposed by the U.S. government. Read More »
The state-controlled carrier this week reported a net profit of US$755 million for the first nine months to September 30, up sharply from US$263 million in the year-ago period.
The airline said robust demand and higher unit revenues led to the improved result.
Operating revenues during the first nine months increased 20% year-on-year, to US$9.9 billion, while expenses grew 17.9%, to US$8.7 billion, spearheaded by 33% higher fuel costs compared to the same period in 2017.
Turkish Airlines carried 57.6 million passengers to September 30, up 11.6% year-on-year, while ASKs increased 6%, RPKs were up 10.3% and load factor grew 3.2%, to 82%. Separately, the airline told Orient Aviation this week that its load factor on flights to the Far East had improved 3% in October. Turkish Cargo transported more than 1 million tons to September 30, up 25% year-on-year. Turkish Cargo revenues grew 29%, to US$1.2 billion.
“Despite the various regional and sectoral conditions that we have encountered, especially in last few years, the persevering attitude we displayed has been the source of our steady rise,” said Turkish board chairman, Ilker Ayci.
Turkish Airlines’ main hub is in Istanbul. The carrier will have the largest presence at the new Istanbul Airport, which had its soft opening on October 29.
Initially, Turkish Airlines will operate a daily flight to Ankara, Antalya, Izmir, Ercan and Baku from the new facility. From December 29, the Star Alliance carrier will move its 330 passenger and cargo aircraft from Ataturk Airport to its new airport home in readiness for full operations on January 1, next year.
Istanbul Airport is an unprecedented airport project. It is larger than Beijing’s Daxing Airport and will have triple the capacity of the obsolete Ataturk Airport.
Turkish Airlines CEO, Bilal Eksi, has identified China and India as the carrier’s most important future markets. “Our main market is India, the second market is China and the third is Canada,” he said.
Turkish plans to recruit more Chinese and Indian partners before it opens more routes. “We are looking for traffic rights to India, China and Canada and we hope we will get more traffic rights,” Eksi said.
Turkish has traffic rights to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. It serves Taipei daily and Hong Kong six times a week. It has a long haul fleet of 33 B777-300ERs and 62 A330s. It has ordered 25 A350-900s with five options and 25 B787-9s also with five options.
In 2019, Turkish hopes to take delivery of 19 A321neos, 6 B787-9s, 12 MAX 8s and 5 MAX 9s.
