For the month of December 2017, Turkish Airlines (THY) passenger traffic increased by 21.4% to 5.5 million passengers from 4.5 million passengers for the same period of 2016. Domestic traffic rose by 26.4%, with international lines up by 17.6%. Total load factor increased by 5.1 percentage point to 79.7%, with the international load factor up by 5.0 percentage points. During the period, RPK increased by 16.3% to 11.2 billion compared to 9.7 billion for the same period of 2016. Increase in RPK in domestic and international lines are 26.9% and 14.7%, respectively.
For the full year 2017, THY carried 68.6 million passengers, an increase of 9.3% compared to 2016. International passenger traffic rose by 10.4% with domestic traffic up by 8.4%. International-to-international transfer passengers increased by 3.5%. total load factor increased by 4.7 percentage points to 79.1%. Available Seat Kilometers (ASK) increased by 1.6% to 173.1 billion during the period of January- December 2017 from 170.4 billion for the same period of 2016, while RPKs increased by 7.9% to 136.9 billion during the same period from 126.9 billion in 2016.
In 2018, THY expects the total number of passengers carried to reach 74 million including 33 million on domestic routes, 41 million on international routes. Passenger load factor is expected to be in the band of 79% and 80%, with ASKs expected to reach to 183 billion with an increase of between 5% and 6% compared to 2017. Capacity (ASK) increase is expected to be 10% in Turkey, 9% in Middle East, 6% in Europe, 6% in Far East, 4% in America and 3% in Africa regions.
THY expects its 2018 jet fuel consumption to increase by 9% compared to 2017, with the average jet fuel (including fuel hedge) price expected to be 633$/ton in 2018.
THY is targeting sales revenue generation of US$11.8 billion. However, cost per available seat kilometer (CASK), excluding fuel, is expected to increase by between 3%-5%.