Turkish Airlines is planning to add about 400 aircraft to its fleet on the occasion of its 90th anniversary, commented Ahmet Bolat, Chairman of Turkish Airlines. He also added that the airline has bought $14bn worth of forex to the country in the first half of 2022.
Recently Turkish Technic successfully completed the base maintenance of its first Airbus A350-900 at the IGA Istanbul airport hangar. The airline started inducting the A350s in its fleet in 2020. Currently, there are 11 A350s in the Turkish fleet with plans to add 25 more in the next few months. The airline is currently in talks with Airbus to close the deal, Bolat added.
He was speaking at the ceremony held to mark the departure of the aircraft from the hangar.
Highlighting the capabilities of Turkish Technik, Bolat said: “Turkish Technic has the capacity to maintain all the aircraft in the fleet, but they do not have the capacity in their hangars to allocate space for the maintenance of other airlines’ aircraft. However, we continue to work on increasing hangar capacities and investing in Turkish Technic.”
Going ahead he also noted that Turkish Airlines provides employment to over 75,000 people.
“One out of every 200 employees in Istanbul is an employee of Turkish Airlines. Istanbul grows, develops, and increases the level of welfare together with Turkish Airlines. This is why we attach great importance to our 90th year. We will enter our 90th year by getting stronger and growing,” Bolat concluded.