D-8 Impressed by the Turkish Airline Performance amidst Crisis

Istanbul, Turkey | April 10, 2009 by D-8 Secretariat

Turkish Airlines' (THY) net profit skyrocketed by 327 percent in 2008 over 2007, hitting TL 1.13 billion

Turkish Airlines’ (THY) net profit skyrocketed by 327 percent in 2008 over 2007, hitting TL 1.13 billion, the company announced yesterday. THY’s consolidated financial statement for 2008 has been sent to the İstanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB), the company said in a statement. THY’s income from sales increased last year, too, with a more modest 26 percent rise to TL 6.1 billion.

The number of aircraft in its fleet also rose, from 102 at the beginning of the year to 127 at the end. Parallel to its investments and new destinations, the number of passengers flying THY increased by 15 percent to 22.5 million in 2008. The amount of cargo carried by THY planes also rose 8 percent to 203,000 tons.

Seventy-eight percent of the airline’s revenues from scheduled services came from international flights, while the remaining 22 percent was earned from domestic routes.

Noting that the price of oil was near $100 per barrel at the beginning of 2008, rose to peak levels above $140 in the middle of the year and then rapidly dropped to $40, the statement said: “The average fuel cost rose 44 percent in 2008, and this was reflected in our total fuel expenditures as an additional $441 million cost. Despite this, operating profits rose 25 percent to TL 633 million, while the operating profit margin stood at 10.3 percent. Moreover, an increase in the rates of exchange of various currencies also contributed positively to both revenues and expenditures of the company.” THY said it hopes to see the same positive performance in the years ahead and hinted that it will keep expanding operations with the purchase of new aircraft and new destinations in Turkey and abroad.

D-8 SG, Dipo Alam with THY CEO, Temel Kotil

D-8 Secretary General, Dipo Alam, paid a courtesy visit to THY headquarters in Istanbul, in December last year, to enrich a deeper understanding as well as to discuss ways on how D-8 Organization could cooperate with this Turkish rising star in the world’s aviation industry. Alam was met with high level executives of the THY, the President Director, Temel KOTİL, Ph.D., and Lale Kaplan, Senior Vice President, International Relations and Alliance.

Alam reintroduced the D-8 Organization to THY, covering on the establishment of the organization in 1997 to a much recent progress during the 6th Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, earlier this year. The Organization with 930 million population of its member countries possess a huge potentials to be developed, Alam said, bringing into mind the recent total trade in 2007 that figures to US$ 1 trillion (intra-trade was 60 billions US$). With regards to the aviation sector, Alam revealed that D-8 has an estimated number of 30 millions migrant workers in the world, and up to 5 millions umrah visitors each year. This is not to mention around 70 million of tourist that visit D-8 countries annually. “This is a true potential that best to be worked on by our aviation industries,” said Alam, refering to civil aviation players in the D-8 countries.

THY welcomes well the cooperation initiative by D-8 Organization. The flag carrier stated there are many fields that can be worked on through some cooperation potentials. For instance, in the regulation sector to support D-8 airlines business cooperation by avoiding stumbling blocks of problems and finding good solutions; special discounts/fares in appropriate arrangement if D-8 officials, delegates, exhibitors and traders, or D-8 migrant workers flying with THY; air cargo packages, and several others.

In addition to that, THY CEO Temel Kotil PhD, also offered to host 1st D-8 Airlines Business Forum in September 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey. This is related to the implementation one of the function of D-8 Civil Aviation Task Forces that led by Turkey.

The meeting was part of realization of D-8’s plan on working on “down-to-earth” programs, which seek to speed things up to implement cooperation programs, to keep pace with a lot of new regulations, rapid changes of technologies, competition in business opportunities in civil aviation sector. “So we don’t want all the result to be merely reports on papers, instead it has to turn ninto programs that are visible and viable to be poured into practice,” said Alam while underlining that programs should be performed properly for the benefits of member states that representing progressive developing countries.

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