KARACHI: Pakistan should expand its tourism and business links with Turkey, underling the need to strengthen the relationship between the two Islamic partners. Turkey, in recent years, has focused on developing and consolidating its ties within the Middle East and the Ummah.
Turkish Airlines (TA) Country Manager Utku Yazan highlighted the potential of tourism and business in Turkey and Pakistan, in an interview to Pakistan Today. Turkey has attempted to facilitate the entry of citizens of friendly nations. To visit Turkey, Pakistanis do not need to obtain a visa on entering Turkish borders, the authorities provide a visa to all Pakistanis on their arrival at the airport.
Yazan, who assumed his charge in Pakistan in 2008, was very optimistic about the potential growth in tourism, commercial and trade ties between the two countries. He claimed that since his appointment, the activity of Turkish Airlines within Pakistan had raised exponentially in both passenger and cargo service categories, with dramatic improvements since 2009. At least four flights a week were conducted from Karachi to Istanbul, Turkey, while clearance is sought from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to commence flights directly from Lahore.
To a query, he highlighted that Pakistanis show a distinctive inclination to travel on Turkish Airlines on journeys to Europe, North America and Turkey because of not only, the competitive fares of the airline and the very friendly attitude of the aircraft crew and staff. He pointed every year, roughly one million Pakistani tourists conducted visits abroad, but only a few thousands of Pakistanis visited Turkey in the course of a year. With proud cultural, religious and historical traditions; Turkey held great avenues in the context of business and tourism that must be explored by the people of both nations.
He expressed the genuine affection that he holds for Pakistanis who he considers very genuine and friendly people and is particularly comfortable working in the Pakistani environment and is at ease communicating freely with Pakistanis of all walks of life. During his time in Pakistan, he has met several eminent people, including leading businessmen. He has also called upon various chambers of commerce and industry, held meetings with the representatives of the trade bodies and apprised them of untapped potential in the fields of tourism and business.
He also touched upon the close fraternal relationship enjoyed with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). On 15 June, 2006, PIA launched code-share flights in coordination with Turkish Airlines, further increasing the options of its members to discover great destinations around the globe. PIA and Turkish Airlines offer enhanced benefits to top tier frequent flyers of both their airlines. He was exceedingly proud of the fact that the fleet of his airline was very young as compared to most international airlines. In 2003, Turkish Airlines was an airline with only 100 destinations worldwide, he revealed.
Since then, it has engaged in massive expansion. On 14 October 2008 it conducted one of the world’s largest commercial aircraft purchase tenders is for the purchase of 105 planes valued at $6 billion, he noted. While other airlines have engaged in cost rationalisation and cut routes, TA has strived to increase the routes it flies on, he indicated. In 2002, the government sold off 51 percent of Turkish Airlines which had been a state monopoly.
As the Turkish economy has boomed, people have committed more resources to travel. As Turkey’s leaders have secured new destinations for Turkish goods, Turkish Airlines has been part of the effort and opened new routes, crisscrossing around the world, he explained.
During his discourse, Yazan indicated that Turkish Airlines has a number of unique strengths, one is location. Turkey spans Europe and Asia, allowing easy flights between Western European capitals and the Middle East, Central Asia and much of Africa. That gives Turkish Airlines a prime advantage in the transit-passenger business, because it can use smaller aircraft to carry passengers from, Europe to Istanbul, and then on to Dubai. Other airlines have to fly from hubs in Western Europe to Dubai using wide-bodied planes, which are more expensive to operate.
A second advantage derives from growth itself, which has enabled Turkish Airlines to avoid the pain of cost-cutting. Turkish Airlines has tripled its staff to sustain its growth and suddenly generated massive economies of scale, cutting unit costs while raising productivity. Labors costs are also relatively low and TA has a state-of-the-art maintenance centre at Istanbul. It is for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of TA’s aircraft, engines and components
When asked as to why one should choose Turkish Airlines for international journeys, he maintained the airline offers very competitive fares and is presently the only foreign airline that is operating in Pakistan from Karachi.
About the potential expansion in operations, Yazan stressed that Turkish Airlines is planning to start daily flights from Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad but needs a clear signal from the CAA before it can proceed.
Speaking on competition, he stated that Turkish Airlines is not engaged in competition with any international airlines in Pakistan.
TA is the only European airline that is operating from Karachi, Pakistan; an advantage to both the airline and to passengers who are offered competitive and comfortable air travel.
