Turkish Airlines (TA), ranked the best airline of Europe for second consecutive year in 2012 by the Skytrax World Airline Awards, wishes to enhance the frequency of its flights to Pakistan to daily basis, Huseyin Cepni, the Airline’s general manager in Pakistan, told Pakistan Today in an exclusive interview here at his office. Talks in this respect are underway on the government level and the management of the Airlines, which has the world’s 7th largest flight network and has not done away with the idea to further increase its strength in this area, has conveyed its desire to the authorities concerned in Pakistan.
“We want daily flights to Pakistan and if you ask for a reason. There is none. We just want it,” said Cepni who is based here since his transfer in April 2011 from Barcelona where he served the Airline as a regional commercial chief for a couple of years. He said his Airline was flying four times and thrice in a week to Karachi and Islamabad, respectively.
This number, however, does not set well with Cepni and his higher ups who, as the manager said, wanted TA’s daily flights to various destinations in Pakistan, a potential market for the Airline “Pakistan is a huge country and is growing fast. Karachi has a 65 percent control (in terms of revenue generation) over the economy. All travel agents are based here,” he said while talking about TA’s operation in Pakistan. Cepni said his firm was operating in the country for last 30 years. A directors level talks, Cepni said, had taken place between the Turkish and their Pakistani counterparts regarding the TA’s flight frequency. “It is between the governments of the two countries,” he said. “We are still pending but hope the Pakistani side would respond shortly,” said he adding “They have to respond. We are still waiting. I hope they would help us”.
For TA, Pakistan stands to be a country of huge potential. According to Cepni, TA’s income from Pakistani passengers was posting an annual growth of 20 to 25 percent with challenges standing next to zero in the business-friendly country. Cepni says there are no problems at all for the airline industry in Pakistan. “There are opportunities and facilities instead. And that is why you see many European companies working here,” the TA official argued. Cepni sees Pakistan as a great market for the airline industry which weighs a country in terms of the number of its air travelers. The TA manager says Pakistan having the world’s best textile, leather, cotton and carpet industry provides his side with a remarkable number of business passengers. “There is business here. You can find business passengers here. Even the families travel to and from UK, Canada and other international destinations three to four times a year for business or education purposes,” Cepni said. He said the increasing opportunities of education in England and Turkey had sound bearing on his business in Pakistan. Cepni responded in negative when asked if the ongoing global recessionary climate and the resultant economic slowdown had casted a shadow on the Airline’s revenues, especially in Pakistan. “Our network is so big that it offset any negative impact. If you fly to more than 2000 destinations you are not impacted that much. We even got enough passengers in Pakistan because they did not stop travelling,” he said adding “the businesses in Pakistan have been booming so Pakistani businessmen kept traveling to and from Europe, the US, Germany, Italy, Spain and other destinations.”
Pakistan, Cepni said, constitutes around 40 percent market share for the Turkish Airline given the airline’s flight network linking the Asian country to the UK, the US and Canada. About Pakistan and its people Cepni jubilantly says that: “Pakistani people are so friendly and hospitable that I feel at home here.” Cepni said one of his major objectives was to bring Turkey and Pakistan closer through promoting each other’s culture in the two brotherly countries. To this effect, he said his side had planned events like “Darvesh Ceremony” and “Turkish Food Festival” to be held in Turkey in November this year. Exhibitions displaying Turkish culture would be organized in Pakistan while delegates from Pakistan comprising journalists and other stakeholders would be invited to turkey to increase and strengthen people-to-people contact.
About Turkish Airlines, Cepni said having started some 79 years ago from the scratch his company today was running the world’s 7th largest flight network through its 186-unit fleet, 180 passenger and six basic cargo aircrafts. Based on the Association of European Airlines, Turkish Cargo is considered to be the best in Europe in terms of average increases in cargo carriage from Europe to and from the world to the region. For last two consecutive years, 2011 and 2012, Turkish Airlines hasbeen the winner of the Europe’s Best Airline and World’s Best Premium Economy Class Seats title conferred upon it by the Skytrax World Airline Awards, said Cepeni. The Award is determined on the basis of a survey of more than 18 million air travelers. Besides being the official partner of the soccer giants Manchester United and FC Barcelona, TA, in collaboration with Turkish Gold Federation, has for the first time sponsored a professional mega golf event, titled “Turkish Airlines World Golf Final”, scheduled to be held at Turkey’s Antalya Gold Club during October 9-12. World’s renowned golfers like Tiger Woods, Charl Schwartzel, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Hunter Mahan, Matt Kucher, Justin Rose and Webb Simpson are participating in the tournament. The Airlines expects the global airline industry swelling beyond $ 800 billion over the next decade as during the last decade the number of passengers had doubled to 2.2 billion globally. The Airline calls it its fundamental aim to make the most of this potential of the airline industry and carry its flag all over the globe as one of the world’s best airlines. Finding Istanbul having become a “connecting point” in the world’s air traffic, the Airline, this year alone, increased the number of its passenger transfers by 47 percent to cater its passengers travelling between America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
