Turkish Airlines aims to start continuous flights in Pakisan

Turkish Airlines (TA) General Manager Huseyin Cepni has been ranked the best airline of Europe for a second consecutive year in 2012 by the Skytrax World Airline Awards, adding that they were awaiting a green signal from the authorities concerned in Pakistan for starting daily flights to the country.
Giving an exclusive interview to Pakistan today at his office, Cepni said talks in this regard were underway on the government and the TA management level, after the airlines had conveyed its desire to start daily flights to the country.
He further said that the TA had the world‘s 7th largest flight network and it was considering adding more strength to this area.
Cepni had been based in Pakistan since his transfer in April 2011 from Barcelona where he served the TA as a regional commercial chief for a couple of years. He said his airline was flying four times in a week to Karachi and thrice a week to Islamabad respectively.
This number, however, did not set well with Cepni and his higher ups who, as the manager said, wanted TA’s flights on daily basis to various destinations in Pakistan, which was a potential market for the airline. “Pakistan is a huge country and is growing fast,” Cepni observed. “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, while adding that his firm was operating in the country for the last 30 years.
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 further said that there were 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 also said that he saw Pakistan as a great market for the airline industry which weighed a country in terms of the number of its air travelers.
Furthermore, the TA manager said Pakistan had the world‘s best textile, leather, cotton and carpet industry which provided 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 the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and other international destinations three to four times a year for business or education purposes,” Cepni added.
Moreover, he said the increasing opportunities of education in England and Turkey had sound bearing on the TA’s 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 offsets any negative impact. If you fly to more than 2,000 destinations, you are not impacted that much. We even have enough passengers in Pakistan because they did not stop traveling,” he said, adding that “The businesses in Pakistan has been booming as Pakistani businessmen continued traveling to and from Europe, the United States (US), Germany, Italy, Spain and other destinations.”
According to Cepni, Pakistan constituted around 40 percent market share for the TA given the airline’s flight network linking the Asian country to the UK, the US and Canada.
When asked how he felt about Pakistani people, Cepni jubilantly said, “Pakistani people are so friendly and hospitable that I feel at home here.”
Similarly, 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 soon.
Exhibitions displaying Turkish culture would also 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, he added.
Talking about the TA, Cepni said that having started the business some 79 years ago from 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 had been considered to be the best in Europe in terms of average increases in cargo carriage to and from Europe to the rest of the world.
Meanwhile, Cepni said that for the last two consecutive years, 2011 and 2012, the TA had been 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. The award was 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, the TA in collaboration with Turkish Gold Federation, had 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 from October 9-12 next year. World’s renowned golfers like Tiger Woods, Charl Schwartzel, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Hunter Mahan, Matt Kucher, Justin Rose and Webb Simpson would be participating in the tournament.
The airline had been expecting that the global airline industry would swell beyond $ 800 billion over the next decade, as during the last decade the number of passengers had doubled to 2.2 billion globally, Cepni said, adding that the airline believed it to be its fundamental aim to make the most of this potential of the airline industry and to carry its flag all over the globe as one of the world’s best airlines.
Istanbul had become “connecting point” in the world’s air traffic. Therefore, this year alone, the TA had increased the number of its passenger transfers by 47 percent to cater its passengers traveling between America, Europe, Africa and Asia.