Turkish Airlines making waves – in and outside Pakistan

KARACHI: With an aim to expand in Pakistan, Turkish Airlines have increased operations to Karachi and Islamabad, commencing flights to Lahore as well, courtesy the bilateral Air Services Agreement (ASA) between the two countries. This was stated by Turkish Aırlines Chief Executive Officer Dr Temel Kotil in an interview for The Express Tribune. The ASA determines the frequency of flights to be allowed along with the routes and the capacity to be carried by each carrier, according to informationa on the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) website. These rights, referred to as traffic rights, are normally governed by the principle of reciprocity, although it is up to the aeronautical authorities of the contracting states to agree to any variation. Pakistan has concluded some 94 bilateral air services agreements to date, according to the CAA. “Recently, we have increased our operations to Karachi and Islamabad,” said Kotil. “We have commenced operations to Lahore thanks to developments in the Bilateral ASA between the two countries. Currently, our teams, together with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), are working on the expansion of the Code Share Agreement by adding increased services and new destinations to the mentioned agreement. “We actually desire further increase in the frequency rights between the two countries, and we would eagerly like to state that all of our additional services to Pakistan will be included in the agreement in order to ensure mutual commercial interests of both airlines.” Turkish Airlines, which has increased its coverage to 239 destinations – of which 197 are international – in 104 countries, possesses a fleet size of 231, comprising 182 narrow body, 40 wide body and nine cargo aircraft. Looking to become the biggest five star airline of the world, Kotil said that the carrier has developed its growth strategy in the framework of the long-term vision. The CEO added that there is a code share agreeement between Pakistan’s national carrier and Turkish Aırlines since 2006. “Our agreement had been applied on the basis of block space until 2012, and it has been revised as a Free Sale Code Share Agreement as of December 16, 2012. Within the scope of this agreement, Turkish Airlines operates on Istanbul-Karachi and Istanbul-Islamabad routes, and PIA sells tickets for these flights with its own code and flight number as the marketing carrier. “We are planning to increse the number of flights that we operate to Asia and thus, Pakistan, subject to the grant of necessary rights.” Talking about his company, Kotil said Turkey’s geographical location helped the company. “Thanks to this excellent geographical position, our cost is 30% lower than the European carriers. Besides, wasting something is against our culture and cost cutting is our way of life. Our strategy is based on cost cutting while growing and producing. We are a major company having major objectives, that is why we only appreciate structural changes instead of conjonctural ones.” Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2014.