Hofmann's recommendations

Turkish Airlines - Still massively underestimated

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Let's be honest. What would you think if someone recommended Turkish Airlines to you? Old airplanes and poor service? Maybe ten years ago. Today, for Hofmann's recommendations, Turkish Airlines is the most successful airline in Europe.

Modern aircraft, on-board service from Turkish Do&Co, which bears the signature of the luxury caterer Attila Dogudan, and a global route network that is constantly growing. "We will grow by a total of 17 percent this year and add 16 new destinations. Of course, we are also increasing frequencies. For example, from Istanbul to New York three times a day from the summer. In total, we are handling around 1,000 flights a day," says airline CEO Temel Kotil in an interview at the headquarters in Istanbul. But that's not all - Turkish's growth is most comparable to that of an Emirates Airline from Dubai. It is planning to acquire a stake in the Polish airline LOT. "We have the mandate of our board and are interested in LOT. The talks have been going on for several weeks," says Kotil, who is planning a multi-hub system. So far, Turkish Airlines has only one hub, namely Istanbul. Warsaw is to become a second pillar. "This multi-hub strategy has been tested by various European airlines. We are not doing a test with Warsaw, we are doing it to be successful. Once everything is finalized, we will implement our plan". The successful airline boss explains that it would not be ideal to announce the size of the investment at this time. The interests of the other side must also be taken into account. "When we invest in a company, we want to make sure that our plan is right and that we have the right to restructure this company and build LOT. That's our logic behind it. We don't just want a destination as a hub, we want to make it a successful company. Whatever LOT needs, we are there. But we want to have the right to do everything we can to make it a success. That is the minimum," Kotil says plainly. So much for Turkish Airlines' current strategy. It only remains to mention that the airline is still one of the most underestimated. At the time of 2011, 177 aircraft were in operation. With around 180 destinations in its route network, Turkish is the eighth largest airline in the world and most recently carried more than 30 million passengers. Hofmann's recommendation: "Turkish certainly stands up to comparison with the classic European airlines; in many aspects of service, the Turks are even better.

Kurt Hofmann

(February 2012)

Turkish Airlines - Still massively underestimated

Kurt Hofmann

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