In a bid to reduce its carbon emissions, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) will switch to a special fuel that decreases emissions by 87%, the air carrier's chairperson Ilker Aycı said Thursday.
With the motto "Our route is the future," THY will debut flights using sustainable aviation fuel, Aycı told Anadolu Agency (AA).
"Turkish Airlines is proud to very soon start a new project," said Aycı, announcing the start of the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) once a week on its Istanbul-Stockholm route.
Citing International Air Transport Association (IATA) data, Aycı stressed that THY is the world's fifth-largest carrier of international passengers.
Between January and November this year, the company served 40.5 million passengers, he underlined, adding that it saw the fastest recovery in the North American region during the same period.
According to Eurocontrol data, THY maintained its leadership in Europe with 932 daily flights on average in 2021.
On the emergence of the omicron variant, which has upended expectations of recovery from COVID-19 conditions in some places, Aycı said: "It does not seem likely that the aviation sector will face a chaotic situation as happened in the spring of 2020."
He stressed that the revised vaccines and other health measures aimed at slowing down the pandemic would minimize the dangers posed by new emerging variants such as the omicron.
"We maintain our cautious optimism at the end of 2021, which was a more successful year than 2020," Aycı said.
THY is set to begin scheduled flights to Cebu in the Philippines, the U.S. cities of Denver, Seattle, and Detroit, Sialkot in Pakistan, and Hargeisa in Somalia, depending on the possibilities and market conditions.
"In 2022, we plan to receive a total of 18 next-generation aircraft, including 10 wide body and eight narrow body," he said.
Turkish Airlines currently flies to 333 destinations globally in 328 cities in 128 countries, Aycı said, adding that the carrier has a fleet of 373 aircraft, including 104 wide body, 246 narrow body and 23 cargo planes in 2021, up by 21 from a year ago.
In 2020, Turkish Airlines carried 28 million passengers with a load factor of 71%, even amid coronavirus-related worldwide travel restrictions, border shutdowns and an overall drop in consumer demand.
AnadoluJet offers low-cost international flights
Saying that Turkish Airlines' subsidiaries such as AnadoluJet and Turkish Cargo will "fly using their own wings," Aycı said the company has accelerated investments in AnadoluJet.
"AnadoluJet, which launched international flights in 2020, will be one of our focal points in investments in the coming period," said Aycı, emphasizing the company is creating a new structure that includes a new business model in a bid to gain strength in a low-cost airline market.
"We plan to restructure the low-cost carrier market with our feasibility studies," he added.
Turkish Cargo set to be among top three air freighters by 2023
Even as COVID-19 hit the aviation sector the hardest, Turkish Cargo, a division of THY, continued its operations using more than 30 passenger aircraft in addition to its cargo planes while gaining a market share.
Since the onset of the virus, the freighter has delivered more than 94,000 tons of medicines and medical equipment to 135 countries and more than 327 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 57 countries.
Turkish Cargo became the sixth largest air freighter in the world last year while boosting its cargo capacity, Aycı stressed, adding that as of this October, the company carried one out of every 20 air cargo services in the world.
Noting that the company's market share in total global cargo revenues rose from 0.6% in 2019 to 5.3% this year, Aycı said, "Thanks to the growth rate Turkish Cargo has posted in the recent years, the freighter aims to become one of the world's top three air cargo companies by 2023."
In the first 11 months of this year, the amount of cargo the freighter carried hit 1.7 million tons, jumping 22.8% compared to the same period in 2019.