Turkish Cargo, a division of Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY), has managed to further strengthen its mark in global air freight transport and has increased its market share to 5% during the coronavirus pandemic.

Citing the World Air Cargo Data (WACD) for May, Turkish Cargo said it transported one out of every 20 air shipments, despite a 28.5% shrinkage in the global air freight market due to the outbreak.

The COVID-19 had brought the entirety of air and travel industries nearly to a halt as airline companies had to ground planes as part of lockdown measures to stem the spread of the virus.

"During the course of the pandemic with its acute effects on a global scale, the global air cargo market experienced severe shrinkage, decreasing by 18% in January-May, but Turkish Cargo did not see any loss of tonnage on a year-on-year basis and acted as a global bridge, preventing the interruption of the international supply chain," the statement read.

Having provided service to 90 direct cargo destinations via its freighters with high-tonnage capacity, Turkish Cargo also used Turkish Airlines' 32 wide-body passenger aircraft in its operations to more than 60 destinations, including London, Moscow, Oslo, Shanghai, Bangkok, Doha, New York and Casablanca.

Already possessing the special provisions needed for carrying all types of medicine before the coronavirus pandemic, it had boosted its capacity to prevent any supply chain disruption and to carry critically important medical freight amid the pandemic.

The flag carrier’s cargo liner, which is the air cargo brand that flies to most destinations around the world, carried 21,547 tons of medicine and some 7,000 medical equipment between February and June and operated over 1,100 flights in June only.

Arranging air cargo operations to more than 300 destinations, 90 of which are cargo destinations, in 127 countries around the world, Turkish Cargo, in addition to the THY passenger aircraft it started to operate cargo flights with recently, operates with its fleet of 25 freighters from its hub in Istanbul.

According to the cumulative data obtained in December 2019 by the WACD, Turkish Cargo achieved a growth rate of 7.1%, while the air cargo market shrank by 4.4%, rising to seventh place in the international air cargo market.