Turkish Airlines has just added the 200th aircraft to its fleet.
A ceremony was held at the Turkish Technic new hangar at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul to mark the arrival of the Boeing 737-900 bearing a special sticker “200”.
The airline now has an operating fleet of 200 aircraft. It is presently the world’s fifth largest airline.
A ceremony was held at the Turkish Technic new hangar at Atatürk Airport to mark the arrival of the new aircraft.
Those in attendance included Turkish Airlines chairman Hamdi Topcu and general manager Temel Kotil, as well as senior Turkish Airlines managers, employees and media representatives.
Speaking at the ceremony, Topcu said: “As a company, we continue to achieve our goals one at a time. We first celebrated the arrival of our 100th aircraft and now we have reached our next goal of 200 aircraft in the fleet. Our next goal, as we continue to expand, is 300.
“When we began our expansion in 2003, there were only 54 aircraft in the fleet and we flew to 103 destinations. That number is now 205 cities in 90 countries.
“The fleet in 2003 required only 651 pilots and 1,579 cabin attendants.
“Those staff numbers now have grown to 2,445 pilots and 5,344 cabin attendants.”
“All of these are signs of a growing Turkish Airlines,” he noted.
Kotil remarked that ‘’we now fly to 90 different countries around the globe. While it seemed like a dream to many, I have anticipated this achievement for some years now and announced our intentions at the IATA AGM (International Air Transport Association annual general meeting) some years ago”.
He said: “I am more optimistic about our 2023 goal becoming the world’s largest airline network. We intend to become a five-star airline and the leading carrier in our region, home to 1.5bn people.”
Following the ceremony, the Boeing 737-900 entered service and began flying passengers.
New kid on the tarmac: