No A380s for Turkish Airlines

Temel Kotil, Chief Executive, Turkish Airlines, was emphatic in saying that the Airbus A380 was not on his airline’s shopping list “Certainly in the short-term,” he said.  The remarks came at an informal breakfast gathering of Star Alliance’s CEOs and the media at the CEB gathering in Warsaw.  Several decided not to attend but Mr Kotil, Lufthansa’s Carsten Spohr and ANA’s Shinya Katanozaka were prominent.

Mr Kotil explained about the A380.  “What works for us is frequencies and that is the area we are working on,” he said, noting that the Heathrow – Istanbul service will go to five per day shortly.  He is enthusiastic about that airport describing it as “beautiful”.  He also said that the airline is expanding into Africa and now serves 45 destinations, and plans to go to 50 in the short-term.  “A Boeing 737-900 with 100 passengers to Kinshasa makes money.  The route does not need a wide body.”

Asked about an interest regarding Romanian airline Tarom has said that there had been no official approach by Turkish Airlines.  www.turkishairlines.com

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