Industry Developments and the Forecast for 2023

At the beginning of 2022, while the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic had not fully receded, rising geopolitical tensions affected the industry once again. The reciprocal airspace bans of countries led both to increasing demand in the aviation industry and unfavorable impact on costs due to the rise in fuel prices. Additionally, uncertainty of travel restrictions in the Asia-Pacific region and operational disruptions across Europe’s airports due to staff shortages are the main decelerators of the recovery in global air travel industry.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), recovery in the global air transportation reached 68.5% of 2019 levels. While international passenger traffic reached 62.2% of 2019 levels, domestic passenger traffic reached 79.6% compared to 2019 levels. Number of global passengers in 2022 increased 56.7% compared to 2021 and comprise 75.4% of 2019 levels. In 2022, a total of 3.4 billion passengers with a combination of 2.2 billion domestic and 1.2 billion international passengers were carried. IATA projects global demand in terms of revenue passenger kilometer to continue to recover in 2023 and reach 85.5% of 2019 levels. Full recovery in global demand is expected in 2024.

The Covid-19 pandemic put significant financial pressure on airlines during the three-year time period and melted 80% of the total profit achieved from the beginning of the aviation history. Having recorded 7 billion USD net loss in 2022, the global aviation industry is expected to return to profit achieving 4.7 billion USD net profit in 2023(¹⁾.

Turkish Airlines Forecast for 2023

Standing out from its competitors, Turkish Airlines has become one of the few airlines that announced profit for the last four quarters in a row. Reaching pre-pandemic levels ahead of the industry as of June 2022, our Incorporation continues growing sustainably in 2023 and aims a double-digit growth rate on the year of the 90^th anniversary of its establishment and 100^th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye. Turkish Airlines expects delivery of its 400^th aircraft and is looking to welcome its one billionth passenger by the first half of 2023.

By adding new flight destinations and flight frequencies in existing routes, our Incorporation experienced the most pronounced growth in the Americas region in 2022 as passenger capacity increased 65% compared to 2019. Our Incorporation aims to increase the number of tourists coming in from the United States through targeted tourism campaigns and incentive programs such as stopovers.

As a result of the easing travel restrictions in the countries except China, Turkish Airlines reached 48% and 82% of the 2019 capacity levels in years 2021 and 2022 respectively in the Far East region.

Despite operational difficulties in airports across Europe due to staff shortages, Turkish Airlines increased its capacity 2.5% compared to that of 2019 levels in this region.  Similarly, the Incorporation exceeded 1.5% of its 2019 capacity levels in Africa in 2022. Our Incorporation targets to expand and grow its operations all over the regions that it operates in 2023.

Having launched AnadoluJet’s international expansion strategy in 2020 and doubling the number of its aircraft, Our Incorporation will continue to invest in the AnadoluJet brand in 2023. Anadolujet will continue to grow its domestic and international operations with more comfortable and new generation aircraft which have more seat capacity. Our brand will concentrate on penetrating Middle Eastern and European markets in 2023.

According to the 2022 data published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), our Incorporation carried 1.7 million cargo during 2022 and has sealed its success by ranking in the 5^th place among the top air cargo carriers in 2022. Turkish Cargo quadrupled its market share in the last ten years and reached 5.2% market share in 2022. Operations of Turkish Cargo were moved to its new facility in Istanbul Airport, SmartIST, which is one of the world’s largest cargo hub in terms of capacity. Turkish Airlines aims to transform Istanbul to the world’s new logistic center and to rank Turkish Cargo among the top three air cargo carriers.

Turkish Airlines which employs over 65 thousand staff with its subsidiaries, continues to proudly fly our national flag among aviation giants as a brand that steers the industry through its unique wide flight network, modern fleet and successful crisis management. In the upcoming period, in order to continue growing our industry sustainably in line with the development targets of our country, our goal as the flag carrier is to carry our country further to new success stories.

1 International Air Transport Association, IATA,“Industry Statistics-Fact Sheet” raporundan alınmıştır.