(
Turkish ''Türk Hava Yolları'') (THY) is the
National Airline of
Turkey based in
Istanbul . It operates a network of scheduled services to 103 international and 30 domestic cities, serving a total of 136 airports, in
Europe ,
Asia ,
Africa , and the
United States . The
Airline 's main base is
Atatürk International Airport (IST), Istanbul, with secondary hubs at
Esenboga International Airport (ESB),
Ankara , and
Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW), Istanbul. In 2006, it carried 17 million passengers with total revenues of US$3
Billion .
{Link without Title} The airline has around 12,000 employees.
at
Zurich Airport in 1976]]
The airline was established on
May 20 ,
1933 , as the State Airlines Administration - ''Hava Yolları Devlet Işletmesi Idaresi'' (DHY). It began operations with an Istanbul,
Eskişehir , Ankara service in August 1933. In September 1937, the airline received three
De Havilland D.H. 86B biplane airliners. The following December, DHY receieved the fourth plane. These planes enlarged the domestic routes of DHY to the destination of
Istanbul ,
Eskisehir ,
Izmir ,
Ankara ,
Adana ,
Kayseri and
Diyarbakir .Commercial Aircraft and Airline Markings edited by Christopher Chant The name was changed to ''Devlet Hava Yolları Umum Müdürlüğü'' (DHY) in June
1938 . The first international flight was launched in
1947 to
Athens but it was another 40 years before the introduction of long-haul flights to the Far East and across the
Atlantic .
In a major reorganisation, the state company DHY was replaced with a mixed corporation, Türk Hava Yolları AO (THY) on
20 February 1956 . The airline's shares were passed to the Prime Ministry Public Participation Administration in 1990, which took the company public first in December 1990 selling 5% of the shares. The government later sold about 23.0% of the shares to the public in December 2004 and a further 28.75% in May 2006. The airline is owned by TC Privatisation Administration (49%) and private shareholders (51%). It also has a 50% holding in affiliated airline
SunExpress , the other half of which owned by Thomas Cook of Germany. It has set up in
September 2006 an airline catering JV with Do&Co Restaurants & Catering of Austria. Turkish Airlines quit the Qualiflyer group in 1999, due to incompatibilites with Swissair and Delta. A request to join the
Star Alliance has been accepted in December 2006; Turkish Airlines is expected to join in late 2008
In the film "
Snatch ", the narrator played by
Jason Statham is named "Turkish". He explains in his initial monologue that he is named in honour of a Turkish Airlines disaster.
is the freight branch of Turkish Airlines, operating to Asia, Middle East and Europe.
The Turkish Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft as of August
2007 :
- The average age of the Turkish fleet is 7.3 Years
- The airline has ordered 59 planes (Boeing and Airbus) which will be delivered gradually until 2008.
- Total Fleet as of August 2007 is 99 aircraft.
]]
Miles & Smiles is the frequent flyer program of Turkish Airlines, started after the airline left
Qualiflyer . The earned miles can be used in Turkish Airlines' flights, as well as flights on partner carriers (
American Airlines and
Lufthansa ), including the entire
Star Alliance once the airline joins in 2008.
Turkish Airlines's livery is a
Eurowhite scheme, composed of white with red accents.
]]
Turkish Airlines has a maintenance centre at its hub
Atatürk International Airport , (IST) in Istanbul.
Turkish Airlines Maintenance Center (THY Technic) is responsible for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of THY's all aircraft, engines, APUs and components.
During its 72 year history, Turkish Airlines had three accidents on its international flights, and 18 on domestic flights. The most disastrous was
Turkish Airlines Flight 981 , which crashed in France on
3 March 1974 due to
Explosive Decompression , killing all 346 people aboard. The main cause of this event was a design fault on the cargo doors of DC-10 aircraft. Before the
Tenerife Disaster , it was the worst aircraft disaster.
