Air Transport: Turkey Takes a Bite Out of Europe
Not so long ago, Turkey was insignificant in the aviation landscape. Only its national airline, Turkish Airlines (Turk Hava Yollari Anonim Ortakligi), flew the national flag, and its reputation was unremarkable at best, tarnished by a crash in the forest of Ermenonville, north of Paris. It was, if I’m not mistaken, in 1974. Since then, things have changed a lot.
It began with the appointment of Temel Kotil as head of the company in the early 2000s. Kotil, strongly supported by his government, gave the airline a new lease of life. This coincided with a period when the Gulf airlines, particularly Emirates, had demonstrated that a very good product based on high-quality airport facilities could attract passengers who were quite willing to take a connecting flight through a well-equipped hub.
All that remained was for Turkey to develop such a hub. However, Istanbul’s historic airport quickly reached capacity and could not accommodate its national carrier’s ambitious growth plans. The decision to create a new airport was the real trigger for Turkish aviation growth. It must be said that the country did not pull any punches. The new facilities at Ataturk Istanbul airport were designed to handle 150 million passengers, twice the capacity of Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, then Europe’s largest airport. Of course, developing such a complex required a vast area of land, so it had to be built a considerable distance from Istanbul. But this did not deter the project’s backers, and the bet paid off.
With this new hub, the company could envisage strong growth by following the strategy of the Gulf operators, who had demonstrated the success of a connecting-flight model, provided they offered a very large number of destinations and an airport layout designed to facilitate connections. The arrival of this new hub on the world market coincided with the Asian wave, and the Turkish national airline was up to the task, not only by expanding its services but also by offering good value for money. The company now has 499 aircraft, 97 of which are operated by its subsidiary AJet, and carried more than 85 million passengers in 2025.
In the wake of the historic carrier, new operators have appeared: SunExpress, which has joined forces with the Lufthansa group, and Pegasus Airlines, two low-cost carriers that have largely made their mark in Europe.
Istanbul airport has already secured a major place in international air transport, broadly comparable to the established hubs of the Gulf. These are currently severely affected by a geopolitical situation whose damaging consequences they are suffering despite having played no part in creating it. This has contributed to the prosperity of Turkish airlines, although we can hope for a return to political calm in the Gulf.
We are now seeing a Turkish push into the European market, with the takeover of Czech Airlines by Pegasus Airlines, which is also targeting the Hungarian Smartwings. This is a new development and demonstrates, if further proof were needed, the strength of Turkish airlines and their ambitions in the European market. This strongly resembles Turkey thumbing its nose at the European authorities, who are, to say the least, dragging out its accession to the European Community.
Air transport has become a peaceful weapon for expanding the influence of a country that dreams only of regaining the dominant position of the Ottoman Empire. This demonstrates the importance of air transport, not only for developing economic and cultural exchanges but also for gaining considerable influence over certain large geographical regions without the use of destructive weapons.
European countries do not seem to have taken into account the advantages they could derive from a powerful air transport industry, judging by the fiscal and ecological measures all intended to weaken an industry that is nevertheless so valuable, as Turkey can demonstrate.
