Turkish Airlines intensifies cargo focus

The challenge facing Turkish Cargo is one that most airlines would love to have to grapple with. It has been using its belly-hold capacity on passenger aircraft to meet the cargo demand from various destinations to Istanbul, capital of Turkey, for both import and export traffic.

"For example, we have a monthly demand of 1,000 tonnes of cargo from Hong Kong to Istanbul, and we can just cover 500 tonnes (using our own aircraft), with the remainder flown by other carriers, as we do not have sufficient capacity," says Huseyin Ceyhan, director of the Hong Kong office of Turkish Airlines. Turkish flies four non-stop passenger services per week between Hong Kong and Istanbul, providing bellyhold cargo capacity of its B777s, each of which provide 30 tonnes of cargo capacity.

But that has changed with launch of a new, direct cargo freighter service four times weekly between Hong Kong and Istanbul from 15 October. This was made possible with the delivery of the first of two A330-200Fs. "This development is the outcome of Turkish Cargo's stable growth and of our vision to expand our business as one of he major players in the air cargo sector," said Abdullah Soner Akkurt, vice president cargo at Turkish. The second A330F will be join the Turkish fleet – now comprised of one new A330-200F and four A310Fs –in the first quarter of next year.

"The A330-200F's payload of 70 tonnes and range of up to 4,000 nautical miles (7,408km) positions it as the replacement for ageing midsized, long-haul freighters, and also offers opportunities to grow frequencies in under-served markets. The higher payloads and reduced operating cost will ensure better connectivity in our network and minimum transfer times," Akkurt said. "The flexibility and the capacity offered by our new freighter will enhance our penetration in the Asia Pacific market."

The increased cargo capacity will strengthen Turkish Cargo's long-haul freighter service, serving the rapidly expanding Chinese market while meeting growing demands for transit between Asia and Europe. "We are excited with the launch of this new freighter service, which will help us better serve the needs of cargo customers in the region," says Ceyhan.

He says Turkish Airlines expected the cargo business in Hong Kong and China to grow strongly in the next few years. "The Turkish economy is growing 7-9 per cent per year and the Hong Kong-Turkey demand will also grow," he adds.

Hong Kong, being the secondlargest cargo hub in the world, is a very important market for Turkish Airlines, he says, adding that the expansion of Turkish Cargo will further enhance the airline's local presence and its penetration into the Asia-Pacific market.

In addition, two new A330-200F freighters will be added to the current fleet, further enabling cargo customers from Asia to reach 168 destinations worldwide via Istanbul more frequently and at higher capacities, including many destinations less frequented by most other airlines, such as Tbilisi, Damascus and Maastricht.

Further China expansion

"We will start a new route between Guangzhou in Guangdong Province to Istanbul in January 2011," Ceyhan says. He explains that Turkish aims to fly to 118 destinations in 2010, including new services to Los Angeles, Washington DC, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Dar Es Salaam in East Africa, Dhaka in Bangladesh and Accra, capital of Ghana, in West Africa.

"Despite the recent global economic downturn, we continue to observe steady demand for our cargo transport from Hong Kong, which posted an 8.3 per cent growth in local cargo export over the first two quarters of this year," says Akkurt. "Thus, expansion into Greater China is a necessary and opportune strategic move for us. We are very pleased to further support economic growth between East and West with this new freighter service."

A solid foundation

Asked how Turkish Airlines was funding its aircraft purchase, Akkurt says: "We are financially well off, and we have no problems with increasing our investments." He explains that while most companies were hard hit by the global financial crisis and the worldwide recession, Turkish Airlines is one of the few carriers that has grown.

Over the last eight months Turkish Cargo achieved an increase of 60 per cent in cargo revenue and 42 per cent in total cargo tonnage carried. In addition to new freighters, expansion of cargo terminals and improvement to equipment and infrastructure is planned for supporting the rapid growth in Turkish Cargo's capacity.

"By the end of 2010, Turkish Cargo will have further strengthened its presence in Asia with the introduction of new freighter services, and by the beginning of next year Africa and America will be the main focus of our business," Akkurt added. "We are cautiously optimistic. The air freight industry always offers opportunities, even in the bad times."