Turkish Airlines looks to become the carrier for West-bound Bangladeshis

Temel Kotil

Turkish Airlines, one of the fastest growing carriers, aims to become the airline of choice for Bangladeshi travellers to Europe and North America, its chief executive officer said.
The carrier plans to boost its flight frequency from Dhaka: it hopes to operate two flights from Dhaka daily for seven days a week from the present seven daily flights, said Temel Kotil, CEO of Turkish Airlines.
“We will increase flights and go twice daily if the authority allows. The future of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Pakistan is great,” he told The Daily Star in an interview last week at the airline's headquarters in Istanbul.
The reason for the Turkish flag carrier's increased focus on Bangladesh is the country's economic growth prospects.
“Bangladesh has a nice future. Its economy will grow in the next 20-30 years and will create higher demand for increased air travel. Bangladeshi migrants living abroad will also keep the demand up.”
The airline already has an upper hand in attracting Europe- and North America-bound passengers by way of the geographical location of its hub Istanbul, which sits right between Asia and Europe.
“The geographic position is very important—it is very easy to go anywhere from here.” Currently, the airline enjoys almost full flights daily on the Dhaka-Istanbul route, a route it introduced in December 2010 for four times a week. Due to overwhelming demand, it later decided to operate daily on the route.
Apart from monopolising the Western route for Bangladeshi travellers, the airline will start flights to all major cities of the world in the next ten years, said Kotil, also the president of Turkish Airlines.
The Turkish flag carrier also aims to carry about 120 million passengers and post revenue of $20-24 billion in that timeframe.
To accomplish the target, the carrier, which now operates flights to more than 200 destinations worldwide, plans to double its fleet from 233 aircraft to 450 aircrafts.
Kotil said the number of global air travellers will be 6.7 billion in the next ten years and the carrier intends to “win the hearts” of travellers through “love and better services”.
“Love the passengers—that's the easiest one. Really, I mean what my grandmother told me. So if you love anyone, he will love you. But you need to serve them with good service, new aircraft, good food and good attention. That's very simple, like you have the guest at home.”
The Istanbul-based carrier registered 16 percent annual growth in passengers flow in the one decade to 2013. It carried 48.3 million in 2013, up from 10.4 million in 2003.
Turkey's strong economic growth, foreign policy and geographical location of Istanbul facilitated the airline's fast growth.
“The fourth thing is that we are very ambitious. But it is a nice ambition. We want to fly, give good service and make good money. That's why, we are successful.”
He cited that Turkish Airlines is the only carrier that flies to Mogadishu, Somalia. It introduced flights to Mogadishu three years ago and the route brings the airline profits.
“We care about the Somalians. We care about their income. Many Somalis live overseas and these Somalis fly with us. They go home with money and knowledge. So, if you are determined and sincere about what you are doing, you will be successful.”