Istanbul: Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa's joint venture, SunExpress, reported on Tuesday that summer travel to Turkey has increased after a brief decline following the devastating earthquakes in February.
Chief Executive Max Kownatzki told Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference in Istanbul that the airline anticipates carrying more than 12 million passengers this year.
Bookings decreased by 50% within days of Turkiye's devastating earthquakes, which claimed more than 48,000 lives and left millions homeless.
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"We noticed significant drops in demand in the first week following the earthquake, with the international demand falling by roughly 50% to 52%. However, demand increased in week two. Approximately 10 days after the hit, demand completely recovered, according to Kownatzki.
As of the first week of March, our advance reservations were 60% higher than they were the previous year.
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According to information presented at the news conference, SunExpress, based in Antalya, carried 10.7 million passengers last year, mostly between Turkey and European nations, with an 85 percent load factor, exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
Turkiye anticipates $56 billion in tourism revenue this year despite having a high rate of inflation and a persistent current account deficit.
Kownatzki stated that Sunexpress anticipated this year's revenue to be 1.63 billion euros ($1.75 billion) and earnings before interest and taxes to be 80.1 million euros. In contrast, last year's revenue was 1.49 billion euros and EBIT was 85 million euros.
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Inflation, fuel prices, and foreign exchange all experience high volatility. We are cautious in that assumption because of that, he added, noting that the business was employing effective hedging techniques for both fuel and foreign exchange.
He added that Sunexpress will operate with a fleet of 66 aircraft this season and that it will increase its seat capacity by 13% while also adding 26 new routes.