[lloyd fox]

Turkey's flagship air carrier Turkish Airlines (THY), which has enjoyed high growth rates during the last couple of years as airlines in the rest of the world suffered sharp declines amidst a global financial crisis, is not decreasing its appetite for further growth with new investments. The company's top manager announced on Tuesday that the company is set to begin flights to Sydney via Jakarta by the end of 2011.


"First we will launch direct flights to Jakarta, which is done via Singapore now, and then flights to Sydney via Jakarta will begin in the last quarter of 2011," Temel Kotil, general manager of THY, told reporters in Queenstown, New Zealand, where he participated in a directors' meeting of Star Alliance members.

In April 2008, Turkish Airlines became a member of the Star Alliance, which is one of the biggest network of individual airlines with its 31 members.

THY posted TL 255.6 million ($169.7 million) net profit in the first nine months of 2010. The company's total assets rose to TL 8.9 billion while its equities increased to TL 3.6 billion. It carries approximately 25 million passengers a year, with direct flights to 126 international and 37 domestic destinations.

Kotil said the company is currently flying to Jakarta through connected routes from Singapore and that the initial step before establishing a destination to Sydney would be to kick off direct flights to Jakarta.

Explaining the reason behind the choice of Jakarta as the connection point, he said this city is the best location for not extending the distance to Sydney and that the traffic in the airport there is not heavy.

On another occasion, THY's Marketing and Sales President M. Akif Konar said that the company will be opening 10 new destinations next year.

In an expedition event organized for reporters from different provinces of Turkey on Tuesday to show around the workplaces and facilities of THY and its subsidiary companies in İstanbul, he counted the projected destinations as Los Angeles, Vietnam, Dhaka (Bangladesh), Guangzhou (China), Shiraz and Isfahan as (Iran), Valencia and Malaga (Spain), Sydney and Tunisia. “Additionally we will be increasing the frequency of some long-distance flights,” he noted.