The new maintenance & repair center to be opened at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport will offer services to Turkey as well as its neighboring regions.
The new maintenance & repair center to be opened at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport will offer services to Turkey as well as its neighboring regions such as Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.
Hamdi Topcu, chairman of the board of Turkey’s national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY), said during a ceremony in Istanbul that the new maintenance center would start operating in September 2011.
“In addition to Turkey, the center will offer services to Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. We expect the facility to provide employment opportunities for nearly 3,500 people and its share in the market to exceed 1 billion USD,” he said.
Topcu also noted THY’s improvement was parallel to Turkey’s rising position in the international arena.
“As Turkey becomes a star, we do as well,” Topcu said.
The chairman said THY desired to become one of the top 10 airline companies in the world by the year 2023, the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Republic of Turkey.
Speaking at the gathering, THY’s Director General Temel Kotil noted that Istanbul had become an attraction center for international aviation meetings, moreover, it would become an inter-continental aviation hub in near future.
“THY has doubled the number of its aircrafts and flight destinations in the last 7 years. It has also increased the number of its seats and passengers by 3 times and its income by 4 times during the same period. We hope to become Europe’s first five-star airline in 2011,” Kotil said.
AA