Summary
Turkey is a very popular holiday destination in Europe, particularly for those in the colder, northern parts of the continent, like the UK and Germany.
Its resorts play host to many vacationers every summer, with airports scattered around the country catering to inbound tourist flights – places like Antalya, Dalaman and Izmir.
Turkey itself has a number of leisure airlines which fly these routes either in their own right, or on behalf of other airlines or holiday companies.
Here’s a guide to Turkey’s airline fleets this summer:
AJet
Acode37, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Formerly AnadoluJet, this airline was rebranded recently to give it a more modern feel.
AJet is a subsidiary of Turkish Airlines and is based at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen International airport. However, it flies from many other Turkish airports.
The previous AnadoluJet livery. Copyright Dmitri Popov, aircraft.photography.
Its fleet still mostly wears the AnadoluJet livery, but is slowly being repainted.
It comprises:
- 4x Airbus A320neo
- 13x Airbus A321neo
- 45x Boeing 737-800
- 10x Boeing 737 MAX 8
In addition, it flies 6x Airbus A320-200 and 7x A321-200 on lease from other carriers.
Corendon Airlines
MarcelX42, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
A part of the giant Corendon leisure group. This airline is based at Antalya airport and has the following types in its fleet:
- 14x Boeing 737-800
- 5x Boeing 737 MAX 8 (+4 on order)
Pegasus Airlines
Copyright Dmitri Popov, aircraft.photography.
A long-established Turkish leisure and low-cost airline which has bases at seven different Turkish airports (including Ercan in Northern Cyprus).
The airline was founded in 1991 and flies to over 130 destinations across Europe and the Middle East.
Its fleet comprises:
- 7x Airbus A320-200
- 46x Airbus A320neo
- 42x Airbus A321neo (+7 on order)
- 10x Boeing 737-800
Southwind Airlines
Tugbay Arslan, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
A Turkish leisure airline founded in 2022, Southwind Airlines recently found itself at the centre of a ban from EU airspace owing to its links with Russian owners.
As a result, its plans to expand significantly to countries such as the UK and Germany have been put on hold, and at present it only flies to countries outside the EU from its base in Antalya.
Its fleet comprises:
- 2x Airbus A321-200
- 1x Airbus A321neo
- 2x Airbus A330-200
- 3x Boeing 737 MAX 8
- 4x Boeing 777-300/300ER
SunExpress
Copyright Dmitri Popov, aircraft.photography.
A Turkish leisure airline which has links with Germany. SunExpress was founded in 1989 as a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines.
As a result, many of its services (from bases in Antalya and Izmir) operate to Germany, and it has a subsidiary – SunExpress Deutschland – operating from that country.
In addition SunExpress has expanded to fly to many more European destinations, particularly in the UK.
Its fleet is made up of:
- 49x Boeing 737-800
- 11x Boeing 737 MAX 8 (with 59 on order)
It also has 17x 737 MAX 10 on order.
Turkish Airlines
Copyright Dmitri Popov, aircraft.photography.
The oldest and largest of Turkey’s airlines, Turkish Airlines is the national carrier and was founded in 1933.
Its main operating base is the new Istanbul Airport, and it has the distinction of being the airline that serves the most of any airline in the world (126).
Its fleet includes 365 aircraft across narrowbody and widebody fleets, comprising:
- 6x Airbus A319-100
- 16x Airbus A320-200
- 5x Airbus A320neo
- 65x Airbus A321-200
- 44x Airbus A321neo (+ 185 on order)
- 14x Airbus A330-200
- 36x Airbus A330-300
- 18x Airbus A350-900 (+72 on order)
- 40x Boeing 737-800
- 15x Boeing 737-900ER
- 23x Boeing 737 MAX 8 (+22 on order)
- 5x Boeing 737 MAX 9
- 34x Boeing 777-300ER
- 23x Boeing 787-9 (+7 on order)
