While global airlines lost nearly $170 billion to the 2020 pandemic and the industry as a whole still is not making a net profit, Turkish Airlines managed to make $2.7 billion in profit in 2022.
Turkish Airlines has posted a second-quarter net profit of $635 million, citing strong international demand. The airline also reported a 28% higher passenger capacity than in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the second quarter of the year, company revenue reached $5.1 billion, a 13.5% increase compared to the corresponding period last year.
The airline’s freight revenues decreased by 44% year-on-year to $600 million due to decelerating global trade and the impact of the Turkish earthquakes, the company said. This figure was still 53% higher than the 2019 level.
Although most airlines have not recovered to their pre-pandemic passenger capacities, Turkish Airlines has been one the few carriers to do so.
An airline’s load factor is the percentage of a carrier’s airplanes that are full of passengers. In the second quarter, Turkish Airlines carried more than 21 million passengers, with a domestic load factor of 81.5% and an international load factor of 81.8%.
The 2020 pandemic saw governments around the world impose travel bans to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Many flights were cancelled and travel was decimated. Global airlines lost nearly $170 billion in 2020 and the industry as a whole still is not making a net profit.
Turkish Airlines, meanwhile, managed to make $2.7 billion in profit in 2022. The airline carried 22% more passengers between January and July 2023 (47.3 million) compared to the same period last year. The airline carried 9% more passengers in July 2023 than the same month the previous year.
During the first half of the year, the airline entered into several codeshare agreements — in which airlines sell seats on each other’s flights — with Asian airlines including IndiGo and Vietnam Airlines.
