Turkish Airlines (THY) flew around 10 million passengers in the first quarter of 2013, a number 26 percent higher than its passenger count in the first three months of 2012, the company said in a written announcement on Tuesday.
The number of flyers on foreign routes during the period grew by 33 percent, while the number of passengers on domestic flights grew by 16 percent. The total number of THY passengers in 2012’s first quarter was 8 million.
The rapid growth will see THY further expand its fleet with an order this year of 70 to 95 of Boeing’s 737 passenger line, various news outlets reported last week. Citing a source at Boeing, AP said the order might total around $6.9 billion. The carrier has already almost doubled the size of its fleet in the last five years. Company officials have said that the fleet could double again by the end of the decade.
Those plans come as the carrier has aggressively expanded its network of foreign flights, opening this month nonstop flights between İstanbul and Kuala Lumpur and İstanbul and Houston. The rapid expansion has reportedly left crews and pilots overworked and threatening the company with a strike just weeks after THY reached an agreement with its main labor union.
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Over the past decade, Turkish Airlines and its discount competitor Pegasus have made İstanbul one of largest hubs for air travel between Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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