 |
Turkish Airlines planning more investments in Balkans
Speaking at a fast-breaking iftar dinner organized by THY in Sarajevo on Thursday for the first anniversary of their partnership with Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) Airlines and their 14th year of direct flights to Sarajevo, Topçu said following the launch of THY flights between İstanbul and the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, they now fly to every country in the Balkans. “We provide our friends living in the Balkans the opportunity to reach every corner of the world via İstanbul, which is an important center of transit. We will continue to invest in Balkan countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular,” he said.
Currently THY flies to 165 domestic and foreign destinations and has the eighth most extensive network in the world. Despite a considerable contraction in air transportation market last year, THY managed to grow by 11 percent and logged over 25 million passengers.
The dinner was attended by Bosnian Prime Minister Mustafa Mujezinovic, Bosnian Communications and Traffic Minister Nail Seckanovic, Turkish Ambassador to Sarajevo Vefahan Ocak and B&H Airlines CEO Amir jasic, as well as a wide array of other participants.
Ambassador Ocak said Turkish-Bosnian relations are at a very good level in all fields and that they were further improved by cooperation between the two countries’ national airlines. THY owns 49 percent of B&H Airlines.
In his speech, Topçu also stressed the historical, social and cultural bonds between the two nations, drawing attention to Turkey’s increasing dynamism in developing excellent relations with neighboring states. “Turkey is taking important steps to develop its relations with all countries, its neighbors in particular. The most concrete area for this policy is the Balkans. Turkey is expending intensive efforts for all problems between Balkan countries to be solved,” he said, adding that THY wants to contribute to this atmosphere of dialogue.
Topçu emphasized that they are transferring all their knowledge and expertise to B&H Airlines to make it a leading transportation firm. He said their success has been confirmed by its increasing number of passengers. B&H Airlines carried 78,600 passengers in the first seven months of this year, a 107 percent jump over the same period last year, Topçu told the audience, also noting that its market share rose to 25 percent this year, up from 14 percent before signing a partnership agreement with THY.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LALE KEMAL |  |
||
| Will CHP be routed in next election? | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Press freedom concerns again in Turkey? Give me a break… | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| How did we step into the missionary threat trap? | |||
| İBRAHİM KALIN |  |
||
| What now in Syria? | |||
| SUAT KINIKLIOĞLU |  |
||
| Munich, Moscow, Damascus | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| What is wrong with the Western media? | |||
| CENGİZ AKTAR |  |
||
| A new phase in demilitarization | |||
| İBRAHİM ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| Towards a strategic partnership between two rising stars: Turkey and South Korea (1) | |||
| PAT YALE |  |
||
| Ottoman bureaucracy v. streamlined modernity | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| Escalating concerns over Syrian attacks | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Double propaganda | |||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| The missile defense shield | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| Fear and silence | |||
| JOOST LAGENDIJK |  |
||
| Misperceiving Europe: by accident or on purpose? | |||
| ZAUR SHIRIYEV |  |
||
| Has Syria become Russia's Middle Eastern lebensraum? | |||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
