The airline Turkish Airlines is currently in a restructuring phase. The outsourcing of the cargo activities to a new subsidiary with its own certificates has already been decided. The low-cost brand Anadolujet is now following suit, announced company boss Ilker Ayci.

The low-cost brand does not currently have its own AOC, but is managed as a division of Turkish Airlines. Operationally, the flights are carried out by both Turkish and SunExpress. Nothing should change about that.

So far, the Turkish group has largely relied on the “One Company” concept. That will change in the course of 2020, because Anadolujet and Turkish Cargo are to become independent subsidiaries with their own approvals. This means that the parent company will concentrate on the “premium segment” under the Turkish Airlines brand. The areas of low cost and freight are therefore no longer managed as departments, but as subsidiaries.

With the new structure, Turkey's largest airline wants to keep the possibility of accepting partners open. For the time being, however, they want to hold 100 percent of both subsidiaries, although a partial sale to other airlines or investors is not excluded, but is obviously an aim.

Anadolujet was launched a few years ago because, among other things, Pegasus was able to gain increasing market share domestically with a low-cost airline from Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen. Turkish Airlines then founded its own low-cost airline department and brought SunExpress on board for operations. The Lufthansa-Turkish joint venture currently operates nine Boeing 737-800s for the Turkish brand Anadolujet.

“We founded a technology company and Turkish Airlines Cargo is developing into a completely independent company. And we plan to outsource AnadoluJet. These companies will pave the way for future partnerships and acquisitions. We'll have airlines that fly separately. This is a new era for Turkish Airlines, ”said CEO Ayci. “New partnerships and acquisitions won't come as a surprise. We already receive partnership proposals in the start-up phase. You can see that it is an important step here. We take smart steps, not hasty ones. We want to work very successfully. The freight company will have a very strong foundation on the first day. We have turned the pandemic crisis into an opportunity. "