Turkish Air Swings To USD$77 Million Loss For 2016

THY Turkish Airlines posted a USD$77 million net loss for 2016, as security issues had a negative effect on passenger traffic growth.

The loss contrasts with net income of USD$1.07 billion in 2015. At an operating level, Turkish lost USD$682 million, a swing from the USD$682 million profit the previous year.

Revenue took a 6.9 percent hit as it fell to USD$9.8 billion, from USD$10.5 billion in 2015. Operational expenses were up 3.1 percent for the year to USD$10.14 billion.

A terrorist attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport in June and a failed coup attempt in July 2016 were partly responsible for lower growth than the airline had projected, with passenger revenue down 8.3 percent to USD$8.59 billion.

Passenger traffic in RPK terms was up 6.3 percent on an ASK capacity increase of 10.7 percent, leading to a 3.1 percent drop in load factor to 74.6 percent. Turkish flew 62.8 million passengers during the year.

As a result of the slower growth, the Turkish flag carrier has delayed the delivery of 92 Airbus A321neos, 65 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and 10 737 MAX 9s that were due to enter service between 2018 and 2022. Aircraft deliveries will now drop from 34 to 10 in 2018, from 40 to 35 in 2019, and from 52 to 42 in 2020. There will be no changes for 2021, but 2022 will see an increase from 6 to 30 aircraft delivered.

At the end of 2016, Turkish had a fleet of 334 aircraft.