As Turkey becomes an increasingly popular destination for travelers, the Chinese market is becoming increasingly hot, and Turkish airlines is eager to open new routes or add more flights in the Chinese market. Recently, the company reported that it had been approved to open a route between xi 'an and Istanbul.

With the expansion of aircraft fleet, Turkish airlines is constantly looking for new market opportunities around the world. It has opened seven routes since the beginning of the year. In April, Turkish airlines fully moved to the new Istanbul airport, ushered in greater development opportunities. When fully completed, the airport will have six runways and an annual passenger capacity of 200 million.

China's aviation industry is growing rapidly and will overtake the United States as the world's largest aviation market in a few years, according to Turkish airlines' general manager for the northern region, muhammadu cavulanou. At the same time, CAAC is also investing heavily in airport construction, which means huge market potential. Turkish airlines is not only interested in operating flights at Beijing's daxing airport, but also wants to open more routes in China, including chengdu, xiamen and wuhan.

Turkey was one of the first countries to support the One Belt And One Road initiative; Meanwhile, the "middle corridor" initiative initiated by Turkey has the same purpose as the "One Belt And One Road" initiative. Based in Istanbul, Turkish airlines has the largest number of destinations in Africa and eastern Europe, relying on the geographical advantage of the "crossroads" of Europe and Asia. The approval of the xian-istanbul route is of great significance to both xi 'an, the starting point of the silk road, and Istanbul, an important hub.

Statistics show that about 400,000 Chinese tourists visited Turkey in 2018, and the number is expected to reach 500,000 this year. This has brought new opportunities to Chinese and Turkish companies and tourism. In recent years, Air China has also started to boost the china-turkey market. At the end of 2018, China southern airlines resumed operation of beijing-istanbul route. This year, sichuan airlines, China southern airlines has opened chengdu, wuhan and Istanbul routes.

"We are always optimistic about Air China's opening of Turkish routes, as more flights will create a bigger market," said Mr Kavulanoglu, who is facing increased competition in the market. In his view, there is also a big market for Turkish tourists visiting China, and he hopes the Chinese government will simplify the visa process for turks to benefit both Chinese and Turkish companies.

In addition, Turkish airlines also sponsors football, equestrian, golf and other sports events in the global market. On September 18, the latest round of the 7th Turkish air world golf cup concluded in Beijing. "Sponsoring sports events not only lets the public know about Turkish airlines, but also wants to convey the idea of sports and culture to young people." 'golf is mainly for high-end customers and business travelers, and golf is very popular in some destinations of Turkish airlines,' Mr. Kavulanou said. 'this event creates good opportunities for Turkish airlines to communicate with corporate customers.'

Currently, Turkish airlines operates one daily flight to Beijing, Shanghai and guangzhou in China, and six weekly flights to Hong Kong. The company is committed to providing high-quality Chinese service to Chinese tourists, including Chinese website, Chinese movies, Chinese menu, and plans to recruit Chinese flight attendants.

Source: China civil aviation net