Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines on Tuesday said its full-year net profits topped $1 billion for the first time in its history as the fast-growing airline battled to overcome the crises hitting its region.
Turkish Airlines said it posted $1.069 billion (980 million euros) net profits for last full year, an increase of 26.5 percent from the figure of $845 million from 2014.
But sales were down 5.0 percent at $10.5 billion compared with 11.07 in 2014. The airline posted a small operating loss for the fourth quarter of $50 million.
The airline said it managed to overcome a tough year marked by the “political and economical instabilities over its operating environment and significant currency fluctuations.”
“Turkish Airlines has reinforced its position among the most profitable airlines with these financial results recorded in this challenging year,” said board chairman Ilker Ayci.
Turkey has been hit by repeated militant attacks in the last months which risks hitting tourism in the coming year, while the civil war in Syria is raging over its southern border.
Turkish Airlines has grown exponentially in the last decade. In 2005, it carried 14.1 million passengers but in 2015 took 61.2 million passengers to 284 destinations.
It forecasts even more growth for 2016, expecting to carry 72.4 million passengers to destinations with future routes ranging from Hanoi to Mexico City.
It operated 299 planes at the end of 2015 — a figure expected to rise to 339 in 2016.
The airline has conspicuously stopped short of making any concrete show of interest in the Airbus A380 super jumbo, preferring to focus its growth on making multiple flights with smaller fuel efficient planes.
It is also staking its further expansion on the building of a brand new hub airport for Istanbul on the Black Sea to replace the increasingly overcrowded Ataturk International closer to the city centre.
The plan is championed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an enthusiastic supporter of the airline, as a key project for his “new Turkey”.
Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said this month that he expected the first phase of the new airport to open in February 2018.
The government used to entirely control Turkish Airlines but share offerings over the last decade have reduced its stake to 49 percent.
The airline said it is now considered Turkey’s biggest generating over $7 billion of exports with more than 70 percent of its ticket sales being made abroad.
