ISTANBUL: Turkish Airlines posted a much deeper first quarter loss than expected yesterday despite rising sales, as it battles tough competition from low-cost competitors.
The flag carrier, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, said its net loss widened to 226.3m lira ($110m), ten times the loss of a year ago and almost double the 119.4m lira forecast in a Reuters poll of 11 analysts.
Turkish Airlines faces growing competition from budget carriers including Pegasus, Onur Air, Atlas Jet and IzAir, all of them serving domestic routes within Turkey as well, in some cases, as short-haul foreign destinations. “Competition with Pegasus at Sabiha Gokcen airport has a major negative impact on its domestic services while competition on European routes hits its international revenues,” Efe Kalkandelen, aviation sector analyst.
Reuters
