Turkey is an ever growing market with a lot of potential, but Istanbul needs its third airport, to be open in 2017, was the consensus at the Logitrans Istanbul trade show.
At the trade show, held between 18 and 20 November at the Istanbul Expo Center, opposite Ataturk International Airport, representatives from Global Airlift Solution, Lufthansa Cargo, Skyair Charter and Taha Cargo spoke to Air Cargo Week (ACW) about their views on the Turkish market.
Lufthansa Cargo general manager for Turkey, Hasan Hatipoglu tells ACW: “The market is growing, from 2013 to 2014, Turkish air cargo has grown by 15.1 per cent compared to global growth of five per cent. This is the opportunity for all players.”
Hatipoglu says despite Ataturk having a desirable location, capacity is the issue. “The challenges facing Ataturk Airport are despite having an excellent location close to the city and close to the industrial areas, it has reached maximum capacity on passenger and cargo. We are very much looking forward to the new airport when it is opened in 2017, otherwise challenges will continue.”
Global Airlift Solutions, a charter company with offices in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, Hong Kong, the UK and the US was attending on the Luxembourg stand. Vice president of sales, Sven Sroka says: “Turkey is definitely growing, the last one to two years it is increasing among emergency freight and projects. There is more from Turkey than to.”
Sroka says building projects and production moving to Turkey will increase the demand for charters in and out of Turkey. This growing demand makes attending a trade show such as Logitrans an efficient way of meeting potential business partners. Sroka tells ACW: “We had some meetings, more than expected, from customers to suppliers, everybody was here … We can achieve here in three days more than travelling a week in Istanbul.”
Taha Cargo business development coordinator, Ozge Bozkurt Kucukahmetler tells ACW the company will class its attendance as successful if it results in more than three new business partnerships. “We are here to meet with new people and partners, to increase our business. We have an aim to increase our business with Europe.”
Sky Air Chartering coordinator, Tekin Ertemel says: “The new airport means so many clients, airlines, opportunities, we will probably move to the new airport. We are looking for a big space. This airport will be one in Europe, a good opportunity for all customers in Turkey.”
Ertemel says Sky Air has been in the charter market for about five years and has been transporting a lot of fresh meat from Bosnia to Turkey in recent times.
He was also promoting Sky Air Shop, which provides services including dismantling aircraft. “We tear down aircraft, we did an Airbus A340, took out the engine and necessary spare parts.”
The A340 was later used to make a restaurant in Edremit in Western Turkey.
