Turkish Airlines offers new services in business class

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkish Airlines implemented two new projects to provide better service for intercontinental business class passengers, the national flag carrier announced Thursday.

"Awarded many times for its in-flight catering services, Turkish Airlines has carried its service a step further and implemented a new project enabling business class passengers to choose their meals before the flight," the airline said in a written statement.

"Meal selection before flight" service will be available in several intercontinental flights departing from Istanbul to global destinations -- including Atlanta, Boston, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, New York etc., the country's national flag carrier said.

"Business class passengers can view the meal details and visuals of the main dishes and make their choices on the webpage and/or mobile application,” it stated.

The service enables the passengers to choose the meal within the period starting from one week before flight date until the last 48 hours, the statement added.

The airline named the other project as "dine on demand service", allowing its business class passengers in intercontinental flights to dine at any time they wish during the flight.

"Turkish Airlines passengers will have the opportunity to experience a more flexible flight by determining the time they want to rest and dine," the airline said.

Dine on demand service will be available in all intercontinental night flights departing from and landing on Istanbul, it added.

"This privileged service concept applied by very few airline companies in the world allows passengers to get a more customized service," it stated.

Turkish Airlines, founded in 1933, flies to more than 300 destinations in over 120 countries. By the end of Aug. 2018, the airline had 326 aircraft -- 92 of them wide-body along with 216 narrow-body aircraft and 18 cargo planes.

Last year, the airline carried 68.6 million passengers with a 79.1 percent seat occupancy rate.

According to the airline's year-end targets, the company expects to carry 75 million passengers -- including 33 million on domestic routes, 42 million on international routes -- with around an 81-percent passenger load factor.

The airline -- staffed with 25,000 people, including more than 4,500 pilots, -- earned some 24.4 billion Turkish liras ($5.9 billion) of total revenue in the first half of this year.