AeroSvit and THY Cooperate Between Ukraine and Turkey

AeroSvit – Ukrainian Airlines and Turkish Airlines (THY) are to cooperate on flights between Ukraine and Turkey after introducing a codeshare partnership on services between the two countries. The two airlines will coordinate their schedules on links between Istanbul and five Ukrainian cities – Kiev, Odessa, Simferopol, Dnepropetrovsk and Donetsk.

In the past year an estimated 482,000 O&D passengers travelled between Ukraine and Turkey, up 7.4 per cent on the previous 12 months and up 58.8 per cent on the traffic from five years ago. Aerosvit and THY are the two market leaders with 40.0 and 45.0 per cent shares of the traffic, respectively. The main competition comes from Pegasus Airlines (15.4 per cent).

There are currently over 75 weekly flights between the two countries offering more than 11,000 seats in each direction. AeroSvit offers 23 flights a week to Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport from Dnepropetrovsk, Dontesk, Kiev, Odessa and Simferopol, while THY offers 38 flights per week on the same routes, as well as a connection to Lviv. Together, AeroSvit and THY account for 80.6 per cent of the available seat capacity between the two countries.

Alongside AeroSvit and THY, only two other carriers offer flights between Ukraine and Turkey. Pegasus Airlines currently has services between Istanbul and Dontesk and Kharkov, although its uses Sibiha Gokcen Airport in the Turkish city; while Onur Air provides a three times weekly scheduled link between Odessa and Istanbul Ataturk.