Turkish Technic Plans To Expand Third Party Business

Rio de Janeiro—As the Turkish Airlines fleet continues to grow beyond 540 aircraft, it also plans to increase its third-party MRO business.

“Our fleet is growing, both on the Boeing and the Airbus side, and today we are the third-biggest MRO provider in our region,” Turkish Airlines Chairman Murat Şeker told Air Transport World on the sidelines of the recent IATA AGM in Rio de Janeiro.

“We can maintain about 60 aircraft simultaneously in our hangars in multiple destinations in Turkey,” he says.

“We need to grow the MRO capacity for the sake of Turkish Airlines. However, because of our geographical location and our good MRO capabilities, being able to handle both widebody and narrowbody aircraft, there are a lot of opportunities for third-party revenue-generating capacity too,” Şeker adds.

“We are investing in Turkish Technic. Just as we speak, another hangar is under construction at Istanbul Airport. Recently we had an agreement with Rolls-Royce to overhaul not just the aircraft airframes but also the engines,” he says.

The chairman outlines that there are discussions with Boeing and Airbus about establishing a component pool agreement for its MRO facility out of Istanbul on the widebody front to increase the capability of Turkish Technic.

“Turkish Technic generates close to $1.5 billion to $2 billion in revenue. The capabilities they have are very valuable,” Şeker says. In the last two years, a lot of airlines suffered from not being able to service their aircraft for the summer season due to the age of their fleets. “But we were using Turkish Technic to maintain the aircraft during the low season in winter and to be able to utilize them in the summer season,” he adds.

Turkish Technic continues to operate a large MRO hanger at the former Istanbul Ataturk Airport, the chairman confirms. “There is also a big MRO hangar facility at Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen Airport.”

Also, in terms of workforce, the chairman remains confident that it will have enough technicians in the future. “In Turkey we have the human capital. Turkish Technic has around 12,000 staff. A big chunk of them are certified technicians. We don't have a big problem on that front,” Şeker adds.