Turkish Cargo aims to be in world's top three carriers

By Ergin Garip

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's national flag carrier's air cargo brand, Turkish Cargo, has grown 80% in the last three years, aiming to be ranked as one of the world's top three air cargo companies, the chairman of Turkish Airlines said Thursday.

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the Association of International Forwarding and Logistics Service Providers (UTIKAD) summit, Ilker Ayci said Turkish Cargo was listed most widely-flying air cargo company in the world, operating direct cargo flights to 86 countries with its 24-plane air cargo fleet.

"The flag-carrier cargo brand has increased its rank from 13th to 7th in the global air cargo market," he said, adding that Turkish Airlines would increase its share of 4 percent in the global air cargo market.

"Turkish Airlines attaches great importance to logistics and has placed logistics at the center of its strategic plans in the last few years," he said.

Pointing to a change in the logistics sector, he said: "We are moving from a period, in which when countries and companies are competing with each other, to a period in which supply chains compete with each other."

In today's world, products need to be delivered to relevant addresses very quickly, he stressed.

"Fast, dynamic and secure service is becoming more and more important, making the logistics sector more central in the world trade," he said.

Achieving sustainable growth with its newly-added destinations, current infrastructure and investments, Turkish Cargo continues to enhance its capacity to the more than 300 destinations included in its current flight network.

Since 1933, Turkish Cargo has been carrying air cargo via the air transportation operations of Turkish Airlines.

The accomplished cargo carrier, which evolved into a brand under the title of "Turkish Cargo" in 2000, carried a total of 1.4 million tons of cargo in 2018, ranking among the top 10 international air cargo carriers based on data obtained by World Air Cargo Data.

*Writing by Aysu Bicer