Turkish Airlines targets to carry 38 million passengers in 2012

ADDIS ABABA/ISTANBUL (A.A) - December 15, 2011 - Turkish Airlines (THY), Turkey's national airline company, targets to carry 38 million passengers in 2012. THY Director General Temel Kotil told AA on Thursday that THY would reach its target for the end of 2011 which was to carry 33 million passengers and have seven billion USD of annual turnover. Our target for 2012 is to carry 38 million passengers and have 7.8 billion USD of annual turnover, added Kotil. Kotil noted that THY carried 29.8 million passengers in 2010. We will have new flight destinations. We are planning to fly from Istanbul to Somali capital Mogadishu next month. We will hold two flights to Somalia weekly. We are also planning to increase number of flights to Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa from one to two daily in the summer, said Kotil. Kotil added that THY was also carrying passengers from countries such as Canada, U.S., Brazil and Germany to Middle Eastern countries thanks to the network it set up. We expect transit passenger figures to increase from 38 percent in 2011 to 40 percent in 2012, said Kotil.