THY Turkish Airlines is the national carrier of Turkey, operating a network of scheduled services which links over 30 domestic destinations with nearly 120 worldwide destinations in Europe, the Middle and Far East, North and South Africa and the US. The airline is creating a low-cost subsidiary, Anadolu Jet.
History
Founded as Hava Yollari Devlet Isletmesi Idaresi (State Airlines Administration) in Ankara on 20 May 1933, domestic services linking Istanbul, Eskisehir, Ankara were launched in August 1933 using an initial fleet made up of two five-seat Curtis King Bird's, two four-seat Junkers F-13's and one 10-seat Tupolev ANT-9.
On 20 May 1935 the Ministry for Public works became responsible for the airline and set about modernising and reorganising it. A succession of de Havilland aircraft were brought into the fleet in the next five years, including: a DH.82A Tiger Moth, four DH.86B Expresses, 12 DH.89A Dragon Rapides/Dominies and a single DH.90 Dragonfly. Together with five Junkers Ju52/3ms, this fleet was used to expand the domestic route network to 19 destinations.
In June 1938 control of the airline was passed to the Ministry of Transportation and it was again renamed as Türkiye Devlet Hava Yollari (DHY).
In 1945 the airline purchased 33 war-surplus Douglas C-47s. The first international flight, which routed Ankara-Istanbul-Athens, took place in 1947. DHY was reorganised and renamed Türk Hava Yollari A.O. (THY Turkish Airlines) on 1 March 1956. THY became a member of IATA in 1956.
The carrier’s first turboprops were five Vickers Viscounts, delivered from January 1958, to be followed by five Fokker F.27s from 1960. THY's first pure jets were Douglas DC-9s, a large fleet of which was built up from August 1967. Long haul equipment arrived in the form of former Pan Am Boeing 707s in 1971.
Two year later THY's first wide-bodies were a fleet of three McDonnell Douglas DC-10s. During the 1970s, the DC-9 fleet was augmented on short to medium haul services with Fokker F.28s and Boeing 727-200s.
THY became a State Economic Enterprise in 1984.
During 1986 THY started operations to the Far East, with North America following a couple of years later.
The airline was nationalised in 1990 and almost all its shares were transferred to the Turkish government's Public Participation administration.. A decision was made to privatise the airline and an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 1.8% of the equity was made.
Direct flights to Tokyo began in 1993, after the introduction of the Airbus A340-300. The first Next Generation Boeing 737-800s joined the fleet from 1998.
THY ended its participation in the Qualiflyer frequent flyer programme in October 2000 and, on 14 December, THY announced a major privatisation programme. Up to 51 per cent of the carrier would be made available to private, although the government would retain a Golden Share. In November 2004, the Turkish Privatisation Administration completed a secondary public offering, after which 24.83% of the shares were privately owned.
In May 2006, a further public offering increased the proportion of privately owned shares to 50.88%. THY was accepted to become a member of the Star Alliance in December 2006, formally completing the process on 31 March 2008.
Fleet
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