Turkish Airlines: A New Era After the Pandemic

• Published in: Emerging economies cases journal (Online) Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 100 - 116
• Main Authors: Genc, Omer F., Capar, Nejat, Ahmed, Zafar U.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Delhi, India SAGE Publications 01.12.2024; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Airline industry; Pandemics; aviation industry; pandemic; strategy; Turkish Airlines
• ISSN: 2516-6042; 2516-6050
• DOI: 10.1177/25166042241245515

Turkish Airlines has been one of the fastest-growing airlines in the past two decades. An aggressive growth strategy combined with a favourable environment helped the company to become one of the major players in the world airline industry. The global COVID pandemic between 2020 and 2022 had an enormous negative effect on the airline industry worldwide. Turkish Airlines, which has been a fast-growing airline in recent years, has also been affected tremendously by this worldwide pandemic. In addition, there have been additional challenges faced by Turkish Airlines such as increased competition from other regional players, lower economic growth as well as emerging new regulations about fuel efficiency and emissions. All these factors have put Turkish Airlines at crossroad to make some critical strategic decisions. How should the company design its strategy in this new post-pandemic era? Can it continue to grow with its existing strategy? What are the limits and risks of the aggressive growth strategy it has been following? Is there a need for changing its strategy? What should be the priorities? Like many other airline companies, these decisions will shape the future as well as the nature of competition of the airline industry.