Page 79 - TURKRptSept19

BlackRock’s stake in Turkish Airlines has declined to 4.96% from 5.24%, the US-based investment giant said on August 23 in a stock exchange filing. BlackRock has sold on August 21 3.99mn Turkish Airlines shares at a price of TRY11.1715.
Turkish Airlines’ net income declined by 70% y/y to TRY133mn in Q2
despite a tax revenue of TRY342mn while revenues grew 35% y/y to TRY18.7bn.
The number of passengers declined by 2% y/y to 42.3mn in January-July.
Turkish Airlines passenger decline ugly symptom of consumer crunch in Turkey. Turkish Airlines saw a decline of 4.8% y/y in the number of passengers it carried in July, registering a total volume of 7.12mn. There was also an 11% y/y decline in domestic passenger numbers to 2.86mn. That is particularly striking because July is normally the high season for local tourism activity. The data thus suggest that locals were not travelling to the usual extent. Turkish consumers are perhaps not yet convinced that the economic outlook for Turkey will improve any time soon. Potential passengers may be setting aside money, bracing themselves for more turbulent times ahead by cutting down on non-essential expenditure such as holiday expenses. In July, the flagship carrier served a total of 4.3mn international travellers. That figure was virtually unchanged from the same month of 2018. And it was also a surprising number given that the tourism ministry has said that the number of foreign tourists visiting Turkey surged 18% y/y to 4.5mn people in June, a month for which Turkish Airlines reported a 3.2% y/y increase in overall passenger traffic. In June, the airline saw a 4.6% y/y increase in international passengers while the rise in domestic passengers was a more limited 1.3% y/y. Turkish Airlines did not offer any explanation as to why its performance was so poor in July.
In January-July, the carrier served a total of 42.3mn passengers, marking a 2.2% y/y decline. International passengers increased only 1.4% y/y to 24.3mn but domestic passengers plunged 6.6% y/y to 18mn.
Since July of last year, Turkish Airlines has added 16 more planes to its fleet. It now has a total of 341 jets. The carrier was flying to 313 destinations as of July, up from 304 destinations a year earlier.
● TAV
79 TURKEY Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com