Turkish Airlines is targeting a return to its earlier pace of gains in passenger numbers by next year as the effects of terrorism and political turmoil wane after causing a loss in 2016. Turkish Airlines will post a “moderate” increase in passenger numbers this year and “from 2018 onwards, we will be seeing our historical growth rates,” Chairman Ilker Ayci said Monday. Once the rising star of the aviation industry, the Istanbul-based carrier posted a 47m-lira ($13m) net loss last year compared with profit of 3b liras in 2015, its first annual deficit since 2000. Passenger numbers rose 2.5% in 2016, slowing from an average yearly gain of about 16% from 2011 through 2015, according to an investor presentation. Tourist and business sites in Turkey have been terrorist targets in the past year and a half, including an assault by suicide bombers in late June at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport that killed 41 people. Economic sanctions by Russia after Turkish forces shot down one of its fighter jets reduced traffic from that market in the first half of 2016. The airline’s efforts to recover from those incidents were hampered by an unsuccessful insurgency in the military to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 15 that killed about 250 people. The carrier grounded 30 aircraft, about 9 percent of its fleet, and scrapped 22 destinations in November. Tourist arrivals in Turkey plunged more than 30% to the lowest in a decade. The airline’s full-year loss was held back as the company reduced costs per available seat kilometer in Q4 and scaled back flight offerings. Ayci said Turkish Airlines will start bringing the grounded planes back into service in April after bookings for that month and May jumped 4.2% from a year earlier. <br/>
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Scores of United employees gathered at Newark International Airport Sunday to protest what they insist is the unfair competitive advantage Middle East-based carriers have over US-based airlines such as United, American Airlines and Delta. The rally was strategically timed to coincide with the launch Sunday of Emirates' daily non-stop service between New York and Athens, Greece, with onward service to Dubai, Emirates' home base. United workers point to this new Emirates route as an example of how Middle East carriers are determined to expand their reach with more direct service between the United States and Europe and possibly other parts of the world. Emirates' new New York-to-Athens service is launching just in time for the peak summer travel season. United, not coincidentally, also offers seasonal summer service between New York and Athens. But United said that the route does not have the traffic to support year-round service, implying that Emirates could operate the route year-round because of the subsidies.<br/>