Turkish A350s quietly begin operations as crisis saps profits

Turkish Airlines has been operating its newly-delivered initial pair of Airbus A350-900s on domestic routes, but has yet to confirm a schedule for the remaining aircraft. The airline had 25 A350s on order but, while it had been intending to take five this year, the carrier has not detailed the revised fleet plan recently agreed with Airbus. Its initial A350s were handed over without fanfare, possibly a consequence of the high-level political row between France and Turkey which emerged in mid-October. Turkish Airlines posted an operating profit, before investment activities, of $75m for Q3 to 30 September although it still recorded an operating loss for the nine months of $367m and a net loss of $786m. Revenues for the nine months halved to $4.96b and were down by more than 60%, to $1.5b, in Q3. The company says it has conducted an impairment test for the fleet, under different scenarios, but has not needed to recognise any. Turkish Airlines says its capacity during Q3 reached 31% of the level last year, and expects to reach 45% in Q4 – forecasting a 60% decline in passenger numbers and 59% fall in capacity for the full year.<br/>