Turkish Airlines' peak season could surpass 2019 - chairman

Turkish Airlines may hit pre-pandemic passenger numbers and load factor during this year's peak summer season, but full-year figures will not surpass 2019 levels until next year, Chairman Ilker Ayci said on Wednesday. "Turkish Airlines was one of the carriers that performed best during the high season last year. We may have a better performance this year ... compared to 2019," Ayci said. "However it won't be until 2023 that we catch up to 2019 full-year figures," he said on the sidelines of an event previewing a National Geographic documentary on the airline's move to the new Istanbul Airport in 2019. Turkish Airlines' passengers were around 45m in 2021, down 39.7% compared with 2019 before the pandemic struck. Its load factor was 67.9% last year, down by some 14 percentage points from 2019. The flag carrier, part owned by Turkey's wealth fund, will release a stronger bottom line in its 2021 financials compared with 2019, Ayci said without giving further details. Turkish Airlines 2019 profit was 4.5b liras, which was announced as $788m in its dollar-based balance sheet.<br/>