Shares of Turkey’s national airline are surging as a plunging currency burnishes the country’s allure as a top destination for foreign travelers. Shares of Turk Hava Yollari AO, or Turkish Airlines as the company is known internationally, are hovering close to an all-time high after climbing 147% so far this year. That makes it the best-performing stock on the Borsa Istanbul 100 gauge by index points as well as one of the biggest gainers among global airlines. With the lira losing 22% of its value against the dollar so far in 2022, the droves of tourists flocking back to Turkey are boosting hopes that both Turkish Airlines, and the discount-carrier Pegasus Airlines, up 96% this year, can soon return to capacity levels seen before the pandemic. Meanwhile, firms that generate foreign currency revenue have been a big hit with the domestic stock investors who’ve powered world-beating stock gains for the Turkish bourse. “Turkish Airlines has hard currency income, making the stock a natural lira hedge,” said Burak Isyar, head of equity research at ICBC Turkey Investment. “Add that to decent profitability the carrier has, and the rally has a recipe to extend gains.” Boosted by a currency weakened by government’s opposition to hiking interest rates to rein in soaring inflation, Turkish tourism is bouncing back from the pandemic. Turkey is targeting 42m foreign tourist arrivals and $35b of tourism revenue in 2022, up from 30m visitors and $24.5b in income the previous year, the state-run Anadolu news service reported in May. Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati predicts more than 45m arrivals, the same number as in 2019. Even so, while the recovery in tourism has been strong, it still might take a while to get back to the momentum seen before Covid-19 upended global travel. Turkish Airlines’ passenger numbers for April were still down 16% from the level seen in the same month of 2019.<br/>
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Singapore Airlines along with Temasek Holdings and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore will launch the sale of 1,000 sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) credits in July, they said in a joint statement on Wednesday. The credits are generated from 1,000 tonnes of neat SAF blended, delivered and uplifted from Singapore's Changi Airport, the statement said. "Every credit purchased will help to reduce 2.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions," the statement said. "We can now offer more opportunities for our corporate customers and travellers to mitigate their carbon emissions using SAF credits," said Lee Wen Fen, senior vice president corporate planning at Singapore Airlines. "This will help to accelerate and scale up the collective adoption of SAF, reinforcing our commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050." The credits are registered with the independent, Swiss-based Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials, Lee said.<br/>
Travellers will need to spend more air miles in order to redeem flights under Singapore Airlines' frequent flier programme from July 5. The airline announced on Tuesday that it will increase the air miles needed to redeem the rewards after taking into account higher costs. The move is a result of SIA's ongoing review of the KrisFlyer programme. "We seek your understanding that these changes were made after very careful deliberation, taking into account higher costs, and are necessary to ensure the KrisFlyer programme remains sustainable," said SIA. It said in an e-mail to customers that it will increase the cost of redemption for flights by an average of 10 per cent. This will apply to award and upgrade levels on flights operated by SIA, Star Alliance member carriers and SIA's partner airlines. SIA also said that stopovers for eligible redemption bookings ticketed on or after Aug 1 will be limited to a maximum of 30 days. Complimentary stopovers exceeding 30 days, as well as the paid stopover option, will no longer be available for tickets issued on or after Aug 1. The existing policy had allowed travellers to effectively redeem flights using fewer miles.<br/>