Airline Sunexpress sees demand recovery for Turkey after earthquakes

SunExpress, a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, said on Tuesday that summer bookings to Turkey spiked as of this month after a brief drop following February's devastating earthquakes. The airline expects to carry more than 12m passengers this year, CE Max Kownatzki told Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference in Istanbul. Within days after the massive earthquakes that killed more than 48,000 people and left millions homeless in Turkey, bookings fell by 50%, Kownatzki said. "Within the first week right after the earthquake we have seen significant demand drops, roughly 50-52% in international demand. But in week two, we had an uptick in demand...We saw the hit for roughly 10 days and after those 10 days demand has absolutely recovered," Kownatzki said. "According to beginning of March numbers, we had 60% higher advanced bookings than last year." Antalya-based SunExpress carried 10.7m passengers mainly between Turkey and European countries last year with an 85% load factor, exceeding the pre-pandemic levels, according to information provided at the news conference.<br/>