Turkish Air CE builds a business on layovers as tourism plunges

As Turkey suffers its deepest tourism decline on record, its flagship carrier is building a business less dependent on demand for holidays to its home market. Turkish head Temel Kotil downplayed concerns of losses from a spate of terrorist attacks and political disputes that have kept Europeans away. "The number of passengers is solid," Kotil said, unfazed by a net loss of US$432m in the first 3 months of the year, his worst quarter since taking the helm in 2005. "Local visits have dropped down, but we’ve been able to substitute transit passengers." Passers-through now comprise about 60% of the carrier’s revenue, "so that means we’ve been able to find passengers from the global networks," Kotil said. “Our global market share depends on transit.” <br/>