Azernews.Az

By Nigar Abbasova

National airlines of Azerbaijan and Turkey are satisfied with the current level of cooperation and are aimed to expand it in the future, said Eldar Hajiyev, Vice-President of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL).

He said that for past two years AZAL and Turkish Airlines have been operating flights on code-share agreement.

“We have already reached a high level of cooperation and will work to improve it even more,” he added.

Haciyev further stressed that Istanbul ranks the first for the number of flights departing from the Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD).

“AZAL and Turkish Airlines operate some nine flights per day in total in this direction. Following the recent developments in Istanbul, the number of passengers has slightly reduced, nevertheless passenger traffic to Turkey in general has increased,” Haciyev said.

He mentioned that the record-high increase was observed in the number of passengers departing to Turkish Antalya and the number of daily flights en route Baku-Antalya reached four with all aircrafts being fully boarded.

The number of passengers departing to Antalya resort from Azerbaijan has grown more than twofold, as compared to the index fixed in July 2015.

He mentioned that the increase was also observed in the number of passengers departing to such Turkish resorts as Bodrum, Izmir and Dalaman.

Over seven months of 2016 the Baku Airport provided services to 1.69 million passengers in total. GYD serviced some 391,000 passengers in July this year, which is 27 percent higher than in the same period of 2015, while the passenger traffic to the popular Turkish resorts Antalya, Bodrum, Izmir and Dalaman amounted to 56,500 passengers.

The code share agreement allows airlines to share the same flight which means placement of marketing code of one airline on flights of another one, offering an extended network to passengers.

AZAL is a flag carrier of Azerbaijan as well as one of the leaders of the aviation community of CIS countries.

AZAL with the newest airplane fleets, consisting of 30 airplanes, does not have a single old plane.

The airline is a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). With the delivery of Boeing Dreamliner in December 2014, AZAL became the first airline in the CIS to operate the 787.

The company received a prestigious "4 Star" rating out of 5 from British consulting company Skytrax, which is considered to be a leader in the sphere of air transport research in June 2015.

Being a member of Star Alliance network, Turkish Airlines is a 4-star airline with a fleet of 264 (passenger and cargo) aircrafts flying to 263 destinations worldwide with 220 being international and 43 domestic.

The airline is considered to be a global player and has a primary role in making Istanbul a major global hub linking North America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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