SunExpress
Foundation
SunExpress was founded in October 1989 as a joint venture agreement between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, initially serving the Turkish tourism sector with charter flights. SunExpress’ first flight from Frankfurt to Antalya took place 2nd of April 1990.
Fleet
SunExpress operates a fleet of 17 airplanes with an average age of 6.3 years and a seating capacity of more than 3.300 seats. The fleet shows highest industry and environmental standards. All Boeing airplanes in the fleet are equipped with blended winglets.
Certification
The company has certification in ISO 9001 Quality, ISO 14001 Environmental and OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems. Total professional quality management ranks with absolute priority for the whole company.
Employees
With over 650 employees SunExpress is the largest employer in Antalya. Including 253 staff at Izmir office, 88 at Istanbul and 27 at Frankfurt, SunExpress employs 1.018 people in total.
Flights
International
With its Antalya-Frankfurt flight in 2001, SunExpress became the first private airline company, to offer international scheduled flights from Turkey. The company further expanded its international network with its numerous Izmir based flights, which started in 2005 followed by flights from Istanbul in 2008.
In the context of the 2008 summer schedule SunExpress is operating international flights from Antalya to Amsterdam, Basel, Berlin, Bremen, Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Dresden, Erfurt, Frankfurt, Friedrichshafen, Graz, Hamburg, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Linz, Muenster, Munich, Nuremberg, Paderborn, Rostock-Laage, Saarbrücken, Salzburg, Stuttgart, Vienna and Zurich; from Izmir to Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hanover, Munich, Nuremberg, Oslo, Paris, Stockholm, Stuttgart and Zurich; and from İstanbul Sabiha Gökcen to Berlin, Cologne and Hanover.
Domestic
SunExpress has connected Izmir, the 3rd largest city in Turkey, with the major cities in Anatolia by offering direct domestic flights. So, for the first time in Turkey, SunExpress is providing nonstop and direct flights from a city other than Istanbul or Ankara to various destinations in the country. SunExpress’ direct domestic flights, which began in Izmir, quickly reached a high occupancy rate, showing that many cities have high passenger potential.
Today the company offers direct services from Izmir to Antalya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Kars, Kayseri, Malatya, Samsun, Sivas, Trabzon and Van; from Antalya to Adana, Bodrum, Dalaman, Diyarbakir, Erzurum, Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen, İzmir, Trabzon and Van; and from Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen to Adana, Antalya, Diyarbakir, Erzurum, Kars, Sivas, Trabzon and Van. In addition, direct flights from Bursa to Diyarbakir as well as from Erzurum to Trabzon are also operated.
Lufthansa connections
SunExpress offers scheduled flights from Antalya and Izmir to all major cities in Europe. Passengers can fly to London, Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Milan, Amsterdam, Zurich, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Warsaw, Moscow, Prague and Helsinki by using a connection with Lufthansa from Frankfurt and Munich. Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Bremen, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Nurnberg, Dresden, Hanover and Muenster are among the destinations in Germany that can be reached via Lufthansa/SunExpress connections.
Code Share with Turkish Airlines
All Turkish domestic services as well as the international flights from Izmir and Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen are operated under code share numbers with Turkish Airlines (TK). SunExpress provides a certain number of seats on all these code share operations. The flights can be booked via the Website of Turkish Airlines or via the TK sales agents.
Reservation
SunExpress provides electronic online tickets on its website www.sunexpress.com . Within Turkey SunExpress tickets can also be booked by phoning the Call Center at 444 0 797, via Turkish Airlines and travel agencies; in Germany via tour operators and travel agents as well as at the phone line 0180 5959590, in Austria via 0 900 444 797; in Switzerland via 0 900 0401 210 and in Holland by contacting the travel agencies.
SunExpress offers consumer friendly tickets “All included”, prices contain all fees, taxes etc.
Market share
Since the company was first founded, SunExpress has carried about 18 million passengers on more than 155.000 flights. In 2007, SunExpress sustained its leadership in Antalya with a market share of 11%. It also attained a 30% share of the Izmir market, making SunExpress the market leader, despite having only started operations from Izmir as of November 2005 -- increasing the number of its passengers to over 3 million by 27%, its revenue to € 302 million by 23% and its block hours to 58.459 by 22% in 2007. Record numbers in the companies history.
Other Engagements
SunExpress supports the Golden Orange Foundation, the Antalya Piano Festival, the International Izmir Festival, the Ayvalik International Music Academy, the Antalya Arts Festival, the Youngenc Orchestra, the Antalya Youth Education Association, the Runtalya Marathon and the Side World Bicycle Tournament as part of the company philosophy to contribute to the social and cultural life of Antalya and Izmir. The company also provides educational scholarships to 100 girls as part of the “Baba Beni Okula Gonder” project and is the official carrier of the Antalya City Basketball Team.
SunExpress contributes to the growth of Turkish tourism through its active membership in the Antalya Promotion Foundation (ATAV) and the Destination Izmir project, which was established to promote Izmir’s tourism attractions in Europe. SunExpress also supports TUROFED (Turkish Hotel Federation) in promoting hotels in Turkey, which is considered one of the most important components of tourism.
8th JULY 2008
