History and outlook

When it became clear at the end of the eighties that Turkey with its enormous resources would very quickly develop into one of the most important holiday destinations in the Mediterranean, Deutsche Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines acted very quickly and consistently: with Sun Express they founded a holiday charter airline with its headquarters in Antalya on the Turkish Riviera, which had formulated two key objectives in its concept: to guarantee quality in air traffic between Turkey and Germany and, at the same time, to help to ensure the sustainable and reliable development of all-year-round tourism in Southern Turkey.
 
Out of the Sun Express concept with just one aircraft in its first year of operations in 1990 and the small home base in Antalya, today one of the most important airlines operating between Turkey and Europe has developed, which in many areas is already the market leader. The airline today registers a total of 5.59 million passengers (2009), operates 21 aircraft and has a total of nearly 1,300 employees.
 
The double-digit growth of Sun Express is based on the fact that the company concentrates its attention on specific market segments and here consistently exploits all its potentials: on tourism, the ethnic traffic and the market for business travel. The airline which, in earlier days exclusively operated on international traffic, has now become an airline which is equally strongly represented on the inner-Turkish routes and in a unique way provides links between  around 15 cities in the country - non-stop, quickly and comfortably.
 
The decision to organize Sun Express step by step with three hubs within Turkey has also proved itself: with Antalya, the traditional home base, Izmir in the West of the country and Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen (Istanbul SAW). Today, Sun Express is the market-leader in Antalya, as it is in Izmir in terms of international flights and it is the number 1 at Istanbul SAW with its inner-Turkish connections.

SunExpress painted one of its Boeing 737-800s with an artistic design for celebrating its 20th anniversary. The “Paint Book” livery is dedicated to Istanbul and it displays a unique approach, as the design is the joint product of Turkish and German artists putting emphasis on the importance of collaboration of different cultures.

The “Paint Book” design carries the individual drawings of the Turkish and German artists on a 39 meters long Boeing 737-800 aircraft. It is painted with the two strong and symbolic colors of Turkey -turquoise and red – and it shall be eye-catching anywhere in the world promoting Istanbul to hundreds of millions of people. The technical part of the painting was done by Lufthansa Technic and it aims to serve as a cultural ambassador of Istanbul, 2010 Cultural Capital of Europe.

About the artists: The “Paint Book” design is a joint project of Hamburg University’s Design Department (HAW) and Yıldız Technical University’s Faculty of Arts and Design (YTU). The arts students were chosen by Prof. Wolfgang Schönholz, one of the most successful advertising professionals of Germany and a professor at HAW and İnci Eviner, a renowned contemporary artist of Turkey and academician of YTU. Arts students Marcel-Felix Krüger, Louise Jessen and Sebastian Bulas joined from Germany and Sibel Horada Coşkun, Seda Hepsev and Ozan Özkulaksız joined from Turkey. Tevfik Göktepe a graphical designer from İzmir-Turkey joined the group as the facilitator; Metin Coskun from YTU took care of all photo and video documentation. From the very beginning, Lufthansa Technic was involved in the project and was represented by Dr. Matthias Panten, Aircraft Painting Director.