Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) is once again planning to spin off its regional low-cost carrier division AnadoluJet (Ankara Esenboga) and may even partially divest itself from the new company, Chairman Ahmet Bolat told Bloomberg.
"Under current market-demand dynamics, it is much easier to spin off AnadoluJet as a separate unit to boost its growth," he said.
The Turkish flag carrier initially floated the idea of turning AnadoluJet into a stand-alone LCC in early 2021 with then chairman Ilker Ayci saying the new unit would initially be wholly owned by Turkish Airlines, but over time, it could see other investors acquiring stakes. However, these plans did not materialise as planned in 2021. In June 2022, Chief Executive Bilal Ekşi told ch-aviation in an interview that the plans had been shelved.
Bolat has since reiterated the same ownership strategy first outlined nearly two years ago. Following its separation, AnadoluJet would remain owned by Turkish Airlines, he said, while adding that the carrier holding would be open to either a partial stake sale or a stock market listing. He did not give any further details let alone dates and times.
AnadoluJet currently operates three A320-200Ns, three A321-200NX, thirty-eight B737-800s, and seven B737-8s, the ch-aviation fleets module shows. However, as it does not have an AOC of its own, all of these aircraft operate under Turkish Airlines' permit. AnadoluJet also wet-leases in thirteen B737-800s from the Lufthansa/Turkish Airlines joint venture, SunExpress (XQ, Antalya), although the deal is due to expire at the end of 2022. The LCC division has been rapidly and opportunistically growing its fleet this year with the A320neo Family aircraft and the B737 MAX all picked up as whitetails not taken up by other airlines.
While the carrier has volte-faced on the issue of spinning off AnadoluJet, Bolut confirmed that plans to hive off Turkish Cargo into a separate AOC have been called off due to waning investor interest in the cargo market.
