Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
CONTINENTS
WORDS: MARTIN RIVERS
International focus
Pekesen notes that the airline added six
new destinations last year: Grozny, Nizhny
Novgorod, Samara and Volgograd in
Pegasus’s Russia; Odessa in Ukraine; and Abu Dhabi
in the UAE.
joint venture This reflected a conscious shift away
strategy from domestic traffic and towards
non-Western overseas markets, he says,
though the reason had less to do with civil
With ambitions to become a Pegasus is recovering
from a tough 2016 unrest than with capacity restrictions at
truly global operator, it should
Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, the
come as no surprise that Pegasus has
airline’s main hub, which is located on the
an active strategy of developing foreign
Anatolian side of Istanbul.
joint ventures.
“Slots are precious in Sabiha Gökçen
In 2012, it acquired 49% of Air Manas, a small
so we cut some of our domestic network
airline based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The subsidiary
and put [the growth] in the international
was initially rebranded Pegasus Asia, but has since
sectors,” Pekesen recalls, emphasising
reverted back to its original name. It deploys three
that the gateway operates well above its
Boeing 737s on flights to Osh in the south of the
intended capacity of 25 million passengers
country, Moscow in Russia, Urumqi in China and
per year. “Inbound traffic was affected
Delhi in India.
by the coup attempt, but outbound from
Another subsidiary, IZair, based in the western
Turkey to international [destinations]
Turkish city of Izmir, has a more complex history.
was not... The Turkish people travelled
Having started life as an independent airline, it was
more than ever in 2017. That was a good
rebranded Air Berlin Turkey after both Pegasus and
sign for us.”
Air Berlin became shareholders. However, its leisure-
Having rebalanced the network, Pegasus
focused charter model quickly unravelled and last
is due to receive seven A320neos this
year’s failure of Air Berlin left Pegasus with 99% of
year for what CEO Mehmet Nane says
the joint venture’s shares. All seven of its 737s are
will be “the real growth”. His predecessor,
now wet-leased to its parent.
Sertaç Haybat, placed a landmark order
Emre Pekesen (pictured below), sales and network
for 75 A320-family neos plus 25 options
planning director at Pegasus, admits that the
in 2012, moving Pegasus away from its
subsidiary strategy has not always gone smoothly.
longstanding aircraft supplier Boeing.
Maintaining IZair as a separate entity with no strategic
purpose carries a “cost”, he concedes, while slow
Fleet renewal
growth at Air Manas demonstrates how “it’s really very
The fleet transition still has a long
difficult to run a [foreign] company from Turkey”.
way to go, with 40 Boeings currently
Nonetheless, such problems have not deterred
in service versus 24 Airbuses. But
the company from pursuing additional joint
Pekesen says management have already
ventures, particularly north of the Black Sea.
decided to exercise all 25 options,
“Pegasus always is looking around nearby
given their confidence in the market’s
countries and just waiting for the opportunities,”
potential. Moreover, he reveals that the
Pekesen says, when asked about a recent meeting
stretched high-density A321neo – due
with Ukraine’s government. “Ukraine is really an
to begin arriving in 2019 – will play a
under-served market… it’s a huge
bigger role than previously planned,
country, the population is
potentially accounting for “45 to 48”
huge, and it’s in the middle
units in the fleet.
of [a region with]
“The slot issues will continue, the
expanding GDPs. So
bilateral [traffic-rights] issues will continue
it’s an interesting
in the short and the near-term,” Pekesen
country. We are just
insists. “So A321s with 239 seats will be
monitoring
an advantage for us.”
right now.”
Pegasus’s existing network comprises
72 international destinations plus 36
in Turkey. Western and central Europe
account for the largest share of its
overseas operations, while 15 points are
also served in the Middle East and the
Caucasus, seven in south-eastern Europe,
seven in Russia, five in Ukraine, and two
in central Asia.
About 30% of the airline’s passengers
use Sabiha Gökçen as a transit hub, w
24 ISSUE 1 ROUTES NEWS 2018 routesonline.com