Turkish Cargo adds passenger aircrafts for operations amid coronavirus

Turkish Cargo, a division of Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, has planned 155 flights per week for cargo freighters and 60 flights per week for passenger aircraft that are being used for cargo operations, departing from Istanbul in April.

According to a statement by Turkish Airlines, Turkish Cargo maintains the air bridge built by Turkish Airlines with its cargo operations.

The statement said coronavirus brought the entirety of the travel industry nearly to a halt after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic.

It said over half of the passenger flights are cancelled compared to last year’s March, and in countries that hit hard by pandemic such as Italy has seen their flights reduced by 90 percent. 

Turkish Airlines' controlled flights to 14 metropolises and passenger flights are completely suspended for a short time in Turkey.

Stability of world 

Meanwhile, Turkish Cargo continues to carry the products needed by the world aided by its geographical advantage, strong fleet, and growth strategy.

Steadily increasing its performance in recent years, flag carrier air cargo brand contributes to the stability of the world by carrying products such as food, medicine, and medical equipment to their destinations.

Turkish Cargo, in addition to its flights with 25 high capacity freighters, has started to operate cargo flights with Turkish Airlines' passenger aircraft as they are currently unable to carry passengers due to the travel restrictions.

About 361 aircraft in the Turkish Airlines fleet, especially Boeing 777 and Airbus 330 type of wide-body aircraft, are taking off for the cargo operations depending on the demand and capacity.

With this strategy, the cargo brand adds 5,000 tonnes of additional capacity and maintains the food and medicine chain uninterrupted during these difficult times.

As one of the world's foremost brands for special cargo operations with its certificates, Turkish Cargo contributes greatly to world health by transporting medicine.

Already possessing the special provisions needed for carrying all types of medicine before the coronavirus pandemic, Turkish Cargo offers this capability as its most valuable strength to the world for combatting Covid-19.

With its advanced technology, properly certificated terminal and specialised teams, Turkish Cargo carries medicine cargos to their intended destinations at the required time and temperature, delivering health to all corners of the world.

As the products of the medical industry need to be carried and secured at specific temperatures, they are taken from the reception area by specialised teams.

Medicine and medical equipment are also prioritised during loading and unloading. 

As for the storage, they are secured in the 3500 square metre specialised cargo rooms along with special storage rooms with four different temperature ranges for ideal conditions, all located in the cargo terminal in Istanbul.

Air cargo ranking

Turkish Cargo grew by 11 per cent compared to the same month of the previous year and rose to sixth place in the global air cargo ranking, according to February 2020 figures of international air cargo data provider World Air Cargo Data.

The successful brand increased its global market share to 4.8 percent. Although the air cargo sector experienced a sizeable reduction during January 2020, it only fell by 0.1 percent during February 2020 despite the effects of the Covid-19 crisis and Chinese New Year.

As the air cargo brand that flies to more destinations than any other, Turkish Cargo carried a total of 376,000 tonnes of cargo and post during January-March 2020 period, a 9.6 percent more in tonnage compared to the same period of last year.