Turkish aerospace engine maker targets $450M in exports for 2025

After racking up $400 million in exports last year, the engines subsidiary of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) is aiming this year for $450 million, the subsidiary’s CEO Mahmut Faruk Aksit has said.

At the Global Strategies in Defence and Aerospace Industry Conference held in the Turkish Riviera city of Antalya, Aksit said Tusas Engine Industries’ (TEI) most significant progress last year was the development of the domestic turbofan TEI-TF6000, which took Türkiye to a higher league in the aviation sector.

He stressed that TEI began the mass production of UAV (drone) engines and they are now focused on mass producing helicopter engines, “the one aircraft engine technology that was left.”

“We’re continuing our flight preparation and maturing tests of the TF6000 and 10000 series now,” he said.

Aksit said TEI has become one of the world ’s largest aircraft engine parts suppliers, maintaining fighter jet engines in Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, with expansions to ship engine maintenance around the world.

Important milestone

“We’ve been providing support and maintenance to ships in Türkiye but got our first license for doing service abroad, winning the contract to maintain the US Navy’s LM2500 engines,” he said.

This marks an important milestone for the company and the Turkish economy, as TEI contributes with not only its product exports but also its services exports, he said.

Aksit highlighted that TEI made large exports last year, becoming one of the companies with the highest export ratios in Türkiye, of 70-80 percent.

“At the beginning, TEI had only 1,200 workers, which grew now to 4,000, as our company evolved from a manufacturer that produces and sells goods to one that focuses on engineering, research, and design, and its own product lineup,” he explained.

“We work with companies in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, and Sweden, and recently we added South Korea and Japan – there’s a total of over 40,000 military and civilian aircraft under our care, half of which fly with parts produced in Türkiye,” he added.