From an airline with only five aircraft with just 28 seats, Turkish Airlines (THY) has evolved into a carrier that boasts an unparalleled flight network and has emerged relatively unscathed from recent global headwinds.

The national flag carrier is celebrating its 89th anniversary in the skies and its transformation into the company that flies to the most countries in the world with a fleet of 372 planes.

Founded on May 20, 1933, under the name of "State Airlines Administration" as a department of the Defense Ministry, Turkish Airlines started its journey with only 24 employees, consisting of seven pilots, eight machinists, eight civil servants and one radio operator.

This figure today reaches nearly 60,000, including 27,000 working under the main brand.

From a fleet that included two five-seat King Bird, two four-seat Junkers F-13 and one 10-seat ATH-9, Turkish Airlines today features 372 aircraft consisting of 248 narrow-body, 104 wide-body and 20 cargo planes. In contrast, it had 100 aircraft in 2006, before this figure doubled in 2012.

It stands out as the carrier with the ninth largest aircraft fleet in the world among companies engaged in the commercial airline industry. Given its size, it also operates one of the youngest and most modern fleets around the globe.

Add to that the fact that 79 are next-generation high-tech, environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient aircraft in line with the carrier's efforts to contribute to the goals of reducing carbon and noise emissions.

Ever-growing flight network

Its flight network over the decades has expanded to now cover 128 countries, 331 cities and 336 airports. These include 51 cities and 53 airports within Turkey.

From its first international flight to Athens in 1947, its network abroad today covers 280 cities and 283 airports.

This makes it the airline that flies to the most countries and international destinations in the world, as well as the company that offers the most links between countries around the globe.

New routes are due to be added, including Seattle in the United States as of May 27, South Sudan’s capital Juba as of June 1, Bukhara in Uzbekistan as of June 7 and the coastal town of Tivat in Montenegro as of June 11.

Flying to three continents on its 50th anniversary in 1983 with a fleet of 30 aircraft and a capacity of just over 4,000 seats, Turkish Airlines ended that hallmark year by carrying 2.5 million passengers and 30,000 tons of cargo.

The 2000s were marked by an uninterrupted growth and rapid fleet and flight network expansion. Turkish Airlines firmly marched toward a milestone of 80 million passengers before the coronavirus outbreak that forced it to ground aircraft and end 2020 with just 28 million passengers.

It still remained in relatively good shape compared to its global peers. It enjoyed a rebound to fly some 44.8 million passengers throughout 2021, as the travel industry bounced back from the fallout of the pandemic.

Yet it still lags the 75.2 million and 74.3 million served in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Bouyant profit

Speaking on the occasion of the 89th anniversary, the chairperson of the board of directors, Ahmet Bolat emphasized Turkish Airlines' high service quality, which he said the carrier is eager to continue to improve.

Each new destination that Turkish Airlines launches contributes to the tourism and economy of the country, Bolat told Anadolu Agency (AA).

There have been many ups and downs during Turkish Airlines’ almost centurylong history, but Bolat says the carrier is now referred to as an "airline that decouples from its competitors during a crisis" and "an example in the fight against the crisis."

"The sustainable improvement we achieved by turning the crisis into an opportunity continued in the first quarter of 2022," the chairperson said.

Turkish Airlines' January-March net profit reached $161 million, up from $61 million in 2021, when cargo revenues helped the company weather a steep drop in passenger numbers prompted by the pandemic.

This marked Turkish Airlines' highest first-quarter net profit ever, Bolat said. The total revenues reached $10.7 billion in 2021, 81% of 2019 levels, while cargo revenues more than doubled to $4 billion, he noted.

The carrier served a total of 12.7 million passengers in the first quarter and reached 76% of 2019 levels.

The net operational profit leaped nearly 118% compared to 2019 to $1.3 billion, he added. "Compared to the first quarter of 2019, we achieved a 10% increase in total revenue to $3 billion."

Constituting some 32% of the total revenues, cargo income soared by 141% over the same period.

Its cargo arm, Turkish Cargo has been named the fifth-largest air freight carrier in the world.