Türkiye's national flag carrier on Monday announced it had reached a long-term agreement with a major airplane lessor to lease 10 new Boeing 737-8 aircraft, sending shares higher.
The airplanes are scheduled to be delivered to the Turkish Airlines (THY) in 2025, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) said in a statement.
The THY shares rose 5.9% as of 2 p.m. local time to trade at TL 275.50 ($9.08).
ALB chief economist Filiz Eryilmaz and independent economist Serdar Pazi attribute the Turkish Airlines' share reaction to the contract.
The stock is among the top performers on the Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange's (BIST) 100 index, which was up by 1.6%.
"Turkish Airlines has the strongest weight in the BIST 100 index," Eryilmaz said.
"We are delighted to further deepen our already strong and long-term relationship with Turkish Airlines and to provide them a solution to their growing fleet requirements with these new technology, fuel-efficient aircraft," said Firoz Tarapore, chief executive officer of DAE.
"We thank Turkish Airlines for their ongoing trust in DAE and wish them much success with their new fleet additions."
DAE currently owns, manages and is committed to owning a total of 96 737 Max family aircraft, according to the company.
The deal comes weeks after Turkish Airlines withdrew its five Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft from service for inspection following the U.S. regulators' now-lifted grounding of jets after a mid-air blowout of a cabin panel on a new Alaska Airlines plane.
The carrier has also been in talks with Boeing's European rival, Airbus, for a potential order of 355 new aircraft, which would be the largest in the company’s history. Deliveries under the new orders are expected to commence in 2026.
The deal would cover 75 wide-body A350-900 and 15 wide-body A350-1000 aircraft as well as 250 narrow-body A321neo aircraft and five A350F cargo aircraft, in addition to 10 A350-900s for which terms have already been agreed.
The Turkish carrier boasts a fleet of more than 435 aircraft and has said it aims to almost double the figure by 2033.
