Bangkok--24 Feb--Thana Burin Asia Pacific
Cementing its plans to use Thailand as its hub for Indochina and Asia, Turkish Airlines headquarters chose Bangkok for its largest global outdoor advertisement placement ever. It is also a first for the Baiyoke Tower, currently the tallest building in Bangkok, for branding by an international airline. Highlighting the airlines campaign "Globally Yours" the building wrap conveys the airlines strength in Network Power with its strategic location Istanbul being in the heart of Europe.
Mr Adnan Aykac, Turkish Airlines General Manager for Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia said “Even though Thailand has faced several difficulties both economic and political in the last year he was pleased to announce a six percent (6%) increase in load factor over the previous year taking the load ratio to 80%. Given customer confidence and spending was at an all time low worldwide over this period we are pleased that passengers had confidence in our airline and the services and network linkage that our airline offers.”
“As a European carrier Bangkok is the most important destination in the Far East and we have some exciting plans for 2010-2011. Turkish Airlines is also well into talks with Vietnam Airlines on cooperation between Ho Chi Minh and Bangkok in pursuit of making Bangkok as our regional hub linking Southeast Asia with Indochina. In addition Turkish Airlines will be increasing its services to Bangkok later in the year with at least 10 flights weekly or up to double daily to Bangkok if the code-sharing plan with Thai Airways International is agreed.” The airline has been a member of Star Alliance since 2008. And yesterday the Australian government announced it had signed its first air services agreement with Turkey to allow airlines to immediately start direct flights 5 times per week between the two countries," he added.
Turkish Airlines business strategy globally is to increase both aircraft capacity and increase passenger level. In addition some 3 million passengers annually are transit passenger and this offers the airline enormous potential. Markets for growth and development will see Europe, America and Africa with additional new routes. Turkish Airlines has already announced an aggressive role in the purchase of additional new aircraft which augurs well for it continuing to be a profitable global and network carrier.
It has been a year of first for Europe’s fourth largest carrier in terms of passengers carried with the airline actively pursing sports sponsorship. Turkish Airlines signed exclusive sponsorship agreements with two major football teams as their exclusive carrier — FC Barcelona and Manchester United. Last week an agreement was also signed with Maroussi Basketball Club of Greece. The airline is well positioned to take advantage of the high interest in these popular sports not only in Europe, but worldwide, with Asia having the largest number of football fans of any other continent.
The airline has already shown it will be a force to compete with in terms of its strategic marketing plans. Using the “Globally Yours” slogan the campaign shows passengers how easy to connect to more than 158 destinations with minimal turnaround time at airports. A global advertising budget of USD 70 million has been allocated to year 2010 spend, a fifty percent (50%) increase over the previous year.
Mr Aykac said “The business strategy for Thailand specifically is certainly to develop as quickly as possible Bangkok as the Hub for the carrier. From a passenger perspective the focus will be on generating awareness of Turkish Airlines, our products and services to reach more Thais. Specific programmes for the student market, “labour” travel and incentive groups are being developed.
"Locally the “Globally Yours” advertising campaign was first launched at Suvarnabhumi Airport in January this year. In terms of marketing spend Turkish Airlines has committed USD 1 million (Bt 30million) for the Thai market for year 2010. Advertising in newspapers, magazines, television and online media is also underway. The campaign will further strengthen our brand awareness in the Thailand market," Mr Aykac added.
"Following the success of our partnership in 2009 with The Mall Group and Siam Paragon, Turkish Airlines has extended its joint campaign to attract the top-end spenders through the ”M Card marketing campaign. Other business partners include American Express Credit card and citibank. We are also looking for possible cooperation with other business partners, as well as selected Chambers of Commerce in Thailand,” he said.
Turkish Airlines has been operating to Thailand for some 21 years. The airline currently operates daily flights from Bangkok to Istanbul with convenient connecting flights to more than 158 destinations worldwide.
Editor’s notes
Turkish Airlines is the national carrier of Turkey based in Istanbul. Turkish Airlines currently has a network of scheduled services to, a total of 121 international and 37 domestic cities with 158 airports in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. In 2008, the airline carried 22.5 million passengers with total revenue of US$4 billion. The airline has over 14,000 employees worldwide.
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