Turkish Airlines to Fly to Buenos Aires

Speaking at a meeting with the Latin American country's Tourism Minister Carlos Enrique Mayer on the sidelines of the Eastern Mediterranean International Travel and Tourism Exhibition (EMİTT) in İstanbul on Saturday, Kotil said the flights will depart from İstanbul four times a week and will reach Buenos Aires via Brazil's largest city, Sao Paolo -- also the largest metropolitan area on the continent. They will later have daily flights between İstanbul and Buenos Aires, he added, thanking Brazil and Argentina for providing the company with this opportunity. “There is very good business awaiting us,” he said.

At the meeting Saturday, Minister Mayer highlighted the performance of Argentina's economy, particularly in the last few years. He added that 6 million Argentineans traveled abroad in 2011. Kotil gifted Mayer with an FC Barcelona uniform signed by the famous soccer club's Argentinean star Lionel Messi. THY has a sponsorship agreement with the Spanish soccer club that will end in 2014.

THY increased its revenue by 35 percent in the first three quarters of last year over the same months of 2010. In the same period, the number of passengers flown by the national carrier increased by 11 percent to reach 24.3 million. With 176 aircraft in its fleet, the carrier operates 5,107 weekly flights to 187 domestic and international destinations. Established in 1933, a 49.12 percent stake in the İstanbul-based carrier belongs to Turkey's Privatization Administration (ÖİB) while the remaining 50.88 is publicly traded.