Pegasus Airlines announces its traffic data for the first half of 2014

The traffic data for Pegasus Airlines, Turkey's leading low cost airline, have been released for January-June 2014 by the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP). According to this data the number of guests flying with Pegasus increased by 22.4% to 9.2 million, compared with 7.5 million guests for the first six months of 2013. During the same period the number of available seats increased by 22.3%. In this way Pegasus successfully increased the number of its guests by increasing its capacity in a growing market. According to figures for Turkey's aviation sector, Pegasus grew 1.4 times faster for its domestic flights and 1.7 times faster for its international flights compared with the rest of the Turkish market. During the first half of 2014, the load factor on domestic flights reached 82% and those forinternational flights was 75.4%. In the same period, Pegasus increased its market share on domestic routes from 26.7% to 28%, and its market share on its international routes from 9.1% to 9.8%.

In the first half of 2014, Pegasus Airlines continued to offer its guests the chance to discover lots of new destinations both in Turkey and around the world. During January-June 2014 it added two new destinations within Turkey and 11 destinations beyond Turkey, a total of 13 more compared to the same period last year, and today its network has reached 84 destinations in 35 countries.

Pegasus continued to expand its fleet this year, and compared with the same period last year had expanded it by 23% to 53 aircraft by the end of June 2014. During the first half of 2014, Pegasus continued to use its fleet in an effective and efficient way with its daily aircraft usage rate reaching 12.1 block hours per aircraft.

Sertac Haybat, General Manager of Pegasus Airlines, who introduced the low cost model to Turkey, explains: "During the first six months of 2014 Turkish aviation recorded a large amount of guest traffic as has been seen in previous years. According to figures from the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI) there was an increase of 13.7% in guests flying compared to the same period last year. We at Pegasus also recorded an increase in guests by 22.4% to 9.2 million during this period compared to the same period last year. That is to say, over and above the rate for the rest of the aviation sector. Following on from the new destinations that we have added to our network as well as expanding our fleet of aircraft during the first six months of this year, we plan to continue in this positive vein for the remainder of this year.”