Turkish Airlines holds workshop for travel partners in Colombo

By Charumini de Silva

In a move to further boost tourist arrivals to Turkey, flag carrier Turkish Airlines held a workshop for its travel partners last week in Colombo.

The ‘Turkish Airlines Workshop for travel partners’ was well attended with over 100 participants, and was presided over by Turkish Airlines Sri Lanka General Manager Ozgur Suucak.

Commencing the presentation with Turkish Airlines latest ‘magical’ in-flight video, he said safety has been the number one priority at all levels of the airline. 

“Creating concise and engaging safety communications has become extremely important. We constantly strive to find the most effective and innovative ways to deliver excellent service and overachieve passenger expectations ensuring the highest level of security during all of our operations,” he pointed out.

Suucak said Colombo was an important destination for Turkish Airlines and have been regularly engaging in activities to promote their destinations with the assistance of its travel partners.

Turkish Airlines will commence promotional airfares from 15 November for travellers across its global network worldwide. “It is a win-win situation for both passengers as well as for the travel partners. This is a great opportunity for the passengers to explore some of the most popular travel destinations via Turkish Airlines strong network.”

Suucak said unlike other airlines, the travel partners of Turkish Airlines are provided with 5% commission for every single ticket they are being sold and hence insisted its travel partners in Colombo to make use of the opportunity provided especially for group travllers.

The Star Alliance carrier files to 292 destinations in 117 countries, with over 9,000 flights operating from Istanbul weekly. The airline had handled over 61 million passengers last year with a fleet of 299 aircrafts. In 2015, Turkey had added 23 new destinations to its network. According to Trip Advisor Turkey was the fourth most visited country last year.

The airline fleet operates with 334 Airbus and Boeing aircrafts at present is expected to reach 339 in the near future. 

Focusing on Istanbul as a vibrant travel and transit destination, he also said it was a great airline center point connecting the entire world with most popular travel destinations. 

“For six consecutive years we were chosen as Europe’s number one airline and the unique location of Istanbul was a key factor to it. Geographically, it is a natural hub as we are place in the middle of Asia and Europe connecting globally – our location makes the difference for Turkish Airlines as well as for the country,” he noted.

The loyalty flyer program ‘Miles & Smiles’ of Turkish Airlines allows customers to collect miles on flights and other purchases and spend them on more rewarding flights.

End of the workshop, an interactive question and answer session was held where four lucky winners were presented with complementary gift packs. In addition Turkish Airline awarded two business class and two economy class tickets to two lucky winners via a raffle draw.  (CdeS) 

Pix by GitikaTalukdar