On Thursday, the fastest growing international air cargo carrier Turkish Airlines inaugurated their new office in Mumbai in the presence of Mr. Ali Tolga Kaya (Consul General – Consulate General of the Republic of Turkey India in Turkey) and Mr. Huseyin Aydin (Commercial Attache at the Consulate General of Turkey) and from the Turkish Airlines team, Mr. Cor P. de Man (Senior VP, Cargo Sales), Mr. Serkan Serge Demir (Regional Cargo Manager (Western and Southern India), and Mr. Halit Tuncer (Cargo Director, South Asia), along with other esteemed guests.
The signature Turkish hospitality was prominent at the inauguration before and after the ribbon cutting ceremony with the Hi-Tea on the house. The new 14th floor high rise office resonated modern vibes while taking care of privacy as well as visibility.
We managed to grab the opportunity of a small conversation with Mr. Halit Tuncer about Turkish Airlines Cargo over coffee. Read on for exerpts:
Turkish Cargo was awarded the Fastest Growing International Cargo Airline at the STAT Times awards during the ACI Convention. According to Tuncer, though it is difficult to keep up with the steep growth in terms of colleagues, facilities, aircrafts but they have a big young dynamic team which works hard each day, so it was a well deserved win for Turkish Cargo.
Turkish Cargo was also recently awarded the Best Air Cargo Brand in the field of Sustainability. When asked about the kind of measures to achieve maximum sustainable operations, Tuncer said they just introduced the sustainable fuel to its passenger aircrafts and will also introduce it to the freighters soon. He said that there is a constant endeavour to ensure minimum usage of materials that are not eco-friendly like single use plastics, and have introduced electric vehicles to reduce fuel usage. He also mentioned the SMARTIST facility of Turkish Cargo at Istanbul – their mega cargo terminal which is among the largest hubs in the world – which is equipped with the smart technologies such as Automatic Storage Systems and Robotic Process Automation, taking the unique service quality much further in respect of operational speed, quality and sustainability.
Defining Turkish Cargo’s pharma handling capabilities, Tuncer stressed that Pharma is an important sector for them. He said that India is one of the largest producer as well exporter of Pharma cargo, especially for COVID-19 vaccine, and Turkish Cargo is trying to ramp up their already strong presence in India’s pharma hubs.
India is one of the major countries for the world as well as for us, in terms of air freight. This is because the current economic growth in the country. Since the market is growing, latest addition to our stations was Ahmedabad. Before that we introduced Bangalore. We are present in 6 stations across major metro cities in India. We want to add at least 1 more station in India as we add more freighters to our fleet.”
Mr. Halit Tuncer on expansion plans in India
Turkish Cargo has a current fleet of 20 freighters, and with the widest network in the world, they are moving towards conquering the world in terms of capacity as well as quality service. They are also planning to add 2-3 freighters and around 60 more wide bodied aircrafts to their entire fleet over the next few years, which will make for a massive fleet under Turkish Airlines in general.
Photographs from the inauguration ceremony
