SunExpress aims for 16.8 million passengers this year

ISTANBUL

SunExpress, a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, aims to carry 16.8 million passengers this year by nearly doubling its seat capacity compared to the pre-COVID-19 period.

The leisure carrier is expanding its network with 15 new international routes for the 2025 summer season.

Last year, SunExpress carried around 15 million passengers with a load factor of 86 percent, while its revenues increased by 23 percent from 2023 to 2.2 billion euros.

CEO Max Kownatzki said that in 2024, while achieving record growth in both capacity and fleet, they reached the highest revenue and profit in the company's history.

SunExpress will be serving 237 routes in 35 countries with a fleet of 85 aircraft in the summer of 2025, he added.

“The 2025 summer season has started strong for us, with early booking rates for the second quarter increasing by 11 percent compared to last year,” the company executive told reporters in Istanbul.

SunExpress, which offers the highest number of connections between German-speaking countries and Türkiye, will further increase flight frequencies this year.

During the upcoming summer season, it will operate up to seven daily flights from Düsseldorf, six from Cologne and five from Berlin to Antalya.

Syria could be a very good opportunity and an attractive destination for SunExpress, Kownatzki said.

“In general, there are still new markets to tap into, and I definitely think that Syria is one of them," he said.

SunExpress had not flown to either Russia or Ukraine even before the war broke out, therefore, “they were not affected operationally or commercial,” Kownatzki noted.

“If a peace deal is reached in the future, Ukraine could become a new market [for SunExpress],” he said.