Turkish Airlines - Turk Hava Yollari (THY)

Turkish Airlines or the Turk Hava Yollari was first established as the State Airlines Administration - Devlet Hava Yollari in 1933. It first began as a domestic service. The international operations were started in 1947 with the first flight to Athens. The real long distance flights to the Far East and the Atlantic began much later in 1987. Today it has non-stop flights from New York, Miami, Chicago and most other European cities to Istanbul.

For international travel, Turkish Airline or 'THY' is the ideal choice because it has domestic flights from Istanbul and Ankara Airports to all the major towns and tourist resort in Turkey. The fleet is young and the service is good. On a long haul flight, you get good food, a variety of drinks and even the economy class travelers get a care kit consisting slippers, toothbrush, toothpaste etc.

It is advisable to do the reservations for destinations within Turkey from Turkey itself rather than from your home country as that works out much cheaper.

Today, THY is also a popular cargo carrier. The Turkish Airlines Cargo Automation System makes for fast and accurate communication between the different parties involved in the shipment of goods and this makes it very reliable. Turkish Airlines with its fleet of wide body Airbus 340s with a 16 ton payload has the most frequent services of direct carriers. So, it is a very popular airline to carry goods like textile products, flowers, livestock, leather, fruits and precious metals.

Above all, Turkish airlines has a regular maintenance center at Ataturk International Airport so that all aircrafts, engines, APUs and components are repaired and overhauled timely - something that contributes to the reliability and safety of the Airline.