| Carrier: | SunExpress
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| Headquarters: | Turkey
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| Founded: | 1989
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| Destinations: | 59
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| Bases: | Antalya
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| Owners: | Thomas Cook (50%) Turkish Airlines (50%)
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| Listed: | Yes
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| Online Booking: | Yes
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| Website: | http://www.sunexpress.com.tr
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| Fleet | B757-200 4
B737-800 9
| Overview - SunExpress SunExpress was established in Oct-89 as a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines. Its first services were charters, beginning with an inaugural flight from Frankfurt to its home base of Antalya in Apr-90. Today, SunExpress operates nine young B737-800s (configured with 184-186 seats), all acquired since Jan-00, and four elderly B757-200s. It is now a fully-fledged scheduled airline – the third largest airline in Turkey by passenger numbers.
SunExpress' scheduled and charter flights now connect Southern Turkey with nearly all German airports as well as Basel/Mulhouse, Luxembourg and Salzburg, while connections are available to many European cities through its links with Lufthansa. SunExpress specializes in flights to Istanbul and to two of the most beautiful holiday resorts on the Mediterranean coast: the Turkish Riviera and the Aegean and in 2006, carried over 2 million passengers – 70% of whom originated in Germany. Mar-06 saw SunExpress successfully commence domestic operations, particularly to the western Turkish coastal city of Izmir, where it increased the number of flights to Izmir from eight to 86 a week, and its load factor rose to 92%. SunExpress has now made it possible to travel directly to Izmir from eight Turkish cities without transfers in Ankara or Istanbul. In 1995, during one of the groups numerous restructurings, Lufthansa transferred its SunExpress holding to Condor Airlines/Thomas Cook in order to consolidate its tourist operations in one entity. In Dec-06, Lufthansa agreed to sell its 50% stake in Thomas Cook to KarstadtQuelle for EUR800 million, while raising its stake in Condor Airlines from the present 10% to 24.9% and receiving the shares held by Condor in SunExpress.
Lufthansa believes it can contribute to the growth of SunExpress, which, according to Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber, "has established a leading position as a holiday carrier operating flights to Turkey. Mayrhuber has also stated that Lufthansa will work with pending Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines, the other major stakeholder in SunExpress, to further expand the LCCs market leading position. Although SunExpress describes itself as a low cost airline, it offers frills. Passengers are offered seat selection, newspapers, as well as complimentary meal service, non-alcoholic drinks and in-flight movie and audio entertainment. Reflecting its holiday profile, the airline offers complimentary carriage of golf and diving equipment weighing less than 30 kgs.
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