Numbers of tourists have exploded, tourism agencies wanting to charter planes can”t find pilots.
As summer brings larger numbers of tourists from other parts of the country and from abroad, it also brings problems of transportation. Tourism agencies who wish to take the tourists they bring from abroad to historical and cultural sites, they first need to solve the transportation issue.
Tourism agent Emin Çakmak, trying to find a plane to fly 160 Indian tourists from Capadoccia to Antalya, has received negative answers from all airline companies, including Turkish Airlines. Having been told, “There are no planes, and even if there were, there is nobody to fly them,” Çakmak faces the probability of having to remove the Capadoccia trip from the program. Süleyman Gök, the owner of City Windows Tourism, which has offices in England as well, says that there is congestion in the flights to Turkey from America and England, and adds that they cannot meet the demand for lack of transportation. Gök says, “We experience problems especially in the spring and autumn seasons. Airlines should not fear not being able to fill any additional flights. There are so many hotels in Antalya, and they are all full. Flights will also be full due to intensive demand.” General Manager of Onur Air, Şahabettin Bolukçu, confirms that due to the fullness of internal flights during the summer months, they are unable to meet the special requests of tour operators.
Turkey is having an active tourism season this year. The number of tourists from abroad during the January-April period increased by 12.37% compared to the same period last year, and rose to 4.632 million. In the list of countries of origin, Germany was first with 833,000, Bulgaria second with 326,000 and Russia third with 263,000. While visitors from Russia and Europe prefer coastal areas such as Antalya, tourists from the Far East head for historical and cultural areas. This situation increases tha importance of transportation, bu unfortunately, due to insufficient planes and eauipment, the demands of the tourists cannot be met. The General Manager of Hello Tourism, Emin Çakmak”s dilemma is a concrete example. Explaining that a group of 160 Indian tourists will be landing in Istanbul at the end of July, Çakmak says, “We had planned on staying in Istanbul for two days, and then going to to Capadoccia. And from there, we were going to go on to Antalya. However, going from Capadoccia to Antalya is causing problems. Although we got in touch with airline companies 2 months in advance, we cannot find any planes.”
Yıldıray Karaer, partner and General Manager of Corendon Airlines that brings tourists to Turkey from Belgium and Holland, tells us that due to intensive demand of rapidly developing countries with large populations such as China and India for aeroplanes, there is a worldwide dearth of planes. Karaer, disclosing that they often get requests from tourism agencies for charter planes, adds, “Unfortunately, we cannot meet these demands. Availability of the planes in our fleets is limited, and so is the number of pilots. Airline companies use foreign pilots to solve the issue. The number of trained pilots must increase.”
Executive Board Chairman of Inter Airlines, Ömer Torosluoğlu, points out that contracts with tour operators for summer season flights are signed two-three months in advance, and adds that this is the reason why they cannot meet extra demands. He also informs us that because the General Directorate of Civil Aviation will not include private airlines in flight contracts, visitors from neighboring countries such as Russia and Iran have a lot of problems. Torosluoğlu says that holidaymakers land first in other cities, and are then transported to Antalya by bus. General Manager of Onur Air, Şahabettin Bolukçu, also declares that they are unable to meet the extra demands of tour operators. Bolukçu adds that in case of early arrangements, it is possible to achieve the transfer of tourists by full charter (plane and flight crew) aircraft.
