Early years and
İsmet İnönü in front of a
de Havilland aircraft in 1936|alt=Atatürk and İnönü shaking hands near an aircraft In October 1932, the Turkish state ordered two
Kingbird D-2 aircraft from
Curtiss-Wright for usage on domestic postal services and possibly passenger flights in the future. These aircraft arrived in Turkey in January 1933. Meanwhile, the government repaired two of the three unused
Junkers F 13 it already owned with parts from Germany. These did not go on regular flights and were kept as spare aircraft in case the Kingbirds had to go out of service. Postal flights from
Istanbul to
Ankara via
Eskişehir started in February; passenger services commenced later in April as a trial by the
Turkish Aeroplane Society (TTaC). Turkish Airlines, then under the Turkish State Airlines (
Turkish:
Devlet Hava Yolları) name, officially started its operations on 20 May 1933 with these aircraft. The two Junkers F 13s were also removed and handed over to TTaC due to their single-engined characteristics not being suitable for safe and comfortable passenger flights. Over time, the relationship between the Turkish government and Curtiss-Wright worsened as the manufacturer complained of payment issues and the long bureaucratic processes in Turkey. Despite changes in key people on the Turkish side, the relations were never fully restored, and the airline started to search for European manufacturers instead. To replace all the out-going aircraft, the state reached an agreement with British
de Havilland in late 1935 for four
de Havilland Dragon Rapide, four
de Havilland Expresses and one
de Havilland Dragonfly, which arrived throughout 1936 and 1937.
World War II and post-war period in front of a Turkish State Airline
Douglas DC-3|alt=A Turkish State Airline
Douglas DC-3 with a group of athletes on front Fleet development in the following years was limited, and the number of aircraft of the airline remained the same until 1943. As Turkey
stayed neutral until the very end of
World War II, the state was interested in passenger aircraft from both sides throughout the early 1940s. In 1939, the country approached German manufacturer
Junkers to purchase five
Ju 52 aircraft in exchange for some
raw materials. The two sides failed to agree as the negotiations took years. In the meantime, the carrier was able to add six
de Havilland Dominies, the military version of the Dragon Rapide, to its fleet. The same year, an agreement was finally reached for the five Ju 52s, which were delivered a year later in 1944. During the war, the state wanted to purchase even larger aircraft from the United States and Britain, but these offers were rejected by the two countries. Even before the end of the war, the Turkish state was in talks with the United States to acquire former military aircraft that were going to be unused otherwise. While initially rejected, the sale of the first three
Douglas DC-3s was approved in December 1944 with the assistance of
Trans World Airlines. Talks continued in 1946 and more DC-3s and
Douglas C-47s were ordered for both the airline as well as the
Turkish Air Force. The ordering and deliveries of aircraft happened in batches throughout 1946 to 1948. The first aircraft entered service in 1946 after each went through a maintenance check. In total, the airline ended up with 30 DC-3 and three C-47 aircraft which were previously stored in
Cairo, Egypt. Many had faults, which led to their price being very low. The purchase increased the fleet size of the carrier to 52 aircraft, In November 1998, the airline added six Boeing 737-800, a
Next Generation variant, to its fleet. By 1999, the total number of aircraft in the fleet had risen to 75.
2000s s of Turkish Airlines were removed from the fleet in 2006 with a ceremony.|alt=An
Avro RJ of Turkish Airlines Seven Airbus A310s and three Boeing 727s were put up for sale. One of each type was sold by 2001. In 2000, one option for the Airbus A340 was turned into a firm order. From 2000 to 2002, the airline received 11 Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Turkish Airlines sold six Airbus A310s to
Iran Air around 2002. Later that year in September,
Mahan Air bought seven Airbus A310s from the carrier. In 2004, Turkish Airlines announced an order for five
Airbus A330, 19 Airbus A320 and 12
Airbus A321 aircraft. Throughout 2004 and 2005, the airline ordered 23
Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The deliveries were completed in late 2008. Much older aircraft like 11
Avro RJs, five
Boeing 737-400 and two Boeing 737-500 aircraft were removed from the fleet. Three passenger
Airbus A310 aircraft were converted into
freighters. The Avro RJs were planned to be removed in late 2003 specifically due to their low capacity and high operating costs. The ten-year leasing deal ended in May 2004 for several aircraft. During a regular maintenance check on the second aircraft before being sent back, signs of
corrosion were found inside the fuel tanks, which led to the seven other Avro RJ aircraft still operating in the fleet being grounded. In addition, a total of 21 leased aircraft joined the fleet in 2008, with the majority being the
Airbus A320 family and
Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft, but also four wide-bodies. By November 2008, the airline had converted three of its Airbus A310s into freighters. Two planes of the type were sold to
Ariana Afghan Airlines in April 2009. Turkish Airlines leased three
Boeing 777-300ER aircraft from
Jet Airways in December 2008. In April 2009, Turkish Airlines announced that it had ordered five Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. In July the same year, additional seven aircraft were ordered, bringing the total to 12. In November 2009, the airline ordered three
Airbus A330-300 aircraft, bringing the total number ordered to ten. Turkish Airlines also signed a
memorandum of understanding with
Airbus for two
Airbus A330-200F freighters.
2010s aircraft were ordered in 2013.|alt=An
Airbus A321neo of Turkish Airlines In October 2010, Turkish Airlines announced an order for 14
Airbus A321-200 and six
Airbus A319-100 aircraft. A month later, the airline announced an order for ten Boeing 737-800 and ten Boeing 737-900ER planes, with an option for 15 more aircraft. In March 2011, the airline ordered an additional ten Airbus A321-200 and three Airbus A330-200F aircraft. Its 200th aircraft was a Boeing 737-900ER and joined the fleet in 2012. In March 2013, the airline announced an order for 117
Airbus aircraft, which became the largest order placed by a Turkish airline. The order included 25
Airbus A321-200, four
Airbus A320neo and 53 Airbus A321neo aircraft as well as an option for 35 further A321neos. The next month, Turkish Airlines placed a firm order for 20 Boeing 737-800, 40
Boeing 737 MAX 8 and ten Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft. The order also included an option for 25 more 737 MAX 8s. Of the options, 15 were turned into firm orders in June 2014. In December 2014, the A320neo orders were converted into A321neos, and eight A321neo options were turned into firm orders. In December 2015, the carrier ordered an additional 20 Airbus A321neo aircraft, bringing the total amount ordered to 92. On 14 February 2017, Turkish Airlines announced that it had reached an agreement with Boeing to convert its order for two Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to
Boeing 777-200F, the freighter variant. In September 2017, Turkish Airlines signed a letter of intent to purchase 25
Boeing 787-9 aircraft, which included an option for further five. Both 777 freighters were delivered to the airline in December 2017. At the end of the same month, three more 777Fs were ordered. In January 2018, the airline signed a
memorandum of understanding with
Airbus to acquire 25
Airbus A350-900 aircraft and five options. The Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 deal was finalized two months later and the airline officially ordered the two types in March 2018. On 25 November 2018, the airline ordered three more Boeing 777 freighter aircraft. the airline owned 37 of the 330 aircraft it operated, with the rest being leased. Of the leased aircraft, 207 were on long-term and 87 were on short-term contracts. Throughout 2018, 11 aircraft of the Airbus A320 family had extensive cabin renewals, while 12 Boeing 737-800s were transferred to subsidiary
AnadoluJet. aircraft grounded.|alt=Two
Boeing 737 MAX aircraft of Turkish Airlines grounded at the
Boeing Field On 12 March 2019, following the request of the
Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Turkish Airlines grounded all of its 12 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Some aircraft that departed a few hours before the decision had to return to
Istanbul Atatürk Airport. Turkish Airlines also did not take delivery of a further 12 737 MAX aircraft due to the
global grounding, causing the planes to be stored at the
Boeing Field. The final Airbus A340-300 left the fleet in April 2019. The first commercial flight with the type was flown on 8 July to
Trabzon Airport. In August 2019, Turkish Airlines chairman İlker Aycı stated that the carrier was looking into receiving its orders of long-haul aircraft, such as the Airbus A350-900, earlier than planned. In addition, he said that the airline was interested in the
Airbus A220 and
Embraer E190/E195 to serve new destinations. On 31 December 2019, it was reported that Turkish Airlines received a compensation of around $225 million from
Boeing due to the 737 MAX groundings.
2020s . New generation aircraft like this are to replace older aircraft, such as the
Airbus A330|alt=An
Airbus A350 of Turkish Airlines Due to the reduction in air traffic caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic, chairman
İlker Aycı told
Hürriyet on 27 May 2020 that the airline might delay the deliveries of new wide-body aircraft. The airline received its first
Airbus A350-900 in October 2020, while the aircraft was completed almost a year before delivery. At the end of 2020, the airline grounded 25 wide-body and 55 narrow-body aircraft due to the start of the winter, but later grounded a further 21
Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which increased the total number of grounded Turkish Airlines aircraft to over 100. Turkish Airlines started using its
Boeing 737 MAX aircraft again on 12 April 2021, with a domestic flight from
Istanbul Airport to
Ankara Esenboğa Airport. Three days after the re-introduction however, Turkish Airlines cancelled an order for 10 737 MAX 8 aircraft and turned 35 firm orders for 737 MAX 8 and 5 firm orders for 737 MAX 9 into options which had to be activated before 21 December 2021, leaving a total of 20 firm orders for 737 MAX 8 and 5 firm orders for 737 MAX 9. The airline is also continuing to return
Airbus A330-200 aircraft to lessors to simplify its fleet. In April 2022, the carrier announced that it was going to lease seven Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft to join the fleet for the summer period. Similarly, AnadoluJet took delivery of Airbus A320neo, A321neo and Boeing 737 MAX aircraft initially destined for
S7 Airlines. The airline showed interest in the Airbus A220 and Embraer E190/E195 again before the 2022 Istanbul Airshow in October, where both manufacturers presented their planes. However, the carrier is hesitant to place an order for the types due their engines. Both aircraft use engines from the
Pratt & Whitney PW1000G family. The Airbus A321neos of the airline already use the PW1100G, a member of the family which has had reliability problems. , Turkish Airlines is the
largest operator of the Airbus A330ceo. Turkish Airlines received its 400th aircraft, an Airbus A350-900, in February 2023. In May, chairman Ahmet Bolat revealed that the airline was closing in on ordering 600 new aircraft from both Boeing and Airbus, which would be the largest ever if confirmed. 400 of these aircraft would be narrow-body while the other 200 would be wide. Bolat additionally said that the airline would operate over 800 airplanes by 2033. The order was supposed to be confirmed during the
International Air Transport Association annual meeting held in Istanbul in June, but was delayed by two months due to the
2023 Turkish general election. The order was delayed once again in August, this time due to issues with engine options and the evaluation of maintenance contracts. In the meantime, the carrier announced that it had reached an agreement to lease 25 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and 3 Boeing 787-9s from
AerCap in October and a further 20 narrow-bodies and one wide-body in November. In December, Turkish Airlines and Airbus announced that they had reached an agreement for a firm order of 220 aircraft and an option for further 125. The order included 150 A321neos, 50 A350-900s, 5 A350-900Fs and 15 A350-1000s. == Current fleet ==