, Turkish Airlines operates a fleet of 388 Airbus and Boeing aircraft. The airline started its operations in 1933 with only five planes. In 1945, the airline bought over 30 cheap Douglas DC-3 and Douglas C-47s used in the Second World War from the United States of America. The DC-3s had numerous issues regarding their safety but remained in the fleet until 1967. The first jet-engined aircraft, a leased McDonnell Douglas DC-9, joined the fleet in the same year. In 1972, several McDonnell Douglas DC-10s were acquired, becoming the first wide-body aircraft of the carrier. Fokker F28 Fellowships also joined the fleet the same year. Boeing 727s were added two years later. With the Airbus A310 joining in 1985, Douglas DC-10 and Fokker F28s were transferred to Boğaziçi Hava Taşımacılığı to standardize the fleet. After evaluating the Boeing 747, McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and the Airbus A340, the carrier chose the latter as the replacement of the DC-10.
The Boeing 737-400 was added in 1991, and the first Airbus A340 in 1993. The same year, the carrier also received Avro RJ100s to fly domestic airports with limited infrastructure, replacing the Douglas DC-9. Six Boeing 737-800 joined in 1998. The fleet size remained nearly constant from 1995 to 2003. In 2004 and 2005, the airline ordered almost 60 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing. Avro RJ aircraft with high operating costs were removed from the fleet. From 2003 to 2008, the airline almost doubled its fleet size from 65 to 120 aircraft. In 2008, Turkish Airlines started leasing Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft. The airline also leased three Boeing 777-300ERs the same year. In 2010, 40 narrow-body jets were ordered.
In 2013, the airline announced a record order for 117 Airbus aircraft, including jets from the new Airbus A320neo family. The next month, Turkish Airlines also ordered 60 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Two years later, an additional 20 aircraft from the Airbus A320neo family were ordered. During the winter of 2016, the carrier grounded 30 aircraft due to a downfall in traffic. In March 2018, Turkish Airlines finalized its order for 25 Boeing 787 and 25 Airbus A350 aircraft. In 2019, the airline announced that it was interested in the Airbus A220 and Embraer E190/E195. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Turkish Airlines grounded over 100 aircraft in the winter of 2020. A few months later, the carrier cancelled an order for 40 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Since 2021, the carrier has been removing the Airbus A330 aircraft from its fleet, which are being replaced by the newer aircraft. Turkish Airlines announced its plans to order 600 new aircraft in 2023, though no firm order was placed.
Aircraft in the Turkish Airlines fleet are named after Turkey's districts, provinces, rivers and tourist places, with some leased planes having no name. Since 2010, the airline has used a predominantly white livery with blue lettering, a grey tulip stretching from the middle to the end of the aircraft fuselage and a red tail which includes the company logo inside a circle. Turkish Airlines also operates several Airbus aircraft which have a special livery, and as a member of Star Alliance, also aircraft with the alliance livery.
Fleet development Early years
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. Later in October, the country was gifted a Polikarpov R-5 and a Tupolev ANT-9 aircraft by the Soviet Union. The Tupolev was also transferred to the airline, though the lack of spare parts resulted in its removal from service within two years.
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
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, thereby making it the largest airline in the Middle East. The interior of these aircraft, which were configured to the needs of the war when bought, were refurbished between 1946 and 1950 at the Turkish Aeronautical Association maintenance centre in Etimesgut Air Base. With these new aircraft, the number of flights operated by the airline quadrupled within four years after the end of the war.
Final propeller aircraft
The Douglas DC-3 and Douglas C-47s were kept and all other types were removed from service as the fleet size dropped to 33 in 1947. In 1950, only 14 of the 33 aircraft were in operation; spare parts, including engines, were ordered from the United States to repair the rest. In the following years, the number of Douglas DC-3s of the airline dropped to 16, several of which were inoperative. Seven were considered to be hangar queens that required a lot of maintenance, while five were getting revised in the Netherlands by Fokker. Due to financial difficulties, four planes were stuck in the Netherlands, from which point the airline started revising the DC-3s on its own. This turned out to be faster and significantly cheaper. By the mid-1950s, the airline started to remove some of these aircraft from the fleet, either by selling or scrapping, as their condition worsened.
In April 1956, the airline, now renamed to Turkish Airlines, started assessing potential aircraft to replace the ageing Douglas aircraft. At the time, the airline had a strong technical partnership with Pan Am. This led to the United States offering Douglas C-54 aircraft for the airline in 1957. The same year, the airline initiated talks with British manufacturer Vickers as well as the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) for a partnership. When this information was obtained by Pan Am, they offered the Douglas DC-4 instead, which was not accepted by Turkish Airlines as they went with BOAC. After Middle East Airlines cancelled its order for Vickers Viscount aircraft, one of the aircraft was sold to Turkish Airlines. In 1958, the airline ordered an additional four Viscounts for a total of five.
In 1958, the airline considered ordering the Fokker F27 Friendship or its American version, the Fairchild F-27, as the type was deemed to be efficient in short-haul flights as well as suitable for Anatolian airports with poor infrastructure. While initially picking the Fairchild version, the airline later changed its mind as the American version was more expensive and further away from Turkey, which would make it difficult to get technical support should it be necessary. Seven Fokker F27s were ordered in January 1959. The order was updated in December as the airline decided to split the order evenly across the versions, with five of each. The ten aircraft were delivered from 1960 to 1961. With these new aircraft now operational, the airline started selling its remaining Douglas DC-3 and C-47s. The airworthy aircraft were sold quickly in the domestic market. The last six aircraft, which were unairworthy, were stored and stayed with the airline as buyers were difficult to find, with the final ones only being sold in the mid 1970s.
Start of the jet age
From 1959 onwards, major airports in Turkey were overhauled to be able to accommodate jet-engined aircraft. In 1965, Turkish Airlines started a search for a jet aircraft to expand its fleet. Four types were initially considered for evaluation: BAC One-Eleven, Hawker Siddeley Trident, McDonnell Douglas DC-9 and Sud Aviation Caravelle VI. The Caravelle was quickly ruled out as it had crashed in Ankara a few years prior. A Trident was wet leased from British European Airways for a brief period but was found to be insufficient. In later stages, the Soviet Tupolev Tu-134 was offered as well to the airline by its manufacturer. The management decided to order the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 in 1966. Management wanted to order three aircraft of the type, but ordered two and leased one instead due to financial restrictions. The leased Douglas DC-9-10 registered as TC-JAA joined the fleet next year and became the first jet-engined aircraft of Turkish Airlines, and was due to stay until the newly bought Douglas DC-9-30s were delivered. Initially, the idea was to have the plane registered as TC-NAZ, but this was later changed, with the "J" in the registration denoting that it was a jet-engined aircraft; this practice was used in later aircraft as well. One Douglas DC-7 was also leased from Sweden for a single year to meet the increasing passenger demand. The next year, the carrier received two Douglas DC-9-30 aircraft. Two more Douglas DC-9s were added to the fleet in 1969, followed by an additional four in 1970. In 1971, the Vickers Viscounts were removed from the fleet. In the same year, three Boeing 707s were leased to meet the increasing demand.
Wide-body operations and all-jet fleet