Airline

The European Court of Auditors (ECA), which monitors European Union spending and management, announced that it is launching an audit to assess whether the European Commission took sufficient steps to ensure air passenger rights were upheld during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines ranked first in Europe in terms of the daily number of flights between Feb. 8 and Feb. 15, according to data from the European Organization for Air Navigation Safety (Eurocontrol).

Turkish Airlines operated on average 592 flights a day in the said period, while Turkey's low-cost carrier Pegasus came in third in the list at 263 flights.

IATA expects 2021 to be another down year for battered passenger airlines

Turkish Cargo was named the Best Overall Carrier of the Year at the Payload Asia Awards 2020, the company announced on Feb. 6.

Turkish Cargo, a subsidiary of flag carrier Turkish Airlines, beat out competitors from around the world to win the award based on service quality, efficiency, speed, and reliability, as well as the company's innovation and vision, a statement said.

Turkey's civilian airline operators have a total of 554 airplanes in their fleets, with the flag carrier Turkish Airlines taking the lead with 341 aircraft.

Local civilian airline companies operate 523 passenger jets and 31 cargo planes, according to data from Turkey's Transport and Infrastructure Ministry.

Flag carrier Turkish Airlines has temporarily suspended all flights to Israel, the airline announced on Jan. 25. 

Under the suspension, there are no Turkish Airlines flights to or from Israel for the period Jan. 26 to Jan. 31, said the company on Twitter.

RateHawk.com, an online travel booking service for professionals, has started selling air tickets on its website: Partners of the service - Greek travel agents, corporate clients and travel professionals - can now book hotels, air tickets and other travel services on a single platform.

The pandemic has an extremely negative impact on civil aviation. Passenger flows have plummetd not only to and from Bulgaria, this is a global problem, especially strongly felt on a European scale. Such a catastrophic situation has probably not happened since World War II.

It is becoming increasingly expensive to travel by plane as air fares are now getting higher, said tour operators specializing in selling air tickets. A check at random airline websites also shows that, depending on the chosen period, tickets in 2021 cost 10 to 30 percent more than pre-crisis levels when flights were extremely affordable.

By the end of 2020, the losses of global airlines due to the coronavirus pandemic may amount to about $160 billion. The president of Boeing for Russia and the CIS Sergey Kravchenko expressed his opinion in an interview with the TV channel "Russia 24".

"I think airlines will lose money. This year they will lose about $160 billion," he said.