The value carrier looking to shake up the Turkish Riviera
Katherine MastersAs a first-time exhibitor at WTM London this year, SunExpress aims to raise travel industry awareness of its network and services. We pose five questions to Tobias Bracht, head of sales, to summarise the airline’s strategy
What’s the story behind SunExpress?
SunExpress, established in 1989, is a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines. We are headquartered in Antalya and Frankfurt, with operational bases in Antalya, Izmir and Ankara. Our airline serves as a vital tourism ambassador between Turkey and Europe, leveraging over 35 years of experience and leisure airline expertise.
SunExpress is a value carrier, delivering a high-quality service on routes that consumers want to fly to and from the Turkish Riviera, and at a range of excellent value fares. This is why we were named the ‘Best Leisure Airline in Europe’ by Skytrax in both 2023 and 2024.
Where does the route network cover?
SunExpress flies to more than 200 destinations in 35 countries, carrying more than 12 million passengers every year. Our route network extends across Europe, to the Middle East and West Asia.
We are the leading carrier connecting German speaking countries (Germany-Austria-Switzerland- the DACH region) with the Turkish Riviera and Anatolia. We aim to establish a similarly strong presence in the UK market. In line with this, 2024 has been a landmark year for SunExpress in the UK as we doubled our capacity from 2023 to 136 flights a week, offering up to 1.3 million seats from nine UK airports. London Stansted and Leeds Bradford joined our UK network this year, and we are expanding further with the launch of flights from Glasgow and Liverpool in 2025.
As a first-time exhibitor, what are you hoping to get from WTM?
We are looking to increase our engagement and strengthen our ties with the travel industry as we continue to expand our presence in the UK and Ireland markets.
By participating in this global event, we aim to build industry awareness, expand industry partnerships, and widen our UK distribution, highlighting our commitment to the UK and Ireland as key markets.
What’s new for 2025?
SunExpress will be launching new flights from Liverpool and Glasgow in 2025, and strengthening services from airports already in our UK network, in response to rising demand from passengers across the UK for travel to Türkiye.
In Ireland, we will be launching services from Cork in 2025, augmenting our growing operations from Dublin.
SunExpress will also be continuing to expand its winter and shoulder season capacity from the UK & Ireland as we cater to a range of growing segments such as cultural, archaeological and culinary tourism, and sports travel.
What’s your trade engagement strategy?
In the coming months, we will undertake a range of activities to widen our distribution and raise travel industry awareness of SunExpress including partnerships and collaborations, fam trips, and more.
This is being spearheaded by James Harrison, our recently appointed country manager for the UK and Ireland. With nearly 30 years of aviation experience, James’ proven track record in sales and management will be instrumental in driving SunExpress’ growth and strengthening our relationships with the travel industry.
AT WTM London: SunExpress will be linking up with the Turkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, on stand N8-210
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Katherine Masters
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