24 May 2001
Ref: 074/2001
Turk Hava Yollari (THY), the Turkish flag carrier, has extended leases on five 99-seat Avro RJ100 jetliners in a contract with BAE Systems Aircraft Services Group.
The five aircraft involved are E3232, E3234, E3236, E3241 and E3243, all of which were delivered new from the production line to the airline beginning in 1993.
THY has a fleet of 12 Avro RJs, comprising nine RJ100s and three smaller RJ70s. The fleet is operated on an intensive domestic schedule with each aircraft averaging over eight hours utilisation a day.
This continuing endorsement of the Avro RJ by THY is a testimony to the important role that the aircraft plays in the airline's system and THY's satisfaction with the technical performance of the aircraft.
Some 30 percent of all RJ passengers connect into the two main centres of Ankara and Istanbul and feed into THY's international network.
As the smallest aircraft in THY's fleet the Avro RJ is perfectly sized for the traffic density on routes to smaller cities. In addition, the aircraft is the only one in the THY fleet able to operate from some of the regional airports in the south and east of the country that have short runways and difficult operating conditions.
