THY set to overtake British Airways to become Europe's third-biggest airline

Outdoing a number of leading European airlines, including Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, with its strong performance in recent years, state-run Turkish Airlines (THY) is now vying with British Airways to become Europe's third-biggest airline, with its CEO Temel Kotil seeing that goal possibly within reach this year. Touting THY's new Curioz Children's Club at the international terminal of Istanbul's Ataturk Airport to the media, Kotil yesterday said THY carried 29.4 million passengers last year, and set a goal of 34-35 million passengers this year to retain THY's recent growth trend. On THY's ambitions to become Europe's number three air carrier this year, he said, "Last year there was a head-to-head competition between THY and its British rival. But THY will probably triumph in this rivalry this year, because THY has remarkably expanded its aircraft fleet. There is no such expansion in British Airways' fleet. We also perform very well in on-time departures, with 86 percent of our planes taking off on time."