KIZILTEPE

Kiziltepe Commodity Exchange President Mehmet Sahin stated that it has become almost impossible to obtain air tickets under 400 TL and added "All these events have affected the tourism negatively and restricted the arrival of local tourists”.

The General Directorate of Turkish Airlines announced that 24 Boeing 737 MAX type aircraft in the THY fleet were canceled until a second order as of 13 March 2019 for the purpose of providing flight safety and passenger safety. After this decree, restrictions were made both in domestic and international flights, and the number of daily flights in many provinces was reduced.

However, with the disproportionate arrangement of flights in domestic flights, the number of flights in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Region has been reduced much more than other Anatolian provinces.

According to the conducts, the following results have been obtained:

• In many provinces, 10-30% restriction is applied on THY and Anadolu Jet flights, while this ratio is restricted around 50-60% in the region.
• Flight to Ankara from many provinces are reduced to several days a week.
• It has become almost impossible to obtain flight tickets under 400,00 TL.
• The CIP lounges at modern airports built by the instructions of His Presidency and the equipment inside started to rot as they were not put into service.
• In many of our provinces, it has become impossible to find a flight ticket a week before, and the measure is to travel to the provinces in the region by road from the nearest airport.
• The funerals of our relatives who died in the western provinces can be buried by waiting for a few days because no plane tickets can be found by their relatives.
• Domestic touristy visits by plane have come to a halt.
• Unfortunately, our requests for appointment from the General Manager of THY on this matter were not found.

All official and scientific data show that our region is at a low level compared to other regions in terms of development. Despite this, we, as business people of our region, have never lost our determination to take our national and regional development to a higher level. Our efforts to operate the historical and cultural wealth of our region in favor of the tourism sector and to contribute to the economic development of our country and region continue. As a result of the peace and security environment provided in the region and our corporate efforts, important developments have started to occur in the tourism sector. As can be seen from TURKSTAT data, there has been a double increase in the number of domestic and foreign tourists visiting the provinces of the region compared to previous years.

While this increase is expected to continue with a much faster momentum in the coming years, we see THY General Directorate’s reduction of the number of flights to the provinces of the region as an unacceptable practice. It is essential for the development of our country and our region to provide an increase in butler services of the regional provinces by reviewing the current flight programs.

We, as the regional chamber and stock exchange presidents, below, submit and request orders and instructions from our Presidency to relevant institutions and organizations in order to make necessary arrangements regarding these issues.