Turkish Airlines says its marketing in Canada has maintained its flight path despite last summer’s terrorist attack at Istanbul Airport and attempted military coup in Turkey.
The airline, which entered the Canadian market with flights out of Toronto in 2009 and from Montreal in 2014, continued with its marketing plans despite the events that rocked the country last summer.
It went ahead without changes to a major sponsorship presence at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal despite the June 28 airport attack that killed 45 people and occurred just before the festival started.
Turkish Airlines is also about to kick off the third year of a sponsorship deal with the Ottawa Senators that includes its name on rink boards, at centre ice and on the scoreboard.
“We want to communicate with the public. I think this is the best way to have good communication,” says Osman Sahan, general manager of Turkish Airlines in Montreal, of the airline’s two major Canadian sponsorships.
Sahan says the airline has been buoyed by the reaction of Canadian travellers connecting to flights from Istanbul, who make up the bulk of the airlines passengers from this country.
He notes, for example, that there were virtually no cancellations or no-shows in the days following the airport attack from such passengers. “They still carried on travelling with us. This is the good part.”
However, the same can’t be said for tourists who make up 15% of Canadian passengers. International tourism to Turkey has tumbled this year in the wake of months of terrorist attacks by ISIS and Kurdish militants, and Canadian tourism to the country been no different.
As of May, visitors from Canada to Turkey were down 29% compared to a year earlier, and that was before last summer’s attempted coup and airport attack. “Inevitably, there’s a negative effect. Passengers who have in their agenda Istanbul as a tourist destination can postpone it.” He hopes Canadians who’ve made that decision will reconsider Turkey “when things get better and smoother again.”
But despite the decline in tourism, the airline’s load factor is about 85% for both Toronto and Montreal.
Using Istanbul as a transfer hub saves Canadian travellers travelling to destinations like North Africa or the Middle East about two hours in comparison to other European carriers, notes Zafer Bolukbasi, Toronto general manager of Turkish Airlines.
Turkish Airlines has grown from a sleepy regional carrier to a major international carrier since going public in 2006. It now flies to 115 countries, more than any other airline, and has emerged as a competitor to Gulf carriers Emirates and Qatar in the battle for connecting flights.
As part of that competition, Turkish Airlines recently launched a chauffeur service for business class passengers from Canada who are connecting onward to Dubai and Kuwait from Istanbul. In addition, passengers flying from Toronto to Iran via Istanbul – one of the airline’s top markets from Toronto –can bring extra baggage at no additional charge.
Golf tournaments for corporate passengers and bowling tournaments for travel agents are among the airline’s below the radar marketing initiatives.
More visible sponsorships like the Senators and jazz festival are aimed at “trying to increase our brand awareness in Canada,” Bolukbasi says.
Sahan says the deal with the Senators arose because there was no room at the sponsorship inn with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens, the NHL teams in the two Canadian cities in which it flies.
But Ottawa is close to both cities and the Senators partnership “is our biggest sponsorship in Canada and it’s really going well.”
Coinciding with its recent growth, Turkish Airlines has greatly expanded its worldwide marketing. Earlier this year it sponsored the movie Batman v. Superman and shot ads with the movie’s stars Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor claiming the airline flew to Gotham City and Metropolis.
Despite garnering poor reviews, “people liked the idea of having the tie-in with the movie,” Sahan says.
A 2013 ad showing soccer star Lionel Messi competing with basketball star Kobe Bryant by travelling around the world on Turkish Airlines to take the best travel selfie has had more than 144 million views on YouTube. Last year, YouTube named the spot as the winner of the best ad from its first decade of existence.
The airline, which flies six times weekly out of Toronto and three times weekly from Montreal, earlier this year increased business class capacity of its Toronto flights by 75%, from 28 to 49 seats.
Bolukbasi says there is enough of a market to sustain twice daily flights from Toronto and daily flights out of Montreal. The airline would also like to fly to Vancouver.
However, the plans require regulatory approval from the federal government and Air Canada is said to be strongly opposed to the Vancouver expansion.
Toronto-based Charming Media became Turkish Airlines’ first public relations agency of record for Canada earlier this year after executing several projects for the airline.
As well, the airline recently appointed Ayhan Ugur as its first regional marketing manager in Canada. Based in Toronto, his main responsibilities include relationships with travel agencies, managing PR, advertising and sponsorship activities.
There’s “huge potential” for Turkish Airlines because of Canada’s diversity, Ugur says. “There’s very large room to grow.”
