Turkish airlines: history and background

Turkish airlines were the “ State Airlines Administration” operating under the supervision of the Ministry of National Defence has been established on the 20th of May 1933. On 1935, The Administration started operating under the Ministry of Public Works which at the time was called “ Nafia Vekaleti”. On 1946, The State Airlines Department has been renamed as the General Directorate of the State Airlines.

On 1953, the construction of the international airport which was decided to be built with the ratification of the Chicago Agreement has been completed and put into service in the Yesilkoy district of Istanbul. The airport possessed a runway built according to internationally accepted standards, a modern passenger terminal, maintenance hangars and electronic radio equipment. On the 21st of May 1955, the title “ General Directorate of the State Airlines Administration” has been changed by Law number 6623 to its current name: Turkish Airlines. On 1956, Turkish Airlines joined the International Air Transport Association (IATA) an industry oversight body established by the world’s airlines in order to facilitate commercial, technical, managerial and economic cooperation and to prevent unfair competition among its members.

On 1961, The Wild Goose emblem designed by Mesut Manioglu won first place in a competition and became the airline’s logo. On 1967, the first international jet flight has been realized on the Ankara-Istanbul-Brussels line on the 1st of September. The demand for fuel which was supplied by a foreign company has begun to be supplied by Petrol Ofisi through a new agreement. On 1974 December 4th, the Cyprus Turkish Airlines has been established with the 50% partnership of Turkish Airlines. On 1983, the first in-flight magazine was by the name of “ THY Magazine”. On 1984, the airline attained the status of a state owned enterprise.

On 1985, the implementation of First Class services has begun in the Jeddah and London flights and was later incorporated into other flights. The Information Processing Centre in the Ataturk Airport has been put into service. All reservation and lost baggage transaction have begun to be managed in an electronic environment.

On 1989, The Baggage Handling System (BAHAMAS) has begun to be implemented in order to provide rapid baggage services. THY magazine was renamed Skylife. The SunExpress Airlines has been established with the equal partnership of Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa Airlines. On 1992, Catering services were revamped and improved with multiple-choice menus available on overseas flights. On 1994, 27th of November, the airline attained the status of being a state owned enterprise; under the supervision of the R. O. T. Prime Ministry Directorate of the Privatization Administration and within the scope of Law number 4046. On 1996, the www. thy. com website was established and put into service.

On the 30th of March, a new partnership was formed among 5 large European airlines and named “ The Qualiflyer Group’. A series of Block Space agreements were signed global partners. The airline was recognized by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce with a First Place Golden Plaque. Honouring THY as the organization that brought the most foreign currency into Turkey. In October 2000, THY passengers were invited to join the loyalty program, “ Miles & Smiles”. On 2001, The Reservation Call Centre (444 0 THY/444 0 849) began operations. On 9th December 2003, electronic ticketing was begun and online check-in procedures were adopted. Also in September 2004, Turkish Airlines inaugurated the “ Customer Relations Online Service Center” where customers could register their opinions and complaints using the airline’s website, www. turkishairlines. com. tr . According to the yearly report published by the Association of European Airlines in December, THY ranked number two among AEA airlines in terms of punctuality and had the second lowest number of mishandled bags. On 2005, the annual audit report of the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) completed in February revealed that many units in the THY Maintenance Center operated with zero (0) faults. An ‘ Aviation Safety Assessment’ conducted in Turkey by the World Aviation Authority JAA MAST, found that THY is “ operating under the highest performance with regards to technical maintenance and repair”. On 28 November, THY HABOM A. S., THY TEKNIK A. S. and the THY EGITIM A. S. were established.

On 2006, in the month of April, Turkish Airlines successfully passed the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) Program, IATA’s operational benchmark, and became Turkey’s first “ IOSA OPERATOR”. Telephone ticket sales were begun. Turkish Airlines was granted the ISO 9001: 2000 quality certificate on the 19th of June. Turkish Airlines was invited to become a member of Star Alliance on the 4th of August, with full membership to be realized in 2008. A new service was launched on 18 August allowing passengers without baggage to check in and print their boarding cards using the Internet. On the 9th of December, an agreement protocol regarding THY’s participation in Star Alliance was signed during a ceremony that included Turkish Airlines and existing Star Alliance members. On 2007, Turkish Airlines was granted the “ National Quality Award” in aviation. In April 2008, Turkish Airlines became the 20th member of Star Alliance. On 2010, Skytrax, a traveller website based in the UK, rated Turkish Airlines Europe’s best for 2010.

Mission and Vision

Mission:

To become the preferred leading European air carrier with a global network of coverage thanks to its strict compliance with flight safety, reliability, product line, service quality and competitiveness, whilst maintaining its identity as the flag carrier of the Republic of Turkey in the civil air transportation industry.

Vision:

To become an air carrier with;

a continued growth trend over industry average

zero major accidents/crashes

most envied service levels worldwide

unit costs equating with low cost carriers

sales and distribution costs below industry averages

a personnel constantly developing their qualifications with the awareness of the close relationship between the benefits for the company and the added value that they contribute

an entrepreneurship that creates business opportunities for fellow members in the Star Alliance and takes advantage of the business potential provided by them

a staff well adapted to modern governance principles by observing the best interests of not only shareholders but also stakeholders

Values

Honesty and Fair Dealing

Customer Satisfaction

Demonstrating Respect to Individuals

Innovation

Team Work

Leadership

Productivity

Confidentiality

“ Open Door” Policy

Organizational Structrure

Figure -Turkish Airlines Organizational Structure

Problems in Turkish Airlines

Management and Employee Satisfaction

Mainly, Turkish Airlines have only a problem within organization which is management problem. Turkish Airlines is a public limited company and managements and organization culture change based on new government in Turkey.

Turkish Airlines is a developed, well structure company but because of political issues affect the company and its developing. When the government change in Turkey, firstly, new government change management of the company than the new manager changes to culture of organization based on new government’s ideas and wants. The issue makes confuse to employees.

Figure – Turkish Airlines Crew Actually, Turkey has laws for Turkish Airlines managements, working terms etc. However, when the governments change, laws changes and it affects the company. For example, mainly Turkish Airlines crew should to sign official agreements after when they started to work in Turkish Airlines and it will protect their rights under laws. However, around a year, some of employees couldn’t sign agreements because of unknown reasons. People think that the employees who couln’t sign agreements are supporting opposite political party because the rest of them whoever close to governments already signed their agreements.

Solution and Recommendation for Management and Employee Satisfaction

Solution of the problem is the Turkish government should to leave Turkish Airlines for their internal decisions and managent to professionals because last ten years Turkish Airlines made so many good leaps for making Turkish Airlines as a global brand and airlines. Actually, the leaps are so successful. Now, Turkish Airlines is a best Turkish Airlines in Europe and it’s a choosen airline in the world.

Turkish Airlines should to know that happy crew is happy services to customer based on that customer satisfaction is more related to employee satisfaction. If you look at the customers feedbacks, they don’t complain about Turkish Airlines services, most of them complain about crews because management of Turkish Airlines doesn’t fair to all employees because of employees life style, political ways etc..

Resistance to Change

Leave the Turkish Airlines to professionals may have small risk such as communication. Turkish Airline is a government company and one of important face of Turkey. In Turkey, civil servants culture/style is very old and settled in governments. Until today, Turkish airlines have same working style which is slow and dependent decisions to governments. If the organization leave to proffesionals whose they don’t have governmet office, culture and legislation experiences, they will have problem with releated ministers.

Overcome the Resistance

Turkish government should to change old style of civil servants culture. Civil servants should to change the way they are working. They should to learn professional working culture. May they can’t do anything for legislation but they can work as a professional companies employees. They can be creative on their works. Actually, how Turkish Airlines did on last few years.

Figure -Old (left) and new (right) Turkish Airline Aircrafts

Ban Strikes in Aviation Sector

Resource: Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press, Ankara, Turkey | World | Thu, 05/31/2012 9: 45 PM

Turkey’s parliament has passed legislation that would ban strikes and lockouts in the country’s aviation sector after a protest by workers at Turkish Airlines this week forced the national carrier to cancel many flights.

If Turkey’s president approves the legislation, it will become law.

Figure -Ban Strikes in Aviation SectorTurkish Airlines, Europe’s fourth largest carrier, said the decision on Tuesday by many of its workers to protest the pending legislation by calling in sick had forced it to cancel 223 flights – affecting more than 100, 000 passengers – and cost the company nearly $2 million (€1. 61 million). A simultaneous attack on the airline’s website blocked sales on it.

Turkish Airlines sacked 305 workers accused of taking part in the job action, the company said. The carrier has some 17, 000 employees and more than 180 planes.

Parliament approved the legislation by a show of hands on Wednesday night.

Mustafa Yagci, secretary general of the civil aviation workers union Hava-is, said Thursday that it expects President Abdullah Gul to veto the legislation because it violates the rights of workers to strike but Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that the legislation is designed to prevent interruptions in air travel. His government said it wants to make Turkish Airlines, which is expanding its network around the world, immune to strikes.

The airline said the protest has damaged its reputation and the efforts to make Istanbul an international transit hub. The carrier flies to more than 80 countries, including Libya, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan.

Reporting 29 May 2012 / TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES, Ä°STANBUL

Turkish Airlines (THY) has fired 150 of its personnel over a partial slowdown that forced the national flag carrier to cancel at least 128 domestic and international flights as of Tuesday 6 p. m., sending shock waves through the thousands of stranded passengers, particularly at Ä°stanbul Atatürk Airport.

The strike began as early as 3 a. m. following a call from the Turkish Civil Aviation (Hava-Ä°ÅŸ) union. The union said it asked its members to protest a legislative attempt to remove aviation workers’ rights to strike by slowing down the operations at their workplace. Not all of the THY ground workers participated in the strike, and those who did also protested the others who did not heed Hava-Ä°ÅŸ’s call.

A parliamentary commission recently voted in favor of a draft law to cancel aviation workers’ right to strike with the government’s support despite opposition from other parties represented in Parliament.

Hava-Ä°ÅŸ labeled it a move “ against universal, constitutional, and the most fundamental, workers’ right.” The draft is set to be voted on soon in Parliament’s General Assembly. Besides the cancelations, THY, the largest airline in Turkey, also experienced delays on many of its other flights, with some passengers waiting up to almost half a day to get on their planes. “ The Hava-Ä°ÅŸ union called for an illegal strike and some of [our] workers heeded this call. Because of this, we are experiencing some troubles with our flight operations but we are resorting to cancelations in a way that affects our passengers the least,” THY said in a statement. Passengers whose flights had been canceled were put up in a nearby hotel by THY.

Speaking at a Ä°stanbul conference on Tuesday, Economy Minister Zafer ÇaÄŸlayan said the slowdown was not in line with the law. “ Your democratic rights can only go as far as the border of others’ democratic rights,” he said. Also commenting on the strike was Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communication Minister Binali Yıldırım in Ankara. “ Striking is a way for workers to seek their rights but it must be the last resort [in all such disputes],” he said, adding that “ if this drags on and discomforts people too much, we will not hesitate to take certain necessary steps.” He did not say what steps the government would take if the situation escalates.

Turkey’s Sky Airlines said in a statement on Tuesday that it rented three of its airplanes with their cabin crew to the THY to partially address the problem the national airlines faces.

Solutions and Recommendation

Figure -A Turkish Airlines Crew who lost her job for unfair reason Strike is a natural, democratic and humanistic employee’s rights however Turkey’s government bans employee’s an important rights. Some of employees fired because of they joined strike after the legislation approved or some of them was absent because having medical certificate or they was in aircraft on when their friends made strike. Solution for the issue is, cancel the legislation and get back the employees whose fire from their job with unfair way. Because, people just want to against or strike whatever they want or they don’t want from their management or government. Other than that, Turkey is known as one of most democratic country in world. This legislation is predujices Turkey’s reputation about democracy.

Turkish government should to act like powerful, confident government, the legislation and rest of things which happen such as firing all of employees whoever was absent on that day for even medical certificate or being on air because of working shows that Turkish Airlines management or Turkish government don’t have enough power or confident. They should to get back to work those 305 employees and sit meeting with them and decide a common decree.

Resistance to Change

If the Turkish government and Turkish Airlines management step back from the legislation and firing the 305 employees, somes especially HAVA-IS UNION (aviation union) will think that they win the palm and the government and management give up and later they will try to force the management and the government for their all wants.

Overcome the Resistance

Turkish Airlines should to close their ears to useless says and get back thei r employees. This will help save Turkey’s reputation and Turkish Airlines reputation because if they don’t do this, current and future employees will think that they can’t look at their rights or they can’t say if they see anything wrong in the organization.

CONCLUSION

Turkish Airlines and Turkish government did a mistake which affect so many people and the coutry reputation with using their political power and power. Turkish Airlines wants to be world leader airlines and their slogan is “ Globally yours. They shouldn’t forget that being world leader airlines can be with customer satisfaction. Satisfaction is possible with employee satisfactions. This is because they should to make satisfy their employees with giving their rights than they can achieve their aims.