In its bid to compete with the Big 3 Gulf carriers in terms of cargo capacity, Turkish Airlines last week unveiled its new cargo facility at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, which has an export rack capacity that’s 250 percent larger than the original terminal.
The new 71,000-square-meter facility, which has been opening slowly in transition phases, is now fully operational, with an annual capacity of 1.2 million tonnes of capacity.
“Upon launching of the new cargo facility, the previous structural deficiencies in the infrastructure have been eliminated and the operational processes have been redesigned and service quality has been maximized,” said a Turkish Airlines spokesperson at the event.
Space for special cargo has been tripled in size, the airline said, while total capacity can be increased up to 6 times through manipulation of the racking systems. A 39-room cool chain facility is also available at four different temperature ranges to handle sensitive cargo such as medicines, food supplies, live animals and flowers.
Inbound-outbound capacity of ULDs has been increased by 5.5 times, “thus eliminating one of the main inconveniences in the operation,” the carrier said. The extra room will also make it easier to build-up and break-down cargo loads.
Turkish Cargo has a growing network of more than 260 destinations, 48 of which are served by nine freighters in its fleet.