Turkish Airlines offers passengers free Bosphorus tour

By Izzet Taskiran

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's national flag carrier has extended its free city tours range by offering evening Bosphorus tours to transit passengers in Istanbul.

Within the scope of the "Touristanbul" project, Turkish Airlines enables transit passengers who stay from six to 24 hours in Istanbul Airport to see the historical and natural beauties of the city, Abdullah Yormaz, tour marketing manager of Turkish Airlines, told reporters Monday.

Aiming to contribute to passenger satisfaction, increase its share in the international transit passenger market and to provide promotional support to tourism, the Turkish Airlines added the Istanbul Bosphorus Strait tour to its daily six tours package, Yormaz said.

Yormaz said that Turkish Airlines has been organizing free city sightseeing tours for international transit passengers in Istanbul since 2009.

Some 5,000 passengers annually benefited from the tour services in 2009, the number has reached 5,000 passengers per month in 2019, he said.

"In 2018, we had the opportunity to introduce 67,400 passengers with the historical and touristic beauties of Istanbul," Yormaz said, adding that passengers from 63 different countries joined the tour during the same period.

The program starts on May 1 and will serve passengers during the summer period until October 31, Yormaz said.

He also noted that some 15,000 passengers participated in the tour program during the first four months of 2019.

Turkish Airlines, founded in 1933 with a fleet of five aircraft, currently has a fleet of 335 aircraft (passenger and cargo) and flies to 308 destinations in 124 countries -- 49 domestic and 259 international.

* Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev