Can Turkey be the grand central for air cargo?

Located just five to seven hours from Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and North and East Europe, Turkey’s strategic location is a natural advantage when it comes to cargo and logistics operations and on its journey of becoming a key transit hub for the transportation of international cargo.

Jade da Costa, Chief Commercial Officer at Aero Africa, says, “Turkey is rising in Africa, and recently we are witnessing a dynamic interaction between Turkey and African countries in terms of trade, business, and diplomacy. Today Turkey is a more visible player in Africa/"

The Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gokchen Airport are the country’s two busiest international airports on the European and Asian sides respectively. A hub for national flag carrier Turkish Cargo, the Istanbul airport is a cargo airport with 5.5 million tonnes of capacity and is on its way to becoming a super-hub.

Christoph Scheithe told the publication “With their newly built Istanbul Airport, Turkey is well equipped for the future. As Turkey continued their investment strategy throughout the pandemic, they were able to open the grand cargo terminal at the new IST-Airport in 2021.”

A big reason for Turkish Cargo moving its freighter operations from Atatürk Airport to Istanbul Airport is the airline's ‘new cargo hub’ called SMARTIST which measures 340,000 square meters and is one of the world’s largest cargo hubs in terms of capacity.

When the second phase is completed, with 3.7 million square feet of space, it will be able to handle 4.4 million tonnes of cargo per year. The current facility has 2.2 million square feet of storage capacity.

Last year saw Istanbul Airport handling 1.43 tonnes of freight showing a 88% jump from 2021 becoming one of the leading European Airports For Freight Traffic last year alongside Frankfurt Airport, Paris CDG, Leipzig, and Amsterdam airports.

Industry watchers claim that middle eastern airports like Doha, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai that are home to the ‘Big 3’ including Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways, and Emirates now have a serious contender in the IST which is armed with the expanding network, fleet, and cargo arm of Turkish Airlines.

Turkish Airlines Cargo has moved from a 1.8% market share in 2016 to 5.2% last year, according to figures from the International Air Transport Association. It is now the largest European carrier in terms of cargo volume.

Alastair Tempest, CEO, of E-commerce Forum Africa, says, "Turkey is also seeing a rapid growth of e-commerce. Statista noted that e-commerce spending in Turkey has shown dynamic growth over the last few years, and represented 5.7% of total FMCG sales in 2022. The forecast for (Turkey’s) e-commerce market is 14.46% growth per year over the next four years (2023-2027) which would result in a market volume of $39.44 bn in 2027."

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