Pegasus Airlines is a 26-year-old Turkishlow-cost airline headquartered in Istanbul with bases at several Turkish airports
When Pegasus Airlines looks to work with third-party ground handlers, it seeks companies that can offer services at several of its destinations both domestically and internationally. Murat Demirbilek, vice president ground operations, says: “Having a regional representative for ground operations means we can easily implement any changes as necessary through them. We have contracts and SLAs with different companies across different airports that can offer the highest standard of service quality for Pegasus guests.”
Pegasus currently self-handles all its aircraft at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen and Izmir Adnan Menderes stations. This accounts for 50% of its network. As of June 2016, it will provide ramp services to its aircraft at Sabiha Gökçen.
Demirbilek says: “Our mission is to offer safe, efficient and proactive ground operations at a time when we are experiencing fast growth above our projections; as any operational delay can create a domino effect that affects the on-time performance on our entire network. One of the most significant contributors to our on-time performance is our ground handling time, which we call PITSTOP, and which is our main key performance indicator (KPI).”
The airline currently has a fleet of 69 aircraft and operates scheduled flights to 103 destinations in 41 countries.
Demirbilek says: “When we’re launching a new route, we initiate and establish a relationship with ground handling companies. We strongly believe that competition improves service quality. We place great value on building strong long-lasting relationships with our current partners.”
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The carrier seeks to achieve top-of-the-tier punctuality and operational performance among competing airlines in matters such as aircraft punctuality and luggage left behind.
Demirbilek observes: “This is of paramount importance to us. In our stations across Turkey we provide our ground handling services in just 20 minutes. We’re also the only Turkish airline to publish its on-time performance openly on its website and have been for many years. What lies behind our success is our strategic planning based on conditions, close monitoring, supporting and investing in our personnel, investing in technology and as managers, always being with our colleagues on the ground.
“We have check-in kiosks in 12 of our domestic destinations for quick self-service check-in. At Sabiha Gökçen we recently deployed 30 SITA new-generation kiosks, helping us to cut the time spent at check-in. We will soon also be introducing ‘bag tag’ functionality to enable our guests to print their own tags. These new features will allow our guests to spend less time in queues and at counters, and allow us to use the counters in the terminal more efficiently to prevent them from being stretched to near capacity.”
