Turkey’s leading low-cost airline Pegasus Airlines achieved 13.2 per cent year-on-year growth in the number of guests carried, flying a total of 22.3 million guests in 2015.

In 2015, 13.81 million guests flew on domestic routes in Turkey, translating to an increase of 15.4 per cent compared to the previous year, while the number of guests flying on international routes reached 8.52 million, registering growth of 9.8 per cent compared to 2014.

During 2015, Pegasus grew 1.1 times faster than the Turkish market average on Turkish domestic routes, increasing its market share to 28.3 per cent; and 2.1 times faster than the Turkish market average on international routes, increasing its market share to 9.8 per cent.

Pegasus’ available seat kilometres reached 28 million in 2015, translating to growth of 14.7 per cent, while Pegasus recorded 274,923 block hours over the course of the year with the load factor reaching 79 per cent.

Pegasus Airlines general manager Sertac Haybat said: “Despite this being a challenging year in terms of air traffic issues and the geopolitical climate, we successfully concluded this difficult year, serving over 22 million guests.

“We reached another operational milestone by surpassing the 20 million guest mark for the first time.

“We sincerely thank all our guests for making us stronger by choosing to fly with us, together with our entire Pegasus Family team who made this year a success despite its challenging conditions.

“In 2016 we plan to continue our steady growth by launching new destinations to our expanding network and flying more guests to their destinations at affordable fares.”

In 2015, Pegasus Airlines added Erbil, Kutaisi, London Gatwick, Oslo and Zaporizhia to its international routes; and Kars, Kastamonu and Ordu-Giresun to its Turkish domestic routes; expanding its network to 33 destinations in Turkey and 70 in the rest of the world, bringing its total to 103 destinations in 40 countries.