Pegasus Airlines (Turkish: Pegasus Hava Taşımacılığı A.Ş.) (BİST: PGSUS), sometimes stylized as Flypgs, is a Turkish low-cost carrier headquartered in the Kurtköy area of Pendik, Turkey[4] with bases at several Turkish airports.

Pegasus Airlines
IATA ICAO Call sign
PC PGT SUNTURK
Founded12 January 1991; 33 years ago (1991-01-12)
Operating bases
Frequent-flyer programPegasus BolBol
Subsidiaries
Fleet size110
Destinations134[1]
Parent companyESAS Holding
Traded asBİST: PGSUS
RevenueIncrease €2.75 billion (2023)[2]
Operating incomeIncrease €510.70 million (2023)
Net incomeIncrease €639.49 million (2023)
Total assetsIncrease €6.17 billion (2023)
Total equityIncrease €1.67 billion (2023)
Employees6,164 (December 2023)[3]
Websitewww.flypgs.com

History

edit
 
A former Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-400 in the airline's old livery (2002).
 
A Former Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-400 in special Beko livery (2009).

Foundation and early years

edit

On 1 December 1989, two businesses, Net and Silkar, partnered with Aer Lingus to create an inclusive tour charter airline called Pegasus Airlines and services were inaugurated on 15 April 1990 with two Boeing 737-400s. In Greek mythology, Pegasus (Greek: Πήγασος Pégasos, 'strong') was a winged horse sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. However, four months after the launch, Iraq invaded Kuwait and the seven-month occupation that followed had a serious effect on Turkish tourism.[5] By 1992, tourists began returning to the country and Pegasus grew with the acquisition of a third 737-400. The airline leased a further two Airbus A320s to meet the summer demand.[5]

After two positive years, Aer Lingus and Net sold their shares in the company in 1994 to Istanbul-based Yapı Kredi bank, making Pegasus a purely Turkish company.[5]

On 4 September 1997, Pegasus placed an order for one 737-400 and one 737-800 from Boeing Commercial Airplanes, making it the first Turkish carrier to place an order for the Boeing 737 Next Generation. The airline also signed lease agreements for a further 10 737-800s from the ILFC.[5]

In January 2005, ESAS Holdings purchased Pegasus Airlines and placed Ali Sabanci as the chairman. Two months later, he changed the airline from a charter airline to a low-cost airline. In November 2005, Pegasus placed an order for 12 new 737-800s from Boeing, which was backed up with an order for a further 12 737-800s in November 2008. The latter order had flexibility, as the orders could be changed to the 149-seat 737-700 or the 215-seat 737-900 depending on market demand. In 2018, Pegasus tried to acquire an A380, but later cancelled the order.[5]

In 2007, Pegasus had reached a domestic market share of 15%, which grew to 27% in 2013.[6] In 2019, it carried a total of 29.87 million passengers.

Development since 2010

edit

In November 2011, Air Berlin and Pegasus Airlines launched Air Berlin Turkey, which was aimed at the charter market between Germany and Turkey.[7][8][9] The new airline, however, was absorbed into Pegasus Airlines on 31 March 2013.[citation needed]

In 2012, Pegasus Airlines, the second-largest airline in Turkey, signed for up to 100 A320neo Family aircraft (57 A320neo and 18 A321neo models), of which 75 were firm orders. Pegasus became a new Airbus customer and the first Turkish airline to order the A320neo. This was the largest single commercial aircraft order ever placed by an airline in Turkey at that time and was announced on 18 December 2012 at a ceremony attended by Binali Yıldırım, the Turkish Minister of Transport.[10] In June 2012, Pegasus Airlines bought 49% of the Kyrgyz air company Air Manas. On 22 March 2013, the air company operated its first flight under the brand name Pegasus Asia.[11]

The company offered 34.5% of its shares of stock to the public. The shares began to be traded at the Borsa Istanbul as BİST: PGSUS on 26 April 2013.[12]

In October 2016, Pegasus Airlines announced it was offering three of its aircraft on the ACMI and leasing markets, stating severely decreasing passenger numbers.[13]

In August 2022, Pegasus Airlines experienced a data breach that exposed over 6.5TB of data, including a number of internal passwords and the personal information of flight crew. The breach occurred after Pegasus accidentally configured one of the Amazon S3 storage buckets used for PegasusEFB, its electronic flight bag system, to be without any security, exposing its contents to the public Internet. The breach affected Turkish Airlines and Air Manas, who also used PegasusEFB.[14]

Corporate affairs

edit
edit

The key trends for Pegasus Airlines are (as of the financial year ending 31 December):[15]

Net profit
(m)
Number of
employees
Number of
passengers
(m)
Passenger
load factor
(%)
Fleet size References
2015 111 4,967 22.3 79.0 67 [16]
2016 −136 5,257 24.1 78.6 82 [17]
2017 501 5,337 27.8 84.6 76 [18]
2018 502 5,621 29.9 85.5 82 [19]
2019 1,334 6,164 29.8 86.0 84 [20]
2020 −1,965 6,130 14.7 79.7 93 [21]
2021 −1,972 5,837 20.1 77.3 90 [22]
2022 7,100 6,765 26.9 83.6 96 [23]
2023 20,907 7,670 31.9 84.8 110 [24]

Cabin

edit

Pegasus Airlines operates a one-class interior configuration on all of its aircraft. A "Flying Cafe" is available to all passengers, whereby food and beverages are provided for an additional charge. Pegasus is also considering installing in-flight entertainment and charging for headphones (currently, only overhead screens are available on selected 737-800s, and they only display a computer-generated map showing the flight's progress).[5] All new Boeing 737-800s arrived after November 2011 have Boeing Sky Interior.

Training and maintenance

edit

Unlike most low-cost carriers, Pegasus runs its own flight crew training centre and maintenance organisation, Pegasus Technic. Both centres are fully licensed and are used to train new staff members both on the ground and in the air.[5][25]

Sponsorships

edit

Pegasus Airlines was one of the official sponsors of Nef Stadium, the stadium of Turkish Football Club Galatasaray S.K.[26] from 2011 to 2013.

Destinations

edit
 
Countries in which Pegasus operates (September 2024)[27][28]

As of July 2024, Pegasus operates flights to 148 destinations in 53 countries across Europe, Asia and North Africa.[29]

Codeshare agreements

edit

Pegasus Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:[30][31]

Interline agreements

edit

Pegasus Airlines has interline agreement with the following airline:

Fleet

edit
 
Pegasus Airlines Airbus A320neo
 
Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800

Current fleet

edit

As of July 2024, Pegasus Airlines operates the following aircraft:

Pegasus Airlines fleet
Aircraft In service Orders Passengers Notes
Airbus A320-200 6 180 All aircraft to be phased out.[citation needed]
Airbus A320neo 46 186
Airbus A321neo 49 63 239
Boeing 737-800 9[36] 189
Total 110 63

Former fleet

edit

Pegasus Airlines formerly also operated the following aircraft types:[citation needed]

Former Pegasus Airlines fleet
Aircraft Total Introduced Retired Notes
Airbus A300B4-200 2 1996 1997
Boeing 737-300 1 2008 2009 Leased from Corendon Airlines.
Boeing 737-400 16 1990 2013
Boeing 737-500 3 2006 2011

[37]

Incidents and accidents

edit

Data breach

edit

On 1 June 2022, a vulnerability in software developed by Pegasus has left 6.5 terabytes of data exposed online. The data breach, which comprises 23 million files including personal information of flight crew, is thought to have originated from a misconfigured bucket on Amazon’s cloud service AWS.[37]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Pegasus Airlines on ch-aviation". ch-aviation. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  2. ^ "Annual Report 2022". Pegasus investor relations.
  3. ^ "Annual Report 2023". Pegasus investor relations. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  4. ^ "Headquarters." Pegasus Airlines. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "Winged Horses over Istanbul" – Airliner World, December 2008
  6. ^ "Annual Report 2013". Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  7. ^ Cortal Unternehmensprofil auf cortalconsors.de.
  8. ^ Air Berlin und Pegasus mit neuem Produkt Archived 21 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine auf airliners.de 25 August 2011.
  9. ^ "Türkische ESAS-Holding plant neuen Charteranbieter" (in German). aero.de. 26 August 2011.
  10. ^ Pegasus selects up to 100 A320neo Family Aircraft Archived 30 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine Airbus. 18 December 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  11. ^ Pegasus. "Pegasus'ta Ucuz Uçak Bileti Demek Özgürlük Demek". www.flypgs.com. Archived from the original on 12 March 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  12. ^ "Pegasus Hava Yolları işlem görmeye başladı". Hürriyet (in Turkish). 26 April 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  13. ^ ch-aviation.com - Turkey's Pegasus Airlines puts entire fleet up for lease 6 October 2016
  14. ^ "Pegasus Airline breach sees 6.5TB of data left in unsecured AWS bucket". June 2022.
  15. ^ "Pegasus Airlines - Annual Reports". www.pegasusinvestorrelations.com. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  16. ^ "Pegasus Annual Report 2015". Pegasus. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  17. ^ "Pegasus Annual Report 2016". Pegasus. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  18. ^ "Pegasus Annual Report 2016". Pegasus. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  19. ^ "Pegasus Annual Report 2018". Pegasus. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  20. ^ "Pegasus Annual Report 2019". Pegasus. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  21. ^ "Pegasus Annual Report 2020". Pegasus. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  22. ^ "Pegasus Annual Report 2021". Pegasus. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  23. ^ "Pegasus Annual Report 2022". Pegasus. 6 March 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  24. ^ "Pegasus Airlines Annual Report 2023". Pegasus Airlines. 4 March 2024.
  25. ^ Pegasus flight academy Pegasus.
  26. ^ Levent Tüzemen. (24 May 2010). Stat Galatasaray'ı uçuracak Sabah. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  27. ^ "Route map Pegasus". Flightconnections. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  28. ^ "Pegasus Online Booking". Pegasus. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  29. ^ "Güliz Öztürk, ACI Europe Paneli'nde Seyahat Geleceğini Değerlendirdi — Son Dakika Havacılık Haberleri | Türk Hava Yolları, Pegasus, Sunexpress, Corendon, Havacılık, Havayolları, Havalimanları, Havaalanları, THY, Hostes, Pilot, Uçak, Kabin Memuru, SHGM, DHMİ". 6 July 2024.
  30. ^ "Profile on Pegasus Airlines". CAPA. Centre for Aviation. Archived from the original on 1 November 2016. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
  31. ^ "Pegasus ve Nile Air ortak uçuş anlaşması imzaladı". flypgs.com (in Turkish). Retrieved 26 August 2024.
  32. ^ "News for Airlines, Airports and the Aviation Industry | CAPA".
  33. ^ "Air Transat Adds Pegasus Airlines, Volotea to Connectair Platform". 19 March 2024.
  34. ^ https://www.emirates.com/tr/english/travel-partners/ [bare URL]
  35. ^ https://connections.flynorse.com/ [bare URL]
  36. ^ "Türkiye's Pegasus Airlines moots new aircraft orders". ch-aviation. 21 June 2024. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  37. ^ a b "Pegasus airline data breach: 6.5TB of info leaked online". 1 June 2022. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  38. ^ "Incident: Izmir Airlines A319 at Frankfurt on Mar 10th 2010, blew nose gear tyres on landing". Avherald.com. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  39. ^ "Hijack attempter arrested by court". Dha.com.tr. Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  40. ^ Gul Tuysuz; Michael Martinez (7 February 2014). "Official: Plane lands in Turkey after bomb threat, passenger wants to land in Sochi".
  41. ^ Ibekwe, David (19 January 2018). "It took 2 cranes to lift the 41-tonne plane that skidded off an icy runway in Turkey". United Kingdom: Business Insider UK. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  42. ^ Hradecky, Simon (13 January 2018). "Accident: Pegasus B738 at Trabzon on Jan 13th 2018, runway excursion". Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  43. ^ Hradecky, Simon. "Incident: Pegasus B738 at Istanbul on Jan 7th 2020, runway excursion on landing". Aviation Herald. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  44. ^ "Plane splits in three after skidding off Istanbul runway". Sky News.
  45. ^ "Plane skids off runway and splits in Turkey". BBC News. 5 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  46. ^ Ranter, Harro. "Incident Airbus A320-251N TC-NBH, 26 Jan 2021". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
edit

Dev