Turkish Airlines

"Turkish Airlines temporarily suspended flights to Iran due to the spread of coronavirus, Trend reports referring to Turkish media on Feb. 24. According to the Turkish media, flights were suspended until February 27, 2020." (Azer News, "Turkey suspends flights to Iran due to spread of coronavirus," 2/4/2020).

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"Turkish and Pegasus airlines will resume flights to Iran and Iraq on Thursday night, company sources told Reuters, after they halted flights for some 24 hours due to tensions between Iran and the United States." (Reuters, "Turkish, Pegasus airlines to resume flights to Iran, Iraq: sources," 1/9/2020).
 

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"Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Kish Free Zone Organization, the free trade organization reported. In a move to attract foreign tourists to Kish Island, the Iranian resort island eyes to be promoted at an international level by a global brand." (October 18, 2017).

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Turkish Airlines runs flights from Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport(IKA) and Tabriz (TBZ) in Iran to multiple cities in Europe. (Company Website)

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"Among the first signs that business is ready to resume is the surge in demand for flights. Austrian Airlines last week announced it will resume five weekly flights to Tehran, and its parent company Lufthansa said it’s thinking about adding more seats to its daily flights. Turkish Airlines, which serves six Iranian destinations, is seeking permission to increase frequencies." (AP, “European businesses rushing to find Iran bonanza,” 1/22/14)

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"Meanwhile, Yazıcı also highlighted how Turkish Cargo, an affiliate of Turkish Airlines (THY), had announced plans to launch cargo flights to Tehran. The THY press agency said Tehran flights were scheduled at least once per week, starting tomorrow. Turkish Cargo’s freight network now reaches 46 international destinations with the addition of Tehran, it has said." (Hurriyet Daily News, "Iran, Turkey Trade Should Reach $30 billion: Minister," 7/29/13)

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"Turkish Airlines (THY) is struggling to collect 50 million euros from Iran, a sum of money that is said to be blocked on account of difficulties in transferring money, a problem seemingly exacerbated by a shortage of foreign currency in sanctions-hit Iran Today`s Zaman reported... Payments for tickets which THY agencies sell in Iran are deposited into a bank in Iran and some time is needed to transfer this money to Turkey through the Central Bank of Iran... Talking about the sum of money that THY was due to receive from Iran, Topçu earlier said, 'There was some difficulty in transferring this sum of money to the Turkish Central Bank but we overcome that problem, but some problems still persist.' Noting that the problem in transferring money was not only peculiar to THY, and that other Turkish companies doing business with Iran are also experiencing the same problem, Güntay Şimşek, who hosts the TV program 'Airport,' commented to Today's Zaman that 'Iran has financial problems due to sanctions and you can't work with Iran without taking certain risks.'... THY is therefore a major airline for the Iranian market, with quite a few Iranians flying not only to Turkey but also to destinations in the US, Canada, Europe and even in some Asian countries, via THY... 'Iranian passengers have considerably contributed to the growth that THY has achieved in past years,' Hamid Kian, the chairman of the İstanbul-based Association of Iranian Industrialists and Businessmen (İSİAD), told Today's Zaman. A second reason that may have contributed to the figure increasing to as high as 50 million euros may be sales that THY conducted with Iran in the past few years... In addition, the value of Iran's rial has plummeted in the past year and it could be that one of the problems that the THY chairman was referring to is a demand by Iranians to use the former value of the rial instead of the current devalued one for the payment of THY's money. 'Iran wants to pay based on the former value of the rial,' Şimşek, who is also a columnist at the Habertürk daily, maintained, while Oran from the CHP had also asked, 'Is it true that the money THY is supposed to receive from Iran fell by 40 percent in value due to the exchange difference?' THY will not write off the money it is due to receive from Iran but it may just take a long time. As Şimşek, who believes that Iran is an important market which THY should not give up on, noted: 'Iran would never solve any problem at just one go. Doing business there is quite laborious.' The successful performance of THY, which has the largest destination network in the world with flights to 87 cities, has also drawn worldwide attention.German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his visit to Germany last week that Lufthansa and THY establish joint management, to which Erdoğan agreed. THY shares on the İstanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB) rose by as much as 5 percent on Monday following talks of a possible merger with German giant rival Lufthansa." (Trend, "THY struggles to free blocked 50 mln euros from Iran," 11/6/2012)