Istanbul (Jan. 16, 2020) – Universal Aviation, the worldwide ground support division of Universal Weather and Aviation, Inc., announced the continued expansion of its global network with the opening of Universal Aviation Turkey, based at Ataturk Airport (LTBA) in Istanbul and providing supervisory ground support for business aircraft at all airports across Turkey. Univerasl Aviation Turkey is a partnership between Universal Aviation and Ferda Yildiz and Kaan Air locally.
The decision to expand into Turkey was based on increasing customer demand for operations into Turkey and better service levels on the ground that what has previously been available.
“Turkey, and Istanbul in particular, is a rapidly growing business aviation market with good infrastructure and potential for growth, but it also continues to be a challenging destination for our customers due to service levels, parking availability and operating restrictions,” said Greg Evans, Chairman, Universal. “Our clients told us they need faster response times and higher quality service on the ground, more transparency in pricing and quicker parking confirmations in Turkey. By directly providing ground supervision for our clients throughout Turkey, with our own professionals trained to our global standards, we are better positioned to reduce the inherent operating risks and ensure the success of their missions.”
With the opening of the new Istanbul Airport (LTFM) in 2019, all commercial airline traffic is now diverted from LTBA.
“We decided to base our Turkey headquarters at LTBA because it is now the best airport option for business aviation operators in Istanbul,” said Evans. “With no commercial traffic, arrivals, departure, and taxi times are significantly faster. LTBA is also much more conveniently located to Istanbul’s city center, and provides greater operational flexibility in terms of both parking, slots, scheduled maintenance options, and customer preference to the airport’s general aviation terminal.”
Universal Aviation in coordination with Ferda Yildiz and Kaan Air is also able to offer helicopter transport from plane side to many destinations in town (and vice versa), or point to point for business meetings, avoiding the very challenging Istanbul traffic.
“Looking ahead, 2020, is going to be an exciting year of growth for Universal and our Universal Aviation network, as we continue to expand to high-risk, high-stress locations,” said Evans.
The addition of Universal Aviation Turkey extends the Universal Aviation network to 18 locations in the Europe, Middle East and Africa Region. Universal Aviation also has 17 locations in the Asia-Pacific region and 19 in Latin America for 50+ locations across 25+ countries.
