UPS Airlines conducted the first flight of its service between Istanbul and Cologne, which will operate six days a week, at Istanbul Airport to carry Turkey's exports to the world.
Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, also attended the program's opening. Expressing his hope that UPS's flight would be auspicious for Turkey, Sayan said, "We believe that this service will make a significant contribution to Turkey's exports. I believe that UPS flights will further strengthen our country's strong aviation network with operations six days a week."
Drawing attention to the increasing importance of postal services day by day, Sayan stated, "Postal services have gained even more importance in recent years due to both the development of e-commerce and the impact of COVID-19. Today, 38 authorized postal service providers operate in our country. When we compare e-commerce revenues between 2019 and 2020, e-commerce revenues in our country have increased by 66 percent. We observe together that the e-commerce volume increased by 68 percent to 2.29 billion units, and the postal sector, the most important complement to e-commerce, which had revenues of approximately 8 billion Turkish lira in 2019, turned into a market of approximately 11 billion lira in 2020. It is also forecasted that air traffic in Turkey will grow by an average of 5.2 percent annually until 2025."
Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, President of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, also expressed that these developments are very positive for the sector. Karagözoğlu said, "While we aim to further grow our country's postal sector, we are making regulations to protect the rights and interests of both commercial and individual end-users and to ensure the sustainability of the sector within a certain framework. Ensuring that users can benefit from postal services effectively, quickly, and at reasonable prices is among our primary goals. At the same time, we are paving the way for service providers by making regulations to facilitate their operations in line with changing conditions. With our regulations on issues such as delivery without obtaining TC identity number at the beginning of the pandemic period, contacting the customer by phone for delivery, and alternative delivery methods, we enable service providers to carry out their operations easily and securely."
The Boeing 757 aircraft belonging to UPS Airlines will be included in UPS Turkey's export operations. With the aircraft operating between Istanbul and Cologne six days a week, UPS customers in Turkey will be able to benefit from the advantages of shortened delivery times.