Following last year's acquisition of TAV Air and its rebranding to BKNJET, Bikini Jet (Istanbul Atatürk) is now focused on growing its fleet of large jets while simultaneously narrowing down the range of types it operates, chief executive Orkun Cetinkaya told ch-aviation in an exclusive interview in Istanbul.
"With the team we have now, we are planning to reach 10 aircraft this year," Cetinkaya revealed. "We have six aircraft [now]. The seventh one is coming soon. And then we signed another one. So it's going to be eight at the end of the month."
He explained that the acquisition last year of TAV Air completed the group's portfolio, which also includes Bikini Jet as the charter brokerage arm and Bikini Technic as the maintenance provider.
Focus on large jets
Bikini Jet currently operates five business jets on its certificate: a recently added Citation Jet 3+, a Citation Latitude, a GIV-SP, a Global Express XRS, and a Legacy 650, as well as a privately managed Diamond DA-62. Cetinkaya conceded that such fleet diversity adds complexity to the operator's business. Bikini Jet would prefer to narrow down the number of types in its fleet.
"The ideal thing for us would be to focus on a few types. We like the Global types: Global 5000s, Global 6000s, XRS. We would prefer to have more Global types. We also want to focus on Legacy types. We love the Latitude as well, and if we could find other Latitude types then we would like to focus on this type, but we can't find them. And, of course, we have recently added the GIV4, and there are a lot of GIVs in Türkiye, that would also be something that would be interesting to us," he explained.
Cetinkaya pointed out that Bikini Jet has to adapt to its customers, some of whom buy their aircraft independently. The operator is happy to manage them, even if they do not fit the ideal fleet strategy. All of the current owners are Turkish nationals.
The operator's focus on "super-midsize and above" stems both from the legacy customer base and the market situation. Cetinkaya highlighted that small jets are not very popular in Türkiye due to their range restrictions, as they cannot fly to the Gulf non-stop and the aeropolitical environment in Israel, Syria, and Iraq makes one-stop services impractical.
Bikini Jet is also prioritising synergies between its operator, BKNJET, and the maintenance unit, Bikini Technic. "For any type that is coming into our fleet, we would prefer to have maintenance capability as well," Cetinkaya said.
Ownership and charter strategy
Bikini Jet currently manages all its aircraft and is cautious about potentially buying or leasing its own units. Cetinkaya said the business case for this is very risky, as it is very difficult to achieve a positive return on investment into a business jet, and Bikini Jet "does not need this kind of risk".
All of the operator's aircraft are "charter-friendly." Cetinkaya stressed that this is preferred by the operator as it allows it to generate steady cash flow for the owners. Pure aircraft management is "a one-way road" where owners do not get any income from the aircraft.
The exact charter availability differs per airframe and is largely dependent on the number of pilots.
"If you have two pilots, we can go to 500 hours [per year] maximum. If the owners have three pilots, we try to push the limit to 600 hours. If we had two sets of crew in any airplane, which we don't have, so we could go up to 1,000 hours," Cetinkaya explained.
Pilot availability is one of the biggest bottlenecks in the Turkish business aviation industry, as rapidly growing airlines offer more jobs. Local regulations require at least one of the pilots to be Turkish. As a result, pilot salaries in Türkiye are rapidly rising, which is an issue for operators.
Market environment
Cetinkaya remains optimistic about the growth of the Turkish market, as economic challenges are abating. Inflation, peaking at over 70% in mid-2024, has decreased to less than 40%, and currency devaluation has also slowed.
"All our costs were going up [due to inflation], while income, which was in euro and dollars, mostly hasn't increased in line with the inflation. So that has given us a hard time. But our companies entered the situation with cash available. So it was no problem," Cetinkaya said.
He acknowledged that the loss of the Ukrainian and Russian markets had influenced the business aviation market in Türkiye but stressed this was only a moderate impact.
Bikini Jet is currently pursuing US ESTA approval, which will make it more competitive on charters to that country. Cetinkaya also sees the Middle East, India, and increasingly Africa as attractive opportunities.
Istanbul airport future
Bikini Jet bases all of its aircraft out of Istanbul Atatürk. The airport also hosts the maintenance facilities of Bikini Technic. Cetinkaya said it remains the preferred choice for customers flying from or to Istanbul as it is more centrally located than either Istanbul Airport or Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen. The future of Atatürk airport is currently uncertain - one of the two runways is already closed and there are discussions about a potential closure and redevelopment of the site.
"There are a few aircraft which are based at Istanbul New, but unless somebody lives close to the area or is arriving internationally, they would prefer not to base aircraft there. It is a drawback, and we would prefer that the old airport remains open," Cetinkaya confirmed.
Besides the Turkish certification, Bikini Technic also has a Sammarinese maintenance approval. Cetinkaya explained that this was justified due to the high concentration of T7-registered aircraft in the region.
