Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) could drop its Boeing (BOE, Washington National) order book as Turkey looks to retaliate against the US government's decision to exclude its NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally from Lockheed Martin's F-35 fifth-generation, multirole combat aircraft programme.
Earlier this month, Turkey began taking delivery of its Russian-manufactured Almaz SS-400 integrated air and missile defence system parts. The US Department of Defense (DOD), in turn, suspended and initiated the process to formally remove Turkey from the F-35 program.
Aside from the country's role in the production of F-35 parts, the Turkish Air Force/Türk Hava Kuvvetleri (THK) had also planned to order over 100 F-35As. Although THK aircrews had trained on F-35s back in 2018, none have ever been formally handed over to the Turks given Capitol Hill's decision to ban the export of the jets back in June 2018.
The US has previously offered Turkey Raytheon-built Patriot missile battery systems while warning Turkey that it cannot field a Russian intelligence-collection platform in proximity to where the F-35 program makes, repairs and houses the F-35 jets. According to Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Ellen Lord, much of the F-35's strength lies in its stealth capabilities and, as such, the SS-400's ability to detect those capabilities would jeopardize the long-term security of the program.
According to Bloomberg, Turkish president Recep Erdoğan raised the spectre of political interference in Turkish Airlines' operations last week when he threatened to weaponise its substantial Boeing order book.
“I’ve told Mr. Trump in Osaka that even if Turkey’s not buying Patriots, it’s buying Boeings. We’re good customers,” he said on Friday, July 26, referring to Raytheon’s Patriot systems. “But if it goes on like this, we’ll have to rethink about this issue.”
At present, the Turkish government controls a 49% stake in Turkish Airlines whose Boeing order book consists of twenty-five firm B787-9s (of which four have been delivered) alongside five options, three B777-Fs, fifty-eight B737-8s (of which eleven have been delivered), and ten B737-9s (of which one has been delivered).
