Saarbrücken-Antalya for 30 years

The airline SunExpress has been connecting Saarbrücken Airport with Turkey since 1993. To mark the occasion, the two partners celebrated the 30th anniversary with a festive event on March 30, 2023 in the airport terminal. Around 200 guests attended: partners, travel agencies and tour operators as well as airport employees. SunExpress was represented by Commercial Director Peter Glade, the airport by Managing Directors Rita Gindorf-Wagner and Thomas Schuck, and the Saarland state government by Economics Minister Jürgen Barke, who is also Chairman of the airport's Supervisory Board.
Jürgen Barke was impressed: "Sun Express has been a success story at Saarbrücken Airport for 30 years. Even in difficult times, the airline has always maintained its commitment and has continued to expand in recent years. Passengers from Saarland and the greater region have been extremely appreciative of the service."
Peter Glade, Commercial Director of SunExpress, also calls the 30-year commitment at SCN a "success story" and adds, "If you look at our founding date, you can see that our commitment in this important catchment area goes back to our very beginnings. With the new connection from Saarbrücken to Izmir in the coming summer season as part of the largest route network expansion in our company's history to date, we are further increasing our footprint in the Saarland. And who knows where our joint journey will take us in the next 30 years - I'm looking forward to it!"
The statistics back up these statements: to date, around 830,000 passengers have flown to Turkey with SunExpress from Saarbrücken on more than 6,000 take-offs and landings; 2019 saw the highest total passenger numbers with around 57,000 and 2022 with around 56,000. The connection to Antalya is operated all year round, this summer even daily. A new addition to the flight schedule is the connection to the Aegean metropolis Izmir, initially once a week from May 26 and twice a week from the end of June.
Airport CEO Thomas Schuck emphasizes the airline's reliability and punctuality, which is second to none. "We are particularly pleased that SunExpress is now able to record a high utilization of its flights all year round. Many passengers of Turkish origin in Saarland and neighboring France also contribute to this." Schuck is optimistic about the future: "We are particularly pleased that SunExpress will be flying to Izmir from SCN, which will enable us to further increase the gratifyingly high passenger numbers to Turkey." Schuck expressly thanked the employees, "without whose
dedication the short handling intervals between flights would not be possible."
SunExpress, a joint venture of Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, is a rapidly expanding vacation airline and also has a lot planned at SCN: Once starting with one flight a week, it managed to expand frequencies step by step to serve the destination Antalya daily this summer. In addition, Izmir, the metropolis of the climatically pleasant, touristically up-and-coming Aegean region, will be served with up to two weekly flights. This also applies to the coming winter, when the airline says it is planning three flights a week to Antalya and two weekly flights to Izmir - with further increases in frequency in the future, if possible.

About SunExpress: SunExpress was founded in 1989 as a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines and is one of the leading providers of charter and vacation flights to Turkey. The vacation specialist currently serves a route network of around 51 international destinations with its modern Boeing 737 fleet. The airline has been combining Turkish hospitality with German precision for more than 30 years and welcomes around 10 million passengers on board its aircraft every year. SunExpress is a strong partner of Turkish tourism and has received several awards for the service and comfort on board its flights. The carrier scores with a good price-performance ratio and a wide range of innovations and digital services. For more information, visit www.sunexpress.com.