Turkish Airlines fleet

As of September 2025^[update], Turkish Airlines operates a fleet of 388 Airbus and Boeing aircraft. The airline started its operations in 1933 with only five planes. In 1945, the airline bought over 30 cheap Douglas DC-3 and Douglas C-47s used in the Second World War from the United States of America. The DC-3s had numerous issues regarding their safety but remained in the fleet until 1967. The first jet-engined aircraft, a leased McDonnell Douglas DC-9, joined the fleet in the same year. In 1972, several McDonnell Douglas DC-10s were acquired, becoming the first wide-body aircraft of the carrier. Fokker F28 Fellowships also joined the fleet the same year. Boeing 727s were added two years later. With the Airbus A310 joining in 1985, Douglas DC-10 and Fokker F28s were transferred to Boğaziçi Hava Taşımacılığı to standardize the fleet. After evaluating the Boeing 747, McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and the Airbus A340, the carrier chose the latter as the replacement of the DC-10.

The Boeing 737-400 was added in 1991, and the first Airbus A340 in 1993. The same year, the carrier also received Avro RJ100s to fly domestic airports with limited infrastructure, replacing the Douglas DC-9. Six Boeing 737-800 joined in 1998. The fleet size remained nearly constant from 1995 to 2003. In 2004 and 2005, the airline ordered almost 60 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing. Avro RJ aircraft with high operating costs were removed from the fleet. From 2003 to 2008, the airline almost doubled its fleet size from 65 to 120 aircraft. In 2008, Turkish Airlines started leasing Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft. The airline also leased three Boeing 777-300ERs the same year. In 2010, 40 narrow-body jets were ordered.

In 2013, the airline announced a record order for 117 Airbus aircraft, including jets from the new Airbus A320neo family. The next month, Turkish Airlines also ordered 60 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Two years later, an additional 20 aircraft from the Airbus A320neo family were ordered. During the winter of 2016, the carrier grounded 30 aircraft due to a downfall in traffic. In March 2018, Turkish Airlines finalized its order for 25 Boeing 787 and 25 Airbus A350 aircraft. In 2019, the airline announced that it was interested in the Airbus A220 and Embraer E190/E195. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Turkish Airlines grounded over 100 aircraft in the winter of 2020. A few months later, the carrier cancelled an order for 40 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Since 2021, the carrier has been removing the Airbus A330 aircraft from its fleet, which are being replaced by the newer aircraft. Turkish Airlines announced its plans to order 600 new aircraft in 2023, though no firm order was placed.

Aircraft in the Turkish Airlines fleet are named after Turkey's districts, provinces, rivers and tourist places, with some leased planes having no name. Since 2010, the airline has used a predominantly white livery with blue lettering, a grey tulip stretching from the middle to the end of the aircraft fuselage and a red tail which includes the company logo inside a circle. Turkish Airlines also operates several Airbus aircraft which have a special livery, and as a member of Star Alliance, also aircraft with the alliance livery.

In October 1932, the Turkish state ordered two Kingbird D-2 aircraft from Curtiss-Wright for usage on domestic postal services and possibly passenger flights in the future. These aircraft arrived in Turkey in January 1933. Meanwhile, the government repaired two of the three unused Junkers F 13 it already owned with parts from Germany. These did not go on regular flights and were kept as spare aircraft in case the Kingbirds had to go out of service. Postal flights from Istanbul to Ankara via Eskişehir started in February; passenger services commenced later in April as a trial by the Turkish Aeroplane Society (TTaC). Turkish Airlines, then under the Turkish State Airlines (Turkish: Devlet Hava Yolları) name, officially started its operations on 20 May 1933 with these aircraft. Later in October, the country was gifted a Polikarpov R-5 and a Tupolev ANT-9 aircraft by the Soviet Union. The Tupolev was also transferred to the airline, though the lack of spare parts resulted in its removal from service within two years.

The two Junkers F 13s were also removed and handed over to TTaC due to their single-engined characteristics not being suitable for safe and comfortable passenger flights. Over time, the relationship between the Turkish government and Curtiss-Wright worsened as the manufacturer complained of payment issues and the long bureaucratic processes in Turkey. Despite changes in key people on the Turkish side, the relations were never fully restored, and the airline started to search for European manufacturers instead. To replace all the out-going aircraft, the state reached an agreement with British de Havilland in late 1935 for four de Havilland Dragon Rapide, four de Havilland Expresses and one de Havilland Dragonfly, which arrived throughout 1936 and 1937.

Fleet development in the following years was limited, and the number of aircraft of the airline remained the same until 1943. As Turkey stayed neutral until the very end of World War II, the state was interested in passenger aircraft from both sides throughout the early 1940s. In 1939, the country approached German manufacturer Junkers to purchase five Ju 52 aircraft in exchange for some raw materials. The two sides failed to agree as the negotiations took years. In the meantime, the carrier was able to add six de Havilland Dominies, the military version of the Dragon Rapide, to its fleet. The same year, an agreement was finally reached for the five Ju 52s, which were delivered a year later in 1944. During the war, the state wanted to purchase even larger aircraft from the United States and Britain, but these offers were rejected by the two countries.

Even before the end of the war, the Turkish state was in talks with the United States to acquire former military aircraft that were going to be unused otherwise. While initially rejected, the sale of the first three Douglas DC-3s was approved in December 1944 with the assistance of Trans World Airlines. Talks continued in 1946 and more DC-3s and Douglas C-47s were ordered for both the airline as well as the Turkish Air Force. The ordering and deliveries of aircraft happened in batches throughout 1946 to 1948. The first aircraft entered service in 1946 after each went through a maintenance check. In total, the airline ended up with 30 DC-3 and three C-47 aircraft which were previously stored in Cairo, Egypt. Many had faults, which led to their price being very low. The purchase increased the fleet size of the carrier to 52 aircraft, thereby making it the largest airline in the Middle East. The interior of these aircraft, which were configured to the needs of the war when bought, were refurbished between 1946 and 1950 at the Turkish Aeronautical Association maintenance centre in Etimesgut Air Base. With these new aircraft, the number of flights operated by the airline quadrupled within four years after the end of the war.