ISTANBUL
Turkey's Anadolu Agency signed Wednesday an agreement with Turkish Airlines to distribute world news through the carrier’s in-flight entertainment system.
Under the motto 'Global News on Global Wings', Turkish Airlines will offer a live television service and high-speed wireless internet access through its 'Global Communication Suite System'.
News categories will be politics, economy, science and technology, sports, health, culture, arts and life.
Anadolu Agency Director General and Board Chairman, Kemal Ozturk stated that AA has been building the infrastructure for the project, including the software and satelite systems for one year and it is now ready to be broadcasted on Turkish Airlines' screens.
"Before creating the technical infrastructure, we created a strong English department and increased our news written in English," Ozturk said.
"Now, we will broadcast forty five news stories to Turkish Airlines' screens on daily basis."
Presenting also how the system will work, Ozturk said the passengers on flights will be able to read the news as soon as it is broadcasted by AA.
"We can create the same system for eight languages, too, that we are broadcasting in now."
"For instance, if there is a flight to the Middle East, the passenger can read the news in Arabic. If it's going to Balkans, the passenger can read them in Balkan languages," Ozturk underlined.
Anadolu Agency is already a well-established global news agency which offers newswires in eight languages, setting its most important goal in the Centennial Vision as becoming one of the "five most influential news agencies of the world" by 2020.
AA’s coverage has spread across major regions around the globe and includes operations in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Asia-Pacific area. The agency also serves business customers in more than 100 countries with 57 global offices. AA is planning to increase the number of its global offices to 80 by 2020.
Signing the agreement on behalf of Turkish Airlines, its board chairman Hamdi Topcu stated his company - with a growth of 20 percent in last twelve years - has become a global company, alike AA - which is producing around 2,000 news each day and has 1,300 clients only abroad.
First, we will start this project in our fifteen wide-bodied aircrafts, Topcu said.
At the end of 2015, the number is planned to reach twenty nine, according to Turkish Airlines press office.
"We try to provide the latest technology and all kind of opportunity for our passengers during their flights, where they can have entertainment and conduct their businesses and jobs, too," he said.
He added that Turkish Airlines has reached 17.5 billion US$ and is now flying to 261 cities worldwide and has done the most flights to Africa in 2014.
"New destinations are planned for San Francisco, Mexico City, Caracas and Havana for next year."
Around 41 million passengers traveled with Turkish Airlines - Europe's best airline company - between January and September 2014, which was a 14 percent increase on the same period last year, according to the carrier.
The company traveled to 260 destinations by September 2014, which was an increase from 239 in September 2013. The airline’s number of international destinations has risen to 217 from 197.
At the end of the ceremony, the agreement was signed by Ozturk and Topcu after short presentations and speeches, in Turkish Airlines Istanbul headquarters.
www.aa.com.tr/en
