The boss of a Turkish airline described the “hedonistic” attitude of some British holidaymakers after a flight’s entire supply of alcohol was used up in just 25 minutes.
SunExpress reportedly said that passengers on a recent flight departing from a UK airport consumed all the beer and wine on sale within half an hour of a four-hour flight.
Max Kownatzki, the German-American CEO of the expanding Turkish airline, said: “The way the British travel is more expensive and more hedonistic.”
“We sold out of beer and wine 25 minutes after takeoff; we haven’t managed that in any other market,” he told TTG of a recent flight aimed at golfers. It’s believed that accounted for all alcohol sales.
He did not say how many passengers were on board, where the flight departed from and where it was going. However, most of the flights went to the coastal city of Antalya. He also did not say how much alcohol was consumed.
In the TTG profile, Max Kownatzki outlined his plan to develop SunExpress as a tourist and commuter airline modeled on Jet2.
Despite British consumers’ great thirst for in-flight drinks, the company is committed to increasing the number of British passengers it carries each year.
The airline flies from Birmingham, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Bristol and Newcastle. From summer 2024, Leeds, Bradford and Stansted will be added as departure locations.
Of the flights leaving the UK, 80 will be to Antalya, 39 to Dalaman and 15 to Izmir. The expansion plans are expected to increase the number of British passengers from 700,000 to 1.3 million.
Last year it was named Europe’s Best Leisure Airline at the 2023 World Airline Awards.
Mr Kownatzki added: “In summer 2022 we had five UK airports – now there are nine.
“Before that, we had a few select routes, but nothing major. Now we’re number three behind Jet2.com and EasyJet. We needed to expand our network – and that made us look at the UK.”
The Standard has asked Sun Express for additional comment.
