Turkish Airlines remains top brand in Turkey

Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines remained to be the most valuable brand in the country in 2020, according to a leading London-based independent branded business valuation and strategy consultancy firm on Tuesday.

The carrier's brand value increased to $1.98 billion in 2020, versus $1.73 billion in 2019, according to the 14th edition of Brand Finance's Turkey 100 report.

Established in 1933 with a fleet of five aircraft, Turkish Airlines currently has a fleet of some 350 aircraft flying to around 320 worldwide destinations, except during the pandemic period.

The state-lender Ziraat and private-lender Garanti followed the aviation firm with $1.6 billion and $1.54 billion, respectively, the report showed.

Telecommunications firm Turkcell ($1.36 billion), major appliances producer Arcelik ($1.27 billion), another GSM company Turk Telekom ($1.08 billion), private lenders Akbank ($998 million), Isbank ($951 million) and Yapi Kredi ($876 million), and automotive firm Ford ($875 million) were other firms among top 10.

The industry sector's share was 30% in the total brand value in the report while services sector's share was 70%.

Muhterem Ilguner, the director of Brand Finance Turkey, said top 100 brand's value rose 24% to reach $24.6 billion in 2020.