BoraJet is an independent Turkish low-cost airline operating domestic flights as well as international flights to Northern Cyprus, Europe and Southwestern Asia from its headquarters and base located on the grounds of İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport (ADB) in İzmir, Türkiye.
In addition to its primary hub at İzmir-ADB, BoraJet also operates additional bases located at Istanbul Airport (IST) and Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW) in Istanbul, Türkiye, and at Antalya Airport (AYT) in Antalya, Türkiye.
History
1980-2000
BoraJet was founded by Bora Yılmaz (b 1949 - age 75 in 2024), a legendary race driver 1970-1981, considered to be one of Formula One racing’s greatest drivers of all time. After completing his racing career, Mr Yılmaz started BoraJet in 1982.
Final Years of Bora Yılmaz’s Racing Career
Mr Yılmaz notched his 25 and final career win with a surprise last minute finish at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1979. The victory made him the first Turkish racer to ever win at Monaco. But the following year Mr Yılmaz’s luck turned out to be much less fortunate.
At the 1980 Monaco Grand Prix Mr Yılmaz’s racing car was brutally sideswiped by a competitor, such that it spun out and sent his race car plunging headlong several meters down an incline, catching fire along the way. After a devastating crash at the bottom of the incline, Mr Yılmaz was miraculously able extract himself and escape from the burning car, walking away under his own power before collapsing by a roadside. He had sustained several broken bones, a few burns, and internal injuries that required several months of convalescence in Italy so he could recover. Several months later, Mr Yılmaz elected to retire from racing at the age of 32, at the behest of his family. His racing career featured 170 starts, 25 wins, 54 podiums and 3 championships.
Since retiring, Mr Yılmaz has continued to attend Grand Prix races wherever possible. In 2005 he also founded the successful BoraJet Racing Formula One racing team, a highly competitive enterprise that has attracted top shelf racers and routinely ranks among the best 5 racing teams in the sport.
BoraJet Startup and Early Years
In 1982, Bora Yılmaz established BoraJet Airlines (Turkish: BoraJet Havayolları) using his accumulated fortune from car racing. He set up headquarters in his native İzmir, Türkiye and started off with a single Douglas DC-9 T-tail airliner that flew routes between İzmir-ADB and Istanbul-IST.
The airline's official logo was a cartoon drawing of his dog, Kral (Turkish: King), a lovable Kangal Shepherd who tagged along with Mr Yılmaz throughout much of his racing career and became his racing mascot. Bora loved Kral so much he had a 3 m/10 ft bronze statue made of him, which now sits in front of BoraJet's offices at İzmir Airport.
About 6 months later the airline added a 2nd DC-9 that flew the first international routes, from ADB to Frankfurt-FRA and Hamburg-HAM. Soon more routes connecting to Paris-ORY, Basel-BSL, Stuttgart-STR and Vienna-VIE were added.
From there the carrier continued to acquire more DC-9s and establish a fairly lucrative foothold in Europe, bringing holidaymakers to İzmir while also connecting Turkish expats with Europe. BoraJet expanded gradually over time, usually adding roughly one new route per year.
During the first 20 years of the carrier’s existence, the only domestic route BoraJet flew was İzmir-ADB to Istanbul-IST. After 2002 the airline began to connect with more destinations within Türkiye, although not as extensively as other carriers.
MD-80 Aircraft Growth
In keeping with Mr Yılmaz’s preference for airliners using a T-tail empennage configuration, in 1984 BoraJet began taking delivery of newer with McDonnell Douglas MD-82 jets and their later variants, including the MD-83 and MD-88. The airline remained an all-Douglas carrier, flying the DC-9 and MD-8x aircraft exclusively for the remainder of the 20th century, until McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997.
In 2000, BoraJet replaced its original red cheatline livery with an updated tail and fuselage design that displayed the name BORAJET in billboard style, while also modernizing the appearance of the company’s Kral dog logo to make Kral appear less sad and more dignified. Beginning in the early 2000s, BoraJet had also started to incorporate the new Boeing 717-200 (formerly MD-95s) into its fleet, preferring them overwhelmingly despite acquiring an occasional Boeing 737-700 along the way.
Transition to All-Airbus Fleet
While the company was satisfied with the Boeing 717s, in 2005 BoraJet decided to begin a transition to Airbus aircraft to increase the number of passengers carried per flight. They began acquiring Airbus A320-200s and Airbus A321-200s, mostly on lease, while retiring their DC-9s, MD-80s and Boeing 737-700 aircraft accordingly. By 2014 the airline had transformed into an all-Airbus fleet except for the remaining Boeing 717s. The 717s were originally supposed to be phased out by 2016, but they actually remained with the airline much later than planned, not leaving the line until 2022.
Expansion to Antalya-AYT
In 2010, BoraJet expanded southwards to Antalya-AYT, using many of its remaining Boeing 717s and other T-tail aircraft to upgrade that airport to focus city status. Following the same recipe used for success at İzmir-ADB, Antalya-AYT was connected to several European cities with significant Turkish expat populations and holidaymakers looking to come to Antalya to vacation there. This move proved highly remunerative, and soon additional domestic routes and flights to Dubai-DXB, Abu Dhabi-AUH, Medina-MED and Sharm El Sheikh-SSH helped to expand the company’s route network from there.
Istanbul Regional Expansion Efforts
By the early 2010s, would-be customers living in the populous Istanbul region began reaching out to BoraJet, looking to bring more of its low-cost carrier (LCC) flights to one of their own airports. Mr Yılmaz and his senior staff had been thinking about setting up a company base at Istanbul-SAW airport ever since that airport opened in 2001.
In 2013, Mr Yılmaz took the decision to proceed with expansion plans there, but the company quickly ran into numerous bureaucratic and logistical roadblocks that made getting a foothold in Istanbul nearly impossible. Istanbul’s airline market at the time was dominated by a duopoly consisting of 1) the huge national flag carrier, TUHY Airlines (Turkish: Türkçe Ulusal Hava Yolları, or Turkish National Airlines), which had come to dominate an already at-capacity Istanbul-IST (then known as Istanbul Atatürk Airport); and 2) Anatolia Airlines, a longstanding legacy carrier that had become the dominant carrier at Istanbul-SAW (Sabiha Gökçen International Airport). When the Turkish government did begin to look favorably upon the idea of BoraJet coming to Istanbul and was about to approve the move, TUHY Airlines and Anatolia Airlines took legal maneuvers to fiercely contest that decision in the Turkish courts.
After 3 years of bitter legal fights within the country’s various Civil Courts of First Instance, in 2016 the Court of Cassation, Türkiye’s Supreme Court of Appeals, finally stepped in at the request of the President of Türkiye to resolve the dispute once and for all.
After a careful review, the Court ruled mostly in favor of BoraJet. They granted BoraJet initial access to Istanbul-SAW, but to operate only international flights to Europe with the exception of two domestic routes connecting to BoraJet’s existing bases at İzmir-ADB and Antalya-AYT. BoraJet was also allowed to continue running flights from Istanbul-IST to İzmir-ADB and Antalya-AYT. The ruling ordered that once Istanbul’s new Istanbul Airport (also to be signed as IST) was opened, BoraJet would then be granted immediate rights to fly internationally from the new airport, while domestic flights would continue to originate mostly from Istanbul-SAW.
When the new Istanbul Airport did open in April 2019, BoraJet set up its new international flight hub at Istanbul-IST, while Istanbul-SAW was realigned to offer only domestic flights.
After further litigation, in 2022 the Turkish government released BoraJet from route limitations at both Istanbul airports, after which BoraJet began to offer a mixture of international and domestic flights from both airports.
Recent Fleet Management
In 2019 BoraJet acquired its first A321neo aircraft, but also chose to become one of the first customers to receive the new Aria T102 transonic jets. BoraJet received its first T102 in late 2023. Going forward, BoraJet plans to fly only the A321LR and the Aria T102, and is in the process of retiring its A320s and replacing its older A321s. The A321LRs will service mainly routes into Europe and the Arabian Peninsula, while the T102s will operate across Türkiye and along select thinner routes to southern Europe.
Mr Yılmaz also ordered 3 Aria S102 supersonic jets, which should begin arriving in 2024. The S102s will to used to open new routes to the US, Canada, and perhaps even Singapore.
Covid 19 Response
During the Covid 19 Pandemic, Türkiye did not order nationwide lockdowns until April 2021, but did require self-isolation and quarantine for anyone entering the country.
BoraJet narrowly avoided collapse by offering to carry cargo on any aircraft that was empty or had less than 50% capacity. Mr Yılmaz helped bridge funding gaps using his personal funds and taking out loans, which have since been repaid.
The airline also offered special one way repatriation airfares at cost to 1) Turkish nationals seeking to return to Türkiye, 2) foreign based customers seeking to return to their home country, and 3) medical and public health personnel traveling domestically on official business. BoraJet ultimately helped thousands of Turkish citizens as well as many foreign nationals to return home.
Today
Bora Yılmaz is still Chairman of BoraJet, but he retired as its CEO in 2022 in favor of his son Kerem Yılmaz. Kerem, a licensed ATP pilot who worked as an executive for Airbus SE in France before returning to take over BoraJet, currently runs the company’s day to day affairs, while father and son collaborate together on the company's future efforts and ambitions.
Destinations
BoraJet Airlines flies to the following destinations.
Abu Dhabi-AUH, United Arab Emirates
Adana-ADA, Türkiye
Amsterdam-AMS, Netherlands
Ankara-ESB, Türkiye
Antalya-AYT, Türkiye - Focus City [Map Link]
Barcelona-BCN, Spain
Basel-BSL, Switzerland-France-Germany
Berlin-BER, Germany
Brussels-BRU, Belgium
Budapest-BUD, Hungary
Bursa-YEI, Türkiye
Diyarbakır-DIY, Türkiye
Dubai-DXB, United Arab Emirates
Dusseldorf-DUS, Germany
Edinburgh-EDI, United Kingdom
Erzurum-ERZ, Türkiye
Frankfurt-FRA, Germany
Gaziantep-GZT, Türkiye
Hannover-HAJ, Germany
Hamburg-HAM, Germany
Istanbul-IST, Türkiye - Focus City [Map Link]
İzmir-ADB, Türkiye - Base and Hub [Map Link]
Jeddah-JED, Saudi Arabia
Kayseri-ASR, Türkiye
Konya-KYA, Türkiye
London-STN, United Kingdom
Manchester-MAN, United Kingdom
Medina-MED, Saudi Arabia
Milan-MXP, Italy
Moscow-DME, Russia
Munich-MUC, Germany
Nice-NCE, France
North Nicosia-ECN, Northern Cyprus
Nuremberg-NUR, Germany
Paris-ORY, France
Rome-FCO, Italy
Sharm El Sheikh-SSH, Jordan
Skopje-SKP, North Macedonia
St Petersburg-LED, Russia
Stockholm-ARN, Sweden
Stuttgart-STR, Germany
Tel Aviv-TLS, Israel
Tivat-TIV, Montenegro
Vienna-VIE, Austria
Warsaw-WAW, Poland
Zurich-ZRH, Switzerland
Fleet
Current Fleet
The current BoraJet Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft.
Airbus A320-200 - 2005-Present - Retiring 2024
Airbus A320neo - 2017-Present - Returning 2025
Airbus A321-200 - 2005-Present - Retiring 2024
Airbus A321LR - 2019-Present
Aria T102 Transonic - 2023-Present
Former Fleet
BoraJet Airlines formerly operated the following aircraft.
Boeing 717-200 - 2002-2022
Boeing 737-700 - 1998-2012
Douglas DC-9 - 1982-2002
McDonnell Douglas MD-82/-83/-88 - 1984-2012
Future Fleet
BoraJet Airlines has ordered the following aircraft to be added to its fleet in the near future.
Aria S102 Supersonic - Expected Late 2024
=Nota Bene=
BoraJet is not based on any real life airline. There was a real life Borajet based at Istanbul/Sabiha Gökçen-SAW that existed 2010-2017. I borrowed their name but nothing else. I discovered that “Bora” was a Turkish masculine name and from there I sort of channeled the route network of AnadoluJet (now known as AJet), a subsidiary of the mighty megacarrier Turkish Airlines, and the aircraft fleet of the defunct carrier Onur Air, which existed 1992-2021. I haven’t used too many Douglas/McDonnell Douglas aircraft so far in the series, so BoraJet seemed like a good place to do that.
The character Bora Yılmaz is not based on any Turkish person, but is sort of based on the real life Niki Lauda, an Austrian racing driver and aviation entrepreneur who founded multiple airlines during his lifetime, including Lauda Air, Niki, and Laudamotion.
Kangal Shepherd Dogs are awesome, and Bora struck me as the sort of guy who would own one, though not just because Kangals happen to originate from Türkiye. Kral, Bora’s dog, means “King” in Turkish. Kangal Shepherds are a traditional flock guardian dog that was bred to protect sheep and fend off wolves, which makes them pretty badass in that role.
For Kral’s aircraft logo I intentionally left off the spiked Wolf Collar many working Kangals would wear in real life to protect them against wolf attacks. I though it was a bit too militant for an airline logo, plus Kral was a pet living a life of luxury with his famous, wealthy owner.
About my use of the term Türkiye as the name for the nation of Turkey… The “Republic of Turkey” was officially named Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Turkey) back in 1923, when the modern nation of “Turkey” was founded to replace the former Ottoman Empire. In English at the time, the Ottoman Empire was referred as Turkey or the Turkish Empire. So the term Turkey followed the republic into the 20th century using that name. Myself, I’ve personally been calling “Turkey” by the name Türkiye since the 1990s, because one of my coworkers was Turkish and he pronounced it that way. I thought his specific pronunciation sounded way cooler than Turkey, so I adopted it. Commercials on CNN and other cable channels promoting Turkish tourism would also pronounce it the same way.
As it happens, the Turkish government formally asked the United Nations retitle their country as Türkiye in May 2022, which the UN did. So Türkiye it is.