Turkey used to mean two separate things — the country located in both
Europe and the Middle East, or the bird typically consumed on Christmas.
That name has since been relegated to the bird after the country’s
authorities changed it to ‘Turkiye’ last year, and now its national
airline is following suit.
Turkey
becoming Tukiye was announced in early December 2021 by President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan who decided that it best “represents and expresses the
culture, civilisation and values of the Turkish nation in the best way.”
To
reflect the country’s name change, Erdogan has revealed plans to rename
Turkish Airlines as Türkiye Hava Yolları as part of a global push to
have the country further established as Türkiye. This would involve an
extensive rebranding that will require the airline to replace anything
of which Turkish Airlines is written with Türkiye Hava Yolları, from the
airplane body to seats, and from printed brochures to billboards.
"We have taken a symbolic step by changing Turkey's name in the
international sphere to 'Türkiye', said Erdogan. “From now on the
fuselage of our planes will be marked not as Turkish Airlines but as
Türkiye Hava Yollari.”
Should Turkiye’s national airline go through with the name change,
over 300 planes across its fleet will require to be repainted.