Güliz Öztürk joined Türkiye’s Pegasus Airlines in 2005, when it was a charter operation with 14 aircraft. She helped oversee the company’s transformation into a scheduled airline—with a fleet that now numbers more than 120 aircraft (not including a recent order for at least 100—and up to 200—more) and a route map that includes 53 countries. Öztürk became chief commercial officer of Pegasus in 2010 and was named its CEO in 2022.
In this installment of Travel Disruptors, Öztürk spoke with McKinsey’s Can Kendi about the distinctive business model choices Pegasus has made, the difficulty of applying a low-cost approach to long-haul travel, and Pegasus’s efforts to become a tech innovator in the airline sector. The following is an edited transcript of their recent conversation in Istanbul.
For more about the business of low-cost airlines, see further coverage in McKinsey’s State of Aviation 2025 report.
McKinsey: What has differentiated Pegasus since you joined the company?
Güliz Öztürk: The first and most important differentiator was the choice to bring the low-cost airline model to Türkiye. Türkiye has more than 80 million people—with a substantial middle-class population—and traveling by road from west to east takes about 22 hours by bus. So we knew it made sense on a certain level, and we now have 37 domestic destinations.
We did need to help people understand the low-cost model, though. This model is well known in parts of Europe and in the US, where it’s been accepted for decades. But for Turkish customers, we needed to invest a lot in explaining, for example, why they needed to pay extra to buy water and food on board the aircraft. People would send letters to us saying water should be free. We continuously explained that this would, in the end, be in favor of our customers, because it allows us to offer low fares while letting customers design their own experiences based on their personal choices.
We adopted the low-cost model very deliberately, sticking to basic principles. From top down, you can ask anyone in the company what our most critical success factor is, and they’ll all say “cost discipline” without needing to think twice. Everyone is invested in achieving this. In recent years, we’ve been among the world’s airline leaders in terms of cost per available seat kilometer.
Another differentiator for Pegasus was the airport we selected as our hub. At the time, in the mid-2000s, most airlines in Türkiye were flying out of the main airport, on the European side of Istanbul. We deliberately chose Sabiha Gökçen airport on the Asian side. That decision was questioned by a lot of people in the early days. We had to communicate to people that this airport wasn’t far away; it was a viable option. It ended up being a great decision for us. It’s an airport that’s easily accessible and less expensive to operate out of.
Istanbul, in general, is also well-positioned to carry connecting traffic—for instance, between Europe and the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. We were able to gain a competitive advantage from carrying connecting traffic without threatening our on-time performance or the efficiency of our aircraft utilization. That gave us a real boost to increase our capacity and our load factors.
McKinsey: What’s your view on providing low-cost long-haul service? Would you ever expand to provide service to North America or East Asia?
Güliz Öztürk: This is one of the most frequent questions I get, both from my team and from our customers.
In my view, there are two reasons why it’s difficult to offer long-haul service using a low-cost model. One reason is turnarounds. We gain an advantage from having shorter ground times compared to the legacy carriers. We might turn an aircraft almost seven times in a day when they only do four. So in that day, we have the potential to serve many more customers, which also enables much cheaper fares. With long haul, this advantage goes away. You send the aircraft on a long flight, and then it comes back. You can’t get a competitive advantage from turning more efficiently.
The second issue is that, comfort-wise, with the number of seats we fill on an aircraft, I think we can’t have a flight of more than five or six hours. We would need a different type of aircraft with a different configuration, and we don’t intend to explore that right now. The beauty of Istanbul is that, in our view, there is potential to fly to 500 destinations that are within six hours, and right now we fly to fewer than half of those.
McKinsey: When you look ahead, what do you see as the key challenges for Pegasus? And what can you do today to prepare for them?
Güliz Öztürk: I think two areas are critical. One is technology improvement. Technology can transform everything. For instance, it’s my suspicion that, in the long term, airlines might become solely operators—connected to AI-backed sales platforms.
Last year, we set up an innovation lab in Silicon Valley. We’ve defined our focus, which is on efficiency and creating technologically integrated customer products. We want to be one of the technology leaders in our sector. Why? Because it will differentiate us. And because if we are late to adopt innovative technology, we’ll not be competitive in terms of efficiency or in creating differentiating products and services for our customers.
The second area is sustainability. Fuel consumption is the most emission-intensive aspect of the aviation sector. In my view, the near-term solution will be sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), because this is a drop-in solution that aircraft and airports can be ready for. This is likely the most efficient way to get to net zero by 2050.
We have our own climate transition road map at Pegasus. We are engaging with various stakeholders, including those in the public sector. But it’s likely that, at least in the near term, using SAF will increase the cost of operating an airline, and that will, in turn, increase costs for customers, so there’s a real challenge involved.
McKinsey: What has been the biggest challenge for you so far in your personal journey leading Pegasus?
Güliz Öztürk: The main challenge is simply being the CEO of an airline, because it is an extremely complicated role. You need a strategic mindset, and you need to drive innovation. But at the same time, you need to constantly delve into details—without getting bogged down in them.
An airline seems like it’s one company, but it’s more like a combination of companies. Technical operations, flight ops, aircraft finance, commercial—these are all very different components, and none of them can wait for you. Time management is important. Prioritization is important. Setting the culture is important. Safety is important. One day doesn’t look like another, and the job doesn’t end with just selling the seat at the right price to the right customer at the right time with the right cost.
I’ve worked on myself a lot. For example, I was a lot more assertive 15 years ago, trying to push and dictate more. But now I try to cultivate a learner’s mindset. I want to learn from all my interactions and communications. I’m trying to get people heard and to create a culture where they feel comfortable speaking up. It’s important to grow and evolve yourself.
