Turkey’s national airline reports biggest loss

Turkey’s national airline Turkish Airlines reported the biggest loss since at least 1999 in the first quarter as geopolitical risks and security concerns pressured direct traffic into the country, Bloomberg reports.

Turkish Airlines posted a loss of 1.24 billion liras ($422 million) in the three months through March, compared with a net income of 373 million liras in the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Borsa Istanbul. 

War in neighboring Iraq and Syria, renewed violence with Kurdish militants at home, and terror attacks in Istanbul and Ankara are choking Turkey’s tourism industry. Foreign tourist arrivals dropped for eight straight months through March, the longest declining streak since at least 2006, according to government data.