10.10.2026 15:04
The aircraft of Onur Air, one of the significant private airline companies of an era, were seen at Atatürk Airport years later. It was reflected in the footage that some aircraft had their engines removed, cockpit windows damaged, and doors open.
Onur Air, which holds an important place in Turkey's private aviation history, draws attention with the image of its aircraft, which carried passengers in the skies years ago, left to their fate at Istanbul Atatürk Airport after the bankruptcy decision.
Onur Air, founded in Istanbul in 1992, carried passengers to hundreds of destinations domestically and abroad with its fleet of dozens of aircraft. After the company halted its flights in 2020, the aircraft waiting at Atatürk Airport almost bear the traces of aviation left from the past. The company, whose bankruptcy was finalized in 2025, was seen in aerial footage at Yeşilköy: some of its aircraft are missing engines, some have open doors, and one bearing Onur Air's colors in particular has missing panes in the cockpit windows. This scene leaves a negative impression on guests using private jets at Yeşilköy, while also causing sorrow over the failure to utilize national wealth.
IT WAS A LEGEND OF AN ERA Onur Air, founded in 1992 with its base at Istanbul Atatürk Airport, became one of the companies that played an important role in the development of private airline transportation in Turkey. The company expanded especially in the 2000s by growing on domestic routes and enlarged its fleet with Airbus A320, A321 and A330 type aircraft. In 2017, company officials announced that the fleet contained 28 passenger aircraft, while at various times Onur Air's fleet included more than 30 Airbus aircraft.
THE COLLAPSE BEGAN WITH THE PANDEMIC The process that prepared Onur Air's end accelerated with the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the major contraction the Covid-19 pandemic created in the aviation sector, the company suspended its flights in March 2020. The sharp drop in passenger demand and travel restrictions placed heavy pressure on the company's financial structure.
Struggling to return to operations after the pandemic, the company could not restart its flights when it failed to overcome its financial problems. In 2021, debt and enforcement proceedings also came to the agenda. In 2021, the grounding of some Onur Air aircraft through enforcement also revealed the financial picture the company had fallen into. In the same year, employees' receivables and salary problems concerning the company also came to the agenda.
AIRCRAFT LEFT FROM THE PAST AT ATATÜRK AIRPORT Some Onur Air aircraft waiting at the airport for years became neglected and unusable over time. It had previously been reported to the public that some of the Onur Air aircraft were waiting in seizure and sale processes with their engines removed.
Among them, a 1996 model Airbus A320-232 registered TC-ODB was seized in 2025 due to tax debt and put up for sale. It was determined that the aircraft's engines, APU power unit and some connecting parts were missing, and after no buyer emerged in two auctions, it was offered for sale by negotiated procedure.
NO ENGINES, DOORS OPEN.... The Onur Air aircraft filmed from the air at Atatürk Airport almost laid out a photograph of the process the company went through. In the footage, the state of the Airbus passenger aircraft bearing Onur Air's colors and the company lettering on its fuselage—what remains of an aircraft that carried passengers years ago—drew attention. It was seen that both engines of the aircraft were not in place, and the empty engine mounts reveal that the aircraft has been out of operation for a long time. While the cockpit windows on the front section of the aircraft have damaged and missing parts, the door on the front of the fuselage is also seen to be open.
The fact that the aircraft's wings, fuselage and tail section still bear Onur Air's characteristic colors adds a separate meaning to the images. The aircraft, which once carried thousands of passengers, today maintains its place at the airport as a fuselage waiting unused with its engines removed. There are calls for the scrapped fuselages to be removed from the airport at Yeşilköy as soon as possible.
It is known that at Atatürk Airport, not only Onur Air aircraft but also various aircraft belonging to different companies have long been waiting idle. After the airport was closed to commercial passenger flights, the apron also contains aircraft that are under seizure, unclaimed, have completed their flight life, or are unusable.