Turkish Airlines has been operating in China since 1999 and has continued to grow its fleet, operations, and staff. Melih Topuz, General Manager for Turkish Airlines in China, has been on the ground in China since 2004 and is spearheading the airlines' activities.

What changes did you implement when you first arrived in China?
I first spent six months soaking up the operational patterns we had in China and understanding how our partners were working with us. When I first arrived we only had five flights a week on the Airbus 340, but we have since changed to daily flights with Airbus 330 which started on February 15, 2006. I would like to double passenger capacity soon too.

For cargo capacity, we plan to increase this dramatically and are currently in discussions with CAAC on how to move forward. Our relationship with Air China is a powerful asset and I am constantly building this to complement our current code-share agreement with them.

How do you work together with your staff and what type of employees so you see to hire?
When you have a responsible job, teamwork is very important. Safety, professionalism, and courtesy are top priorities and my staff and I work together to these ends. To get the best staff, I have to juggle a good compensation package with providing good benefits.

We do have some new staff from our headquarters in Turkey to assist with our expanding cargo needs, but local hires are very important as we hope to develop our own Chinese staff with our world-renowned know-how. I have hired a number of new marketing staff and our airport staff are mostly new arrivals as we hope to better emphasize our customer-centric philosophy.

What about rising competition from Chinese and European airlines to fly to Europe?
I am hungry for competition. American and European airline companies are the pioneers in this sector and the more airlines flying to China from Europe, the better standards we can have in the industry. Competition increases standards.

Since we cover the entire world, you can't have high standards by lowering prices to the point where you lose those high ideals. We are not the cheapest airline, but our quality is very high. Our standards create our prices. I could offer cheap wine on our planes in order to cut costs, but our passengers expect a certain high level of hospitality when they fly with us.

How much are you focused on building local Chinese partnerships with Turkish Airlines?
When we first entered this market, we were more concentrated on passengers. However now we want to build our cargo business, and local partnerships with Chinese airlines is essential. Our friends in China also see us as a good bridge to Europe, and I hope to continue to help them in a win-win relationship. We are currently awaiting CAAC approval for some of our projects.

How do you spend each business day?
Well, first you have to understand that whenever a plane is in the air, we are on the job. We do not rest until our passengers are safely on the ground and have picked up their baggage.

My day starts with a good breakfast at home in Beijing and when I arrive at the office I spend time checking email. When we sleep in China, our headquarters in Turkey is working hard, so I often have many issues to deal with when I first arrive at work.

I also always have informal chats with my ticketing and sales staff in the morning to get a feel for what we are tackling that day and how we will proceed.

I spend a good part of my day communicating with our offices around China and I also always try to take my lunch with our suppliers, contacts, or business associates in China. Lunch is a good time to spend informal time working on very formal and important tasks.

You don't have any off-time in this job and I find myself working late at night dealing with communications with our head office too.

What type of training opportunities do you offer your staff?
We have our internationally recognized training facility in Istanbul, and I try to send as many staff as possible there so they can truly understand the services we are selling.

Sometimes trainers come to China, and we do offer Internet-based training for our Chinese staff.

In 2004 when you realized you were coming to the Middle Kingdom, how did you prepare yourself for taking on such a large management role in China?
I was thrilled to come to China. My family also were excited about coming here as we have so much respect and appreciation for Chinese culture. We realized we would finally be eating real Chinese food!

I prepared first by reading many books about business in China and seeking lots of information from colleagues and friends. China is moving so fast and it is a wonderful opportunity to be here in China as we witness history being made each day.