AJet

Is AJet safe?

Yes. AJet, the low-cost airline of Turkish Airlines, has never had a fatal accident or lost an aircraft, either in its years as the AnadoluJet brand or since it began flying under its own certificate in 2024. It is IOSA-registeredIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary and flies about 89 aircraft. The catches are an ageing share of Boeing 737-800s, two runway overrunsRunway excursionWhen an aircraft leaves the runway surface during take-off or landing, either off the end (an overrun) or off the side (a veer-off).More in the glossary since 2023 and a network full of mountain airports and Middle East routes. We score it 80, with medium confidence because AJet has held its own certificate for under three years and publishes no fleet age.

AnadoluJet and AJet: whose record is it?

Until 2024, AnadoluJet was a brand rather than an airline. Its flights carried Turkish Airlines TK flight numbers and ran under the Turkish Airlines certificate, mostly from Ankara Esenboğa and Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen. On 2 January 2024, Türkiye's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (SHGM) gave AJet Hava Taşımacılığı A.Ş., a company wholly owned by Turkish Airlines, an air operator certificate of its own, and AJet now sells flights under the VF code.

Before 2 January 2024, AnadoluJet flights carried TK numbers under the Turkish Airlines certificate, so under our rules their events count on the Turkish Airlines page; we describe them here because the same aircraft, crews and bases moved across. For accidents this changes nothing: the Aviation Safety Network database has no accident for AnadoluJet or AJet in either period. All Turkish Airlines accidents since 2009, such as the fatal TK1951 crash at Amsterdam and the A320 landing accident at Istanbul in 2015, were mainline flights and stay on the Turkish Airlines page.

Runway overruns at Perm and Hakkari

Two events show where the risk sits. On 22 September 2023, an AnadoluJet Boeing 737-800 flying TK3964 from Antalya to Perm in Russia, with 174 people on board, landed in rain on runway 21 and ran about 70 metres past the end, beyond the paved safety area. No one was hurt and the aircraft had little if any damage. The flight ran under the Turkish Airlines certificate, so it counts on that page, not in AJet's score.

On 20 September 2024, months after the new certificate, flight VF4316 from Ankara broke off its first approach to Hakkari because of the weather and held. On the second approach it touched down on runway 29 but could not stop before the end, and came to rest with its nose gear in soft ground. Again, no one was injured; the runway was closed for nearly three hours.

Hakkari's airport lies in the mountains close to the Iranian and Iraqi borders, where storms build quickly and a wet runway leaves little margin.

The wrong turn at Rize

On 1 March 2025, flight VF4268 from Ankara was about 1,700 feet too high on final approach to Rize-Artvin, an airport built out into the Black Sea with mountains rising to about 2,800 metres behind it. The crew went around about 2.3 nautical miles from the runway, as they should, but turned right instead of left as the published missed approach requires, towards the high ground. They turned back towards the sea, climbed and landed on the next approach.

Nothing was damaged, but it is the kind of error that Turkey's accident board rarely explains in public. Other AeroInside entries since 2020 are mechanical and were handled well: engines shut down in flight near Kars (2020) and Ercan (2023), a rejected takeoff after an engine failure at Sabiha Gökçen (2023), hydraulic failures at Ankara (2024) and Berlin (2025), and several cabin pressure losses. Together with the two overruns, they hold serious incidents at 72.

What does AJet fly?

AJet does not publish a fleet list or an average age. Turkish Airlines reports about 89 active AJet aircraft at 30 June 2026, up from 80 a year earlier and 31 in 2019. Fleet trackers list more aircraft, so we use the company figure.

The fleet is mixed, unusual for a low-cost airline: Boeing 737-800s inherited from AnadoluJet, newer 737 MAX 8s, and Airbus A320neos and A321neos, with five more A321neos leased from BOC Aviation for delivery in 2028. Every AeroInside event listed above involved a 737-800, the oldest part of the fleet. That mix scores 75, below Turkish Airlines (84) and well below Pegasus (92).

Who oversees AJet?

The same regulator as Turkish Airlines and Pegasus. Türkiye holds FAA IASAFAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary Category 1, no Turkish airline is on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary, and AJet is an IATA member under its own codes (VF, TKJ), which requires an IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit. Türkiye is outside the EASA system, and its accident investigators publish few reports, mostly in Turkish. Oversight scores 80, as for Turkish Airlines, Pegasus and SunExpress.

Before you fly AJet

• Check Middle East flights. Turkish Airlines says the Middle East is a bigger share of AJet's flying than of its own, and in August 2026 it said AJet had cut about 10% of its planned 2026 capacity because of the conflict there. EASA conflict-zone bulletins cover Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and the Persian Gulf, so check your flight shortly before you leave.
• Expect diversions in the east in winter. At Hakkari, Van, Kars and Rize, a hold, a go-around or a return to Ankara is the right call in bad weather.
• Know who flies you. A ticket bought from Turkish Airlines may be an AJet flight under its own certificate and VF flight number. Both airlines are IOSA-registeredIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary.

Deliberate acts are described here but not counted. On 5 October 2026, a note warning of explosives was found on flight 4180 from Ankara to Şanlıurfa; the aircraft landed safely with 136 passengers and seven crew, and they were taken off for a security search.

How we scored it

An unbroken record with no fatal accident or hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary holds the accident score at 88, kept below 95 because AJet's own certificate is less than three years old. Oversight (80) matches the other Turkish airlines. The older 737-800s (fleet 75), the Hakkari overrun and the Rize go-around (incidents 72) and a network of mountain airports and Middle East routes (68) bring the total to 80. That is well above Pegasus (72), which has lost two aircraft, and below Wizz Air (89).