Corendon Airlines

Is Corendon Airlines safe?

Yes, with a mixed record behind that answer. Corendon Airlines has never had a fatal accident, it holds the IATA safety audit, and it flies mostly between Türkiye and well-equipped European airports. But it lost a Boeing 737 to a cockpit fire at Antalya in 2012, reportedly started by the captain's cigarette, and its incident record over the last decade is busier than that of SunExpress, its larger Antalya rival. We score it 77.

Which Corendon are you flying?

Corendon is a travel group with three airlines, and the brand hides the difference. This page covers Corendon Airlines, the Turkish company Turistik Hava Taşımacılık, with the flight code XC and Turkish-registered aircraft (TC-). Corendon Airlines Europe flies mainly from Germany and Belgium on a Maltese certificate with the code XR, and Corendon Dutch Airlines (CD) flies 737 MAX 9s from Amsterdam on a Dutch one. Aircraft move between them, so a flight sold as XC can be flown by a Maltese-registered jet. The hard landing at Gazipaşa in May 2024, flight XC1031 on the Maltese 737 9H-TJF, is one of these: it counts on Corendon Airlines Europe's record, not this one.

Corendon also rents capacity in and out. Its 737s have flown for IndiGo and SpiceJet in India, and in September 2026 Avion Express said three of its A320s would fly for Corendon from Antalya. When another company's crew flies the aircraft, that company's record applies.

The Antalya cockpit fire

On 14 October 2012, flight CAI773 was being pushed back from the gate at Antalya for Trondheim with 189 passengers and seven crew when smoke and then fire appeared in the cockpit. The captain ordered an evacuation down the slides. Twenty-seven passengers went to hospital; two had a broken leg or arm, all from the evacuation. The 737-800, TC-TJK, was written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary.

The account summarised by the Aviation Safety Network, which it marks as coming from unofficial sources rather than a published report, is blunt. Pure oxygen had been leaking from the crew oxygen system into the cockpit, and the captain had lit a cigarette a little over two minutes before the leak began. The fire then spread when he opened the oxygen mask box to fight it. If that account is right, a crew member lighting a cigarette on the flight deck was a discipline failure, not bad luck, which is why we weigh this event heavily even though nobody died.

Two years earlier, on 2 October 2010, a Corendon 737-400 ran off the end of runway 22 at Amsterdam after touching down about halfway along it in rain, with the speed brakes only partly deployed (Dutch Safety Board). It is outside our 10-year incident window and does not count in the score.

What has happened since?

The last decade shows no accident on the Turkish certificate, but a steady run of incidents:

• June 2017: a Turkish-registered 737-800 (TC-TJJ) flying from Hurghada to Amsterdam for Corendon Dutch Airlines lost cabin pressure north-east of Athens, made an emergency descent and diverted to Antalya.
• October 2018: a 737-800 struck its tail on take-off from Rotterdam and diverted to Amsterdam.
• September 2022: at Munich a 737-800 rejected its take-off on a configuration warning, lined up again and got the same warning a second time.
• March 2026: a 737-800 flying IndiGo flight 6E-579 had an engine failure and landed at Delhi.
• September 2026: a 737 MAX 8 from Ufa to Antalya diverted to Kayseri with a problem in its right engine; the jet was taken out of service for checks.
• September 2026: at Friedrichshafen an airport fire truck and a 737 MAX being prepared for flight XC185 to Antalya collided, damaging the jet's wingtip. Nobody was hurt, and Corendon said the cause was still being investigated.

None of these hurt anyone on board, and engine failures on twin-engine jets usually end in a routine landing. Together they keep the incident score at 72, the same as Tailwind Airlines. Türkiye's accident board publishes few reports, so causes are rarely known.

Fleet and a shrinking airline

Corendon flies only Boeing 737s, a mix of 737-800s and newer 737 MAX 8s. It took the first Turkish-registered MAX 8 in 2018 and gave that jet back to its lessor in August 2026. It does not publish fleet numbers or ages.

The group is shrinking. In September 2026 it said its three airlines had flown 28 jets of their own plus two wet-leased ones that summer, and that it plans about 21 for summer 2027 because of fuel costs. In October cabin crew and pilots were laid off. Cuts on this scale are a business story, not a safety finding, but they are worth watching: experienced crews leave, and remaining aircraft fly harder schedules.

Before you fly Corendon

• Check the flight code. XC is this airline; XR and CD flights belong to the sister airlines, each with its own record.
• On umrah and Middle East charters, check advisories. Corendon flies pilgrims to Saudi Arabia from Turkish cities, a region where flights were disrupted during the 2026 war.
• Book through a tour operator for charter flights. Rebooking after a technical delay runs through whoever sold the trip.

How we scored it

The accident record (80) carries the 2012 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, made worse by its cause. Oversight (80) matches other Turkish airlines with 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. The fleet (70) mixes new MAX jets with older 737-800s, and incidents (72) and a network that reaches India and Saudi Arabia (72) keep the total at 77.