Temel Kotil, the director general of the Turkish Airlines (THY), said that the bid would be concluded within two weeks.

"We will be a partner to a European company and it will be a good beginning," Kotil told a press conference in Hamburg, Germany.

Kotil said that THY was also interested in the Austrian airline company.

Talking about the targets of the Turkish Airlines, Kotil said THY would start flying to new destinations and announced that the number of THY fleet would climb to 123 aircraft by the end of this year.

Kotil also said that THY aimed to carry 23.5 million passengers in 2008, and expressed belief to surpass this figure in 2009.

"We had a profit of 11.4 percent last year, and we believe we can also climb over this figure in 2009," he said.

Kotil said Turkey was a transit country in aviation due to its geographical location, and therefore THY's transit growth was around 42 percent, which he defined as a significant figure.

The director general also said that the company gained a great deal of its revenues from its foreign offices, and forecast this year's revenue from foreign offices around 3 billion USD.

AA