Activities of civil aviation companies in Turkey (1923-1933)

People's desire to fly has a long historical background. As a matter of fact, they achieved this purpose permanently with the discovery of airplanes in the 20th century. Airplanes began to be used nearly simultaneously for both civil and military purposes. The first air postal service was successfully realized on February 18, 1911 to the city of Naini, which is about 10 km from the city of Allahabad in India. The first scheduled flight was realized on January 1, 1914 from in St. Petersburg to Tampa Bay both in Florida. The first air postal transportation in the Ottoman Empire was carried out with a postbag taken from Osmaneli (Lefke) to Bilecik on February 9, 1914. The first postal service from the Ottoman Empire to the European and Balkan states started shortly after the Armistice of Mudros was signed. The first agreement with a foreign company, following the proclamation of the Turkish Republic, was signed with the Aero Espresso Italiana on September 18, 1924. Another agreement was signed with company of the Franco-Roumaine for the Istanbul-Bucharest aerial line on August 17, 1925. An agreement was signed with the Junkers Company to establish a common company to manufacture commercial and warplanes on August 15, 1925. Besides the agreement, company of Junkers offered to the Turkish government to establish a common airline business. However, the government did not answer in the affirmative to this offer. An agreement was signed with company of Deutsche Lufthansa on January 9, 1930 and the first flights began in October 1930. In the present study, the civil aviation activities of domestic and foreign entrepreneurs in Turkey between the years 1923-1933 were inspected. Fort this purpose, archival documents, magazines and newspapers and both local and foreign works were used while preparing our thesis. Keywords: Aero Espresso Italiana, Deutsche Luft Hansa, Franco-Roumanie, Junkers.