A Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737 as spotted in Istanbul recently.

Pegasus Airlines is a low cost airlines based in Istanbul Turkey. It was founded in 1990 between a partnership of investors and Aer Lingus. The airline flies to over 100 destinations in 17 countries. The airline is an all economy Boeing 737 fleet with 28 737-800s, 2 737-400s and two 737-500s (that is what I am going with, since their own website contradicts the actual number of aircraft they operate). The airline is owned by ESAS investments, which also has shareholding in Air Berlin and iZar.

I had the chance to see this livery for the first time while at Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (a smaller airport in Turkey mostly operating low-cost carriers) and I have to say I was underwhelmed. I love the name and really loved how they announced “Pegasus Flight #XX has now arrived” with a Turkish accent in the airport, but the livery itself is a bit plain. I feel there is a lot of potential with having the name of Pegasus, since the visual of a flying horse is pretty slick.

Although a flying horse is found on the winglets, they decided to go with plain red writing of their name on a yellow tail. I understand the desire to promote their website with large letters on the side showing “flypgs.com,” but it doesn’t have to be done in such a boring fashion. Pegasus Airlines actually used to fly with a horse on the tail, but removed it when placing their website on the side of the fuselage.