A budget Turkish airline is targeting Britons offering package holidays including hair transplants, facelifts and dental work.
Rising low-cost airline, SunExpress, is flying from 12 British cities next summer to areas like Antalya, a hub for dental treatment.
It is also offering flights to Izmir, where clinics specialise in six-pack and buttock implants.
The company's chief executive Max Kownatzki said while the traditional beach holiday to Turkey was the main draw, British people were showing a strong interest on medical based holidays.
"Medical tours are popular year-round," he said.
"Everything you can imagine, it’s there. There are clusters. Istanbul is big in hair, Antalya is big in teeth, Izmir has implants of all kinds.
“A seat-only passenger will look for a hair transplant and how to get there, and we can take them. But the tour operators have the same aim as us of diversifying their product portfolio and that is what they are doing.”
SunExpress indicate its summer booking from the UK are up 22 per cent this year after adding flights from Liverpool and Glasgow.
It is partly driven by people combining nose jobs and other cosmetic surgery with a week beachside, the airline reports.
Medical tourism is a growing sector, with around 2 million foreign patients visiting 4,000 clinics in Turkey last year.
GETTY | Hair transplants are a big draw for people travelling to Turkey
Some of the procedures include IVF and cosmetic work such as nose jobs and breast surgery.
In 2023, the number of Britons receiving medical treatment overseas reached 431,000, partly due to long NHS waiting lists and the high cost of private procedures.
Nearly one in five Britons unable to get a dental appointment have decided to go overseas, according to an Ipsos poll from March.
SunExpress is a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish airlines.
GETTY
|SunExpress is offering further flights in the UK as medical trips grow
It has increased its UK capacity five-fold to 2 million seats since 2022.
The airline is targeting the UK after securing 38 per cent of German travel to Turkish cities other than Istanbul.
Tourist traffic has grown substantially with the 3.8 million ethnic Turks visiting the country.
Kownatzki said other discount airlines like Ryanair and easyJet were under-exposed in the UK to Turkey route.
It was the Leeds-based Jet2 providing the most competition to the airline.
And it wasn't just medical trips which were popular with British people.
Golfing trips to Turkey were third highest behind Spain and the Algarve.
Kownatzki said "conference tourism" to resorts like Dalaman were alternatives to London.
The chief executive said bookings were extending out of the peak seasons.