About Us
Our job is to make sure you’re flying home safely.
As Çelebi Aviation Holding, we are dedicated to providing excellent ground handling services along with our ancillary products.
Çelebi stepped into the aviation industry with the establishment of Çelebi Ground Handling in 1958 as Turkey's first privately-owned ground handling services company. Today, it stands out as one of the most successful examples of integrated services in the Turkish Civil Aviation industry offering Ramp, Passenger, Cargo Handling, Warehouse Management, Bridge Operations, Trucking, General Aviation, Airport Lounge Management and Premium Services.
With over 13.000 dedicated employees, Çelebi continues to operate on 3 continents, in 6 countries, at 60 more than stations. Our ambition is to expand our geographic coverage into more developing markets, while providing rewarding employment pportunities to a growing family of colleagues around the world and meeting service needs of our partners.
Ali Cavit Çelebioğlu
Ali Cavit Çelebioğlu, the founder of the Çelebi Group, was born in Balıkesir's Gönen county in 1926.
After completing primary and middle school, he enrolled in the non-commissioned officers academy, where he first became acquainted with the profession to which he would dedicate the rest of his life: aviation. In 1945 he graduated as a master pilot and was assigned to the Air Force.
During his career in the Air Force, Çelebioğlu became aware that ground handling services were as important to aviation as flight itself, an idea that was reinforced by his training in Germany and in the United States.
After leaving the Air Force, Ali Cavit Çelebioğlu enrolled in the law faculty of Ankara University while also working in the private sector. While employed by Pan American Airways, the idea of starting up his own company and striking out on his own started to grow in his mind. The one thing that he was certain of was that it would have to do with aviation.
On 1 February 1958, Çelebi Hava Servisi was founded in Ankara.
With one boarding ramp and just five employees, he succeeded at what in those days was thought to be impossible. By doing so, he laid the foundations of the Çelebi Group, which deploys some of the most advanced technology available and employs thousands of the best-trained people in Turkey today.
Decisiveness, diligence, courage, and unbounded vision were Ali Cavit Çelebioğlu's most important qualities. Ali Cavit Çelebioğlu was a man who recognized the importance of ground handling services in aviation long before anyone else in our country and who single-handedly spearheaded the way for the birth and growth of its civil aviation industry.
Ali Cavit Çelebioğlu's life and career were cut short by his untimely death in 1982. His spirit and vision however live on.