The Turkish Air Force’s aerobatic team, the Turkish Stars (Türk Yıldızları), flew a rehearsal over Fethiye on Friday afternoon ahead of their display at the close of the 26th International Ölüdeniz Air Games Festival.
The jets took off from the Dalaman air base and passed over Çalış Beach and the town centre, the state news agency Anadolu reported. Residents gathered on the seafront to watch and film the formation on their phones. The public display is scheduled for Sunday, 25 October, at 15:30, again over Çalış Beach.
Five days of paragliding and aerial shows
The festival opened on 21 October at Belcekız Beach in Ölüdeniz and runs until Sunday. Organised by Fethiye Municipality with support from local associations, it brings paragliding pilots, skydivers and wingsuit flyers to the area. Most take off from the slopes of Babadağ, the 1,969-metre mountain above the Ölüdeniz lagoon that is one of the best-known paragliding sites in Europe.
Fethiye Mayor Alim Karaca told reporters earlier in the week that more than 1,000 athletes from various countries were taking part. The programme includes acrobatic paragliding, low-altitude free-fall jumps, "bat man" wingsuit flights and tandem flights, while the Turkish Aeronautical Association (Türk Hava Kurumu, THK) has staged paramotor, microlight and hot-air balloon displays. On Thursday evening motorised paragliders fitted with LED lights flew a night show over Çalış Beach.
Karaca said the event, held without a break for 26 years, ranks second in the world among air games festivals and that the municipality aims to make it the leading one.
Tourism outside the summer peak
The festival is one of the main events that keep Fethiye busy in late October, when many beach hotels begin to close. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Muğla Governor İdris Akbıyık said the province, which has a 1,480 km coastline, receives about 3.5 million foreign tourists a year, around half of them British, but that visitor numbers had dipped slightly this year. He said Babadağ alone handles about 200,000 paragliding flights a year and called for tourism to be spread across all 12 months.
The comments echo concerns across the coast about a softer season. Hoteliers in the region have reported weaker autumn occupancy in Bodrum and Kuşadası, and tourism employment has fallen nationally. Airlines are still adding capacity for next year, with new AJet direct flights from Dalaman and Bodrum to Germany planned for summer 2027.
Visitors heading to Çalış on Sunday should expect heavy traffic along the seafront in the afternoon. For more on the area, see our guide to living in Fethiye.
Sources
- Türk Yıldızları Fethiye’de prova uçuşu yaptı (AA via Habertürk)
- Ölüdeniz Hava Oyunları Festivali’nin açılışı gerçekleştirildi (Muğla Haber)
- Muğla’da 26. Uluslararası Ölüdeniz Hava Oyunları Festivali devam ediyor (Habertürk)
Photo: Svetlana Kruzhylina / Unsplash License, via Unsplash
