Turkish airports handled some 167.5 million passengers in the first eight months of the year, according to the State Airports Authority General Directorate (DHMI) on Wednesday.
Abdulkadir Uraloglu, Turkish transport and infrastructure minister, stated that passenger traffic increased by 2.8% by the end of August this year compared to the same period last year, including direct transit passengers.
Aircraft movements in January-August totaled 1.6 million, including overflights, with 667,653 on domestic routes and 611,588 on international destinations.
Cargo traffic reached nearly 4 million metric tons, 654,295 tons of which were carried on domestic destinations and nearly 3.6 million metric tons were transported on international routes.
IGA Istanbul Airport served 56.6 million passengers aboard a total of 52,468 flights in the first eight months of the year, while recording 365,487 aircraft movements. Uraloglu noted that 11.9 million of the total passenger count flew on domestic routes and 44.7 million traveled on international destinations during this period.
The airport served nearly 8.6 million passengers in August alone, 1.8 million of which were on domestic and 6.7 million were on international routes.
Sabiha Gokcen Airport, Istanbul's Asian air hub, carried 33.1 million passengers in January-August aboard a total of 188,833 flights, 84,077 of which were on domestic routes and 104,756 were on international destinations. Some 15.2 million passengers flew on domestic destinations and 17.9 million on international routes, the minister said.
Istanbul Ataturk Airport served some 17,903 aircraft over the eight-month period, while handling 2,594 in August alone.
Meanwhile, the number of passengers served at airports in tourism hubs reached a total of 41.6 million in January-August, while the total number of flights hit 277,435 over the same period.
In August, some 28.8 million passengers were served, while a total of 255,970 aircraft took off and landed at passenger and eco-friendly airports, including overflights, with domestic destinations accounting for 97,625 and international routes making up 106,231 — the total number of international flights surged 1.5% month-on-month.
"Türkiye's airports with the highest passenger capacities, specifically the IGA Istanbul Airport and Antalya Airport, served 81.7 million passengers in just eight months, exceeding twice the number of passengers served across the country in 2002," he said.
