Aircraft Passengers in Turkey Grew Nearly 20 Percent

Airbus A330-200 of Turkish Airlines at Istanbul Airport

Airbus A330-200 of Turkish Airlines. The number of passengers on domestic flights in Turkey grew by 18.3 percent in February over the same month last year, the Directorate General of airports in the United Authority said in a statement Saturday. The number of passengers on international flights grew 7.4 percent in the period.

The total number of domestic passengers for the month was 7.56 million. The number of international passengers reached almost 4.13 million, said the authority. The number of domestic flights increased by 21.5 percent to 63,438. The number of international flights grew by 14.1 percent to 36,501.

Turkish airports served 124.192 aircraft in February 2016, an increase of 15 percent compared with the same month last year, including the number of overflights. The amount of air cargo in the second month of the year grew 8.4 percent on domestic flights and 15.2 percent on international flights to about 198,000 tons.

Istanbul airport, Sabiha Gokcen, Ankara, Izmir Adnan Menderes and remain the busiest airports in Turkey, serving a total of 8.4 million passengers in the month, 72 percent of all passengers in the country.

Meanwhile, the number of passengers on domestic flights in Turkey grew by 14.1 percent in 2015 over the previous year. Passengers on international flights rose 4.4 percent in the period. The total number of domestic passengers last year was 97 million, and there were 84 million international passengers, according to the authority of the country's airports.