Airports serve nearly 170 mln passengers in 11 months

ISTANBUL

Passenger traffic at Türkiye’s airports increased by 43.3 percent in January-November from a year ago to more than 169 million.

International passengers grew by 76 percent in the first eleven months compared with the same period of 2021 to 96.4 million, showed data from the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMİ).

Some 72.65 million domestic passengers went through the airports, marking a 15.2 percent increase from a year ago.

Istanbul Airport served a total of 59 million travelers in the first 11 months, up 78 percent from January-November 2021, with international passengers rising 88 percent year-on-year to 44.3 million. Domestic passenger traffic at the mega airport grew 52 percent to 14.8 million.

Sabiha Gökçen, also in Istanbul, saw a 24 percent increase in overall passenger traffic to 28 million. International travelers rose by 82 percent to 14.1 million, but the domestic passenger tally dropped 6 percent from a year ago to 14 million.

International passenger traffic at the airport in the popular holiday destination Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast, grew 45 percent, but the increase in international travelers at İzmir’s Adnan Menderes was 116 percent on an annual basis.

Commercial airplane traffic at Turkish airports rose by 23 percent in the first 11 months of the year to 518,173, with international traffic leaping more than 50 percent to 239,000. Domestic traffic grew by 5.5 percent from January-November 2021 to 279,000.