Domestic flight price cap increased

ISTANBUL

The Transport and Infrastructure Ministry has announced that it has decided to increase the price cap for domestic flights.

Accordingly, the maximum fare for domestic flights soared from a previous 990 Turkish Liras to 1,150 liras.

In July, more than 8 million passengers traveled on domestic routes.

From January to July, Türkiye’s airports served over 44 million domestic passengers, up from 33.7 million in the same period of last year.

Domestic passenger traffic at Istanbul Airport, the country’s largest, increased by 83 percent on an annual basis to 8.9 million, while traffic at Sabiha Gökçen Airport, also in Istanbul, rose by 4 percent in the first seven months of the year to 8.5 million people.

The airport in Antalya, a favorite holiday destination, saw a 52 percent increase in the domestic passenger tally to 3.4 million, while at the airport in İzmir, the country’s third-largest city, domestic passenger traffic grew by 21 percent to 3.5 million.

The ministry separately announced that Türkiye increased the transit fee it charges commercial ships that use the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits by five times to $4 per tonnage.

The new fees will take effect on Sept. 7, and the ministry will update the fees at the end of June each year.

The second article of the Montreux Convention, signed in 1936, regulates the taxes and charges to be levied on vessels using the key waterways.

Data from the ministry show that 17,035 vessels with a total gross tonnage of 268 million went through the Istanbul Strait between January and June.