Passenger traffic at airports up 87 percent in six months

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s airports served more than 75 million passengers in the first six months of 2022, marking an 87.1 percent increase from a year ago.

The international passenger tally leaped 158 percent on an annual basis to 39 million, signaling robust tourism activity, while domestic passengers increased by 44 percent to 36 million people, data from the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMİ).

Nearly 28 million passengers went through Istanbul Airport between January-June this year, comparing favorably with 12.2 million passengers the airport served in the same period of 2021. The airport saw a strong 133 percent increase in the number of international passengers to 20.4 million. Nearly 7.2 million domestic travelers used Istanbul Airport in the first six month, up 109 percent from a year ago.

Data from the Airports Council International (ACI) recently showed that Istanbul Airport was the busiest airport in Europe in May by passenger traffic volume.

Passenger traffic at Sabiha Gökçen in Istanbul grew 55 percent, with international travelers rising 153 percent on an annual basis to 6.7 million. The number of domestic passengers the airport served increased by 12 percent to 6.97 million
people.

As international tourism activity gathers pace, Türkiye’s airports in major holiday destinations are getting busier.
“More than 10 million international and 7.3 million domestic passengers traveled through the airports in tourist destinations in the first six months of the year,” Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu said, commenting on the latest figures.

Those airports hosted 7,300 international and more than 61,000 domestic flights during the period, according to the minister.
The airport in Antalya on the Mediterranean coast welcomed 7.5 million international passengers in January-June this year against only 2.6 million in the same period of 2021. Domestic passenger traffic also increased by 73 percent to 2.74 million.
International passenger traffic at Muğla Dalaman Airport grew more than 200 percent to 780,000, while Milas-Bodrum Airport served 502,000 international travelers, up 221 percent from a year ago.

The airport in İzmir, the country’s third largest city on the Aegean coast, saw a robust 321 percent year-on-year increase in the number of international passengers. In the first six months of the year, nearly 1.3 million international passengers used the airport, the DHMİ data showed.