Turkish Airlines carries over 57 million passengers in 8 months

ISTANBUL

The number of passengers Turkish Airlines carried in January-July increased by 2.5 percent from a year ago to 57.4 million.

The international passenger tally rose by 2.9 percent year-on-year in the first eight months to 36.3 million, while the domestic passenger tally increased 1.8 percent annually to a little more than 21 million.

The passenger load factor declined from 82.9 percent to 82.1 percent, the flag carrier said in a filing with Borsa İstanbul.

Turkish Airlines expanded its fleet from 428 aircraft to a total of 462 jets as of August.

The number of destinations the company flies to rose from 339 to 342, while the seating capacity increased by 9.6 percent year-on-year to 96,075, according to the statement.

The number of hours flown rose from 1.14 million to 1.22 million in the January-August period.

The carrier handled 1.33 million tons of cargo and mail, up 28.4 percent.

In August alone, Turkish Airlines carried a total of 8.4 million passengers, down 3.2 percent from the same month of last year, with international passengers falling 1.3 percent year-on-year to 5.42 million.

Domestic passengers fell 6.5 percent compared to August last year to 3 million, the company said.