Turkish airports host 18.3 mln passengers in August

ANKARA

Turkish airports saw 18.3 million passengers in August, the country’s air travel authority announced on Sept. 7.

"This August, the air passenger traffic, which was smashed by the coronavirus pandemic worldwide, was pretty close to its levels in August 2019 (23 million passengers)," the State Airports Authority General Directorate (DHMI) said in a statement.

Some 8.8 million passengers took domestic flights in August 2021, down 3% from the same month in 2019 or achieving 97% of its pre-pandemic figure.

The number of international flight passengers stood at 9.4 million last month, decreasing 33% from August 2019.

Turkey's airports served 179,972 planes including overflights this August, of which 88,337 on domestic routes and 64,373 on international routes.

The DHMI report also said cargo traffic stood at 386,218 tons last month.

The Istanbul Airport welcomed 4.6 million passengers on both international and domestic routes and served over 31,497 airplanes in August.

In January-August, the number of passengers through Turkey's airports- including transit passengers - was 76.7 million.

Plane traffic- including overflights- reached 888,799 in the first eight months of this year while air cargo traffic reached 2.1 million tons.