Turkish aviation exceeds 150 million passengers in 2013

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

The number of flight passengers has surpassed 150 million in 2013, with a 14.6 percent rise from past year. AA photo

Turkey’s civil aviation had a record-breaking year as the passenger number jumped to over 150 million in 2013, the country’s transportation minister has announced.

The number of passengers has been posting remarkable rises steadily since the liberalization of the sector in 2003 but the numbers climbed to a record high in 2013 with a 14.6 percent rise from the previous year, Turkish Transportation Minister Lütfi Elvan said.

Most of the growth was driven by the domestic passenger traffic across the country that has jumped 17.6 percent to 76.1 million, Elvan said.
 
“While the number of passengers flying on domestic lines was 8 million in 2002, today the number of domestic passengers exceeds Turkey’s population, which is around 76 million,” he stated. “This situation shows people from every section of the country can use airlines.”

Elvan also noted the number of international flight passengers approached 73.4 million last year, surging by 11.8 percent from 2012.

Istanbul Atatürk Airport, which is located on the European side of the city, also kept its top place as the busiest airport with 17.2 million domestic and 34 million international flight passengers, marking 12 and 14 percent increases, respectively.

On the internal flight basis, Istanbul’s second airport located on the Asian side, Sabiha Gökçen ranked second with a 23 percent rise to 11.9 million, while Ankara Esenboğa Airport followed them with 9 million passengers, despite a 22 percent jump on an annual basis.