Turkey plans to handle 200 million air passengers by 2017

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

CİHAN photo

Turkey expects to welcome more than 200 million air passengers by 2017, according to revised figures from the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMİ). 

The number of air passengers, which were around 166 million last year, including direct transit passengers, is expected to reach 178.5 million this year. The figure is expected to exceed 192.5 million in 2016 and 204 million in 2017, according to DHMİ figures. 

The largest increase is expected to be in the number of domestic air passengers. There were around 85.4 million domestic flight passengers in 2014, while the figure is expected to exceed 107.4 million in 2017. The number of foreign flight passengers is also forecast to reach 96.4 million in 2017. 

The authority expects airplane traffic to rise to 1.8 million flights by the end of this year and more than 2 million in 2017, a 21 percent increase compared to the official results in 2014. 

Air cargo traffic is also expected to rise to 3.3 million tons in 2017 from around 2.9 million tons in 2014, according to DHMİ data.